It has a rooftop swimming pool overlooking an active terminal (Image: TWA Hotel)
A former airport terminal that lay abandoned for years is now a luxury plane themed hotel — after a staggering $265million (approx £200m) renovation to transform it to its original glory.
The TWA Hotel opened in 2019 and boasts of a rooftop infinity pool that overlooks an active runway at New York’s JFK International Airport. It used to be a TWA flight terminal and it was designed by architect Eero Saarinen — but it shut down in 2001 before reopening 18 years later.
The hotel, which operates in the TWA Flight Center, is now made up of two buildings at either end of the old terminal and there are 512 rooms available.
The view from one of the rooms (Image: -)
The designers attempted to make it look like when it first opened in 1962, described by the Landmarks Preservation Commission as “one of the great masterpieces of expressionistic modern design”.
Earlier this year, it was ranked as one of the top five best airport hotels in the world at the Skytrax World Airport Awards.
The original terminal is now the lobby for the four-star hotel — and there is a 24-hour 10,000 square feet gym claiming to be the world’s biggest hotel gym along with multiple restaurants to choose from.
One of the standout features is a 1958 Lockheed Constellation plane that has been converted into a cocktail lounge. There is also an aviation history museum inside the hotel.
People lounge beside the rooftop pool at the TWA Hotel (Image: The Washington Post via Getty Images)
Time magazine once placed it on their list of “The World’s Greatest Places of 2019” — and a more recent visitor was British travel YouTuber Hannah Ricketts.
She said she wanted to visit the hotel to experience what the glory days of air travel was like in the 1950s and 60s.
And reaching the lobby, she told her 489,000 subscribers that it was one of the “coolest entrances” she had ever seen.
Glancing at a historic Coca Cola machine, she said it felt like stepping back in time, before commenting that it was much nicer than she imagined.
A general view of the only airport hotel on site at JFK International Airport (Image: Getty Images)
She then explained that she paid around $400 (approx £300) for a room with a deluxe runway view. Hannah said this included taxes and that standard rooms were set at around $200.
And looking out at her view from her room, she said: “This looks so much better in person. I feel like the camera isn’t going to do it justice.”
She said it felt like being on the set of Mad Men and described the building as being “utterly stunning” with so many details to make it feel like you were in the 1960s.
“I’ve never been anywhere like this in my life,” she added. “And it’s obviously pristine where it’s been refurbed. It’s almost surreal. Wow.”
The Connie plane bar where cocktails are available inside the former aircraft (Image: DAILY MIRROR)
The travel vlogger said the swimming pool was “insane” but noted that it cost $25 (approx £19) to use it, even as a guest.
She then enjoyed a Mile-High Margarita on the plane that was converted into a cocktail lounge before telling her audience: “Maybe you’re a Brit watching this and you’re going to come back from JFK, back to the UK, back to reality, back to work. If you want to plan this, it’s a really positive end to a trip.”
Her only criticism was the food, marking it a 5/10, but she said it was an immersive experience and one she would do again.
And summing up her one-night stay, she said: “This is a four-star hotel, I would say this is literally better than quite a lot of the five-star hotels we’ve been looking at.”
This story originally appeared on Express.co.uk
