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Before a family vacation to Copenhagen, we enhanced our airport experience with a first visit to an airport lounge. This is my review of our experience at the Aspire Lounge at Newcastle Airport.
Despite traveling a lot in recent years, I have never looked into airport lounge access, mainly thinking that the price was out of my reach or that it probably wouldn’t be worth it given how little time you spend in an airport before your flight. However, now that I have kids, you’re always looking for ways to “level up” your travel days to make them as stress-free as possible and that’s when a light bulb went on for me. What if, instead of trying to buy some WH Smith paired with a quick but overpriced bite to eat and a coffee in a busy restaurant and trying to find somewhere to sit while we wait for our door announcement, you could head straight to a quiet, relaxing lounge with comfortable seats and tables waiting for you, wouldn’t it be better?
So, on a trip to Copenhagen, we were finally able to spend just over an hour in the Aspire Lounge at Newcastle Airport, although much less than the three hours we were allotted. Unfortunately, Storm Floris was causing all sorts of chaos as was a troop of Scouts ahead of us in the luggage drop-off line. Don’t you know we have a VIP room to get to?
In this post, I will share a review of the Aspire Lounge and hopefully our experience will help you decide whether to visit before your own trip.
Our visit to the Aspire Lounge at Newcastle Airport was run by Holiday Extras; however, all views, as always, are entirely my own.
THE ASPIRE LOUNGE AT NEWCASTLE AIRPORT
We found the Aspire Lounge once we were through security, past Duty Free and down the escalator as if we were heading for the doors. It was a great time heading to the lounge as all the places we would normally spend time before our flight were packed and people were sitting on the floor wherever they could find space.
We received a warm welcome at the lounge reception and were given a brief explanation of how things worked, before walking straight into a completely different world. There were plenty of tables available so we chose one further away from the others so as not to destroy the peace with our two little ones.
So what do you get at the Aspire Lounge?
Firstly, there is free Wi-Fi which is necessary as I did not receive any signal; It’s not the fastest, but it will do for any last-minute research you need to do or catch up on your emails. There are also plenty of outlets to charge your devices, which is always handy.
The main selling point of any airport lounge is obviously its selection of food and drinks; You come here and pay the price for what you expect to be high quality food and drink options.
Firstly, in terms of food, free hot food and snacks are served in the standard buffet format. We visited during the afternoon so there were two main meal options, pasta and eggplant curry, along with a selection of homemade salad options, soup, rolls, garlic bread, as well as cheese and crackers. It wasn’t necessarily an incredible selection of food, but I made it work and Evelyn ate quite a bit of pasta, cheese, and garlic bread. From what I could see, there were no dessert options available at least at the time we visited, other than fruit and some cookies.
There’s a fully stocked bar with staff offering complimentary draft beer, cocktails and wine; It works like a normal bar. Luckily we visited at a relatively quiet time while Storm Floris was causing all sorts of disruption, which meant we could walk straight to the bar and order a bottle of beer without having to wait. However, I’ve read reviews that say that when it’s busy, it’s a bit chaotic, with long lines just to get a drink. The good news is that for those not looking for something alcoholic, soft drinks are self-service and tea and coffee are also available. The coffee is not the best, it is only from a machine, but the pleasure is having one or two in relative peace and quiet. I think I mixed and matched correctly even though in the end I only had access to the lounge for about an hour and a half – beer, coffee and Pepsi Max never sat so well with me!
There is a separate area, offered to you from the Aspire Lounge, the Suite by Aspire, which is adults-only, with table service, premium food and drink options, as well as great views of the airfield. Some parts are reserved exclusively for Emirates travelers and I believe KLM/Air France too, but if you’re into luxurious treatment, this might be the one for you!
In terms of pricing, for the Aspire Lounge at Newcastle Airport, the price is approximately £38-£45 per person, including those over 2 years old. Babies under 2 years old are free. I budgeted for a family of four, with a flight in a few weeks, and we would pay £125.97 for 3 of us, with Elise free, so £41.99 each. It’s a pretty good ratio for adults, as we could probably get our money’s worth if we could use the full three hours allotted, but for kids, probably not. Outside of the lounge, we often spent around £50 on just a drink each and a bit of food, so it’s not necessarily that out of your reach to enjoy all the benefits you get – there is nothing better than having an “area” of yours to relax before the flight!
Vacation Extras
As I mentioned above, our access to the Aspire Lounge was kindly provided to us by Vacation Extras as is our car park at Newcastle Airport. Holiday Extras is a great site, one we use regularly as a family, as you can buy all those “extras” that are included in your actual holiday. It’s hard enough to decide and finally book your vacation before having to think about airport parking, airport hotels, transfers, lounge passes, car rentals; All of those things can cause more stress when it comes to planning your trip, and luckily, Holiday Extras takes the hassle out entirely. A place to sit and book all those extra but crucial parts of a vacation, if you sign up through this linkyou’ll get exclusive email discounts of up to 15% off.
This concludes my review of the Aspire Lounge at Newcastle Airport, which I hope you enjoyed and perhaps helped you decide if you want to improve your airport experience. If you have any questions, feel free to leave me a comment below and I will get back to you as soon as possible.
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