Swank Accommodations Coming to an Airport Near You

More Than 7 Billion People will Use World's Airports by 2020, Experts Predict

According to USA Today's Gene Sloan it all started with a 1997 art exhibit called Porchsitting at the Charlotte Douglas International Airport. Since then the oak rockers have popped up at airports coast-to-coast, including Philadelphia International Airport in 1999, San Diego International Airport and Newark Liberty International Airport.

But the best rocking chair experience may still be reserved for Charlotte Douglas International, where you can spy an unobstructed view of the Charlotte skyline at the end of Concourse D through the floor-to-ceiling windows.

Now, if they would only ditch those uncomfortable, geometric banks of seats for comfortable sleeping benches or those nifty space-age sleeping pods growing in airports abroad.

Airport Spas

If you're looking for another type of chair to relax in, many airports now offer chair massage kiosks or massaging recliners. Those quickie concourse massages are fine, but are often a bit, let's say, public.

So a growing number of airports are responding to passenger demand for something a little more private and pampering by opening full-service spas in airport terminals.

With locations in Terminals B and C at Newark Liberty International Airport and also at Orlando International Airport, d-parture Spa offers manicures, pedicures, massages, facials and even a "napping privilege." The spa also offers travel-sized beauty products to take with you.

New York City's Oasis Day Spa now offers a full-service outpost at the JFK International Airport Jet Blue Terminal 6. The spa offers express treatments tailored to on-the-go travelers.

At Baltimore/Washington International Airport, Destination Relaxation offers one location at Pier A, adjacent to gate A6. The company, whose massage therapists offer both chair and full body massage at its BWI location, will also visit you on-site at your Baltimore or DC-area hotel room, office or home.

Billing itself "the first airport based Oxygen Wellness Spa of its kind in the world," OraOxygen Spa at the Detroit Metropolitan Wayne County Airport Edward McNamara Terminal offers, you guessed it, oxygen treatments, along with a range of other services and spa products. OraOxygen has a second location at Canada's Calgary International Airport.

If you want to know more, Spa Index provides information about other airport spa services.

Art and Museums