Manchester Airport introduces £50 airport guides

I am fortunate to live my life totally stress free, by ignoring the mass urge to holiday somewhere other than the UK. We have calculated that merely by holidaying 3 separate weeks each year, there is no likelihood of exhausting the interest available in every county of the UK before we become too old to travel. If you dig beneath the surface there is a wealth of peaceful countryside and absorbing places of interest, aided by the seasonal variations offered by the UK. By travelling at an unrushed pace on unclassified roads and using the journey as part of the holiday interest it is possible to have a most rewarding holiday experience from door to door without any of the angst associated with escaping our shores.

I sometimes wonder if marketing people just sit in the bath every night wondering how to skin more money off people. We already pay a shed load of stealth taxes (including departure taxes and I.P.T) so why are we now being 'targetted' for paying a levy to get through airports? Good signage, boots on the ground as essential resources, courtesy and proper design of buildings and process means this is surely superfluous? If Manchester is such a mess you need to pay fifty quid to get through the experience - then I'm sorry Tricia Williams - you & the C.A.A have obviously done a rubbish job of designing your airport - and instead of charging customers extra - you should lower bonuses and salaries of the people behind that mess - and/or get them to put it right. Travel in this highly migratory world we live in - is not a luxury anymore - it's a necessity. That's maybe why (like fuel duty) people are looking to jump on it - as it's a nice big fat juicy money-spinner.

The most stressful part of airports in the UK is getting there! By paying £50 to get there to see it you are stressing yourself too much already. I find Birmingham reasonably easy to get to and the M42 is not seriously busy. If you book and pay in advance teh parking can be not too expensive. The airposrt seems easy to deal with from my point of view as well but early in the moring it can be poorly staffed. Heathroow is fine but getting there can be a problem if teh M25 is playing up so leave plenty of time. I had meet and greet parking which I thought a bargain. Virgin staff brilliant to deal with . In the US I find San Francisco a good airport - large clearly signed staff on hand with specific station manned by volunteers to help people. The Newark airport was fraught and a lot of rushing about. Charles De Gaulle- massive and teh bus taking you from one terminal to another takes 15minutes. But easy o find your way I reckon, as is Schipol. The problem in many US airports is the waiting to take off, edging along to taxiways waiting, waiting.