Yes going to the airport is always an exiciting time.
My best bit is taking the car to the long stay, check in and get the bags booked in. Go through security to airside. While the wife shops for her purfumes I go and have a long coooooooool pint and think to myself. This is it for 2 weeks. Luvely

yes same here

have your meal in the weatherspoons pub a lot cheaper than the others and good priced drinks too

we already have a topic about our airport routines somewhere here. I thought it was in the General section but i've done a search and failed to locate it. Maybe the mods could find it and merge for us. There were quite a lot of posts on it.

When we are flying at around 10pm we usually leave home for Gatwick about 3pm to 4pm, which gives us much too much time if the traffic is OK, but because we have to tackle the M25 and do the Dartford crossing in addition to it usually being a Friday(the worst possible time for traffic on the M25), we can't afford to take a chance. Luckily we usually get to Gatwick with a couple of hours to spare till check-in so we go to a pub called the Shipley Bridge Inn, and have dinner. The food is quite nice and reasonably priced, you can get a much nicer meal for a lot cheaper than in the airport, and the service of course is much better!
Once at the airport we get our mags and books in Smiths - where invariably you queue for ages, sometimes might buy an item or 2 of clothes in Next or Fat Face, then go and have a couple of drinks.
The time usually seems to fly by, and in no time at all we are on our way!
This year our flights are early morning which we haven't had for some years, that's really going to throw our routine!

I always like to get to the airport with a few hours to spare... for me the holiday starts the moment i turn the key in the frony door and get on our way, this year our flight is about midnight i think (must check the trime) and flying from birmingham so its only a 40-50 minute trip for us, so the day is going to really drag, especially for the kids.. bet they want to leave home by lunch time

I sooooooooo cant wait, roll on 9th may!

Drive an hour to mums to drop the dog off, and get a cup of tea (last decent one til the next morning). Then drive 45mins to the airport (from home it only takes less than 50mins to get to the airport...so this way adds loads onto journey). Drop car off at Prestige (and book valet as its the only time hubbys car gets cleaned properly), walk to terminal, wait until check in opens (we also will miss flight if not there 4 hours before take off!). Go through security, buy books and magazines, eat at one of the pubs/restaurants (anything but burger king). Then its into duty free....with a teenage daughter its a nessecity to get through check in asap to allow maximum time in duty free. Sit around for any left over time.

Last time it also included the teenager being sick, the youngest bag being searched (hand gel...the fact I had an identical bottle in mine that wasn't picked up is actually slightly strange ), and my underwired bra setting off the buzzers