Shortly after our New Years rendezvous in Puerto Vallarta we planned a quick trip to Arizona. Although we constantly head to Phoenix, this time around we headed to a destination I’ve been aching to see. However, that’s not the purpose of this post. This post is about my favorite airport in the world (so far) LGB, or Long Beach Airport (formally known as Daugherty Field.)

LGB | Long Beach Airport

A few miles away from Downtown Long Beach, LGB is tiny. Like Long Beach, it’s small but functions like a giant.

It recently went through major renovation and it’s beautiful. It’s an outdoor/indoor airport, sporting great California shrubbery and vegetation. The openness of the airport makes it so the Southern California weather is part of your overall airport experience. Since Southern California gets about 5 total days of rain throughout the year, getting wet is usually not an issue.

The Layout

LGB has a great layout. It has parking and taxi areas in front of the airport itself. It has 24 hour parking as well as hourly parking. The valet service will wash your car if you choose that option.

As you make your way into the pick up/drop off zone, you’ll notice two areas with white curbs. This was created for efficiency. The rest of LA is trying to learn from the disaster that is LAX. It’s a nice touch. Although at times, it gets congested.

The airport has two terminals, with Jet Blue taking up most of one terminal. There are only a few airlines that fly in and out of LGB. These airlines are, Jet Blue, American Air, South West, Delta and Hawaiian.

The lines are never more than five minutes long. The efficiency of this airport is astonishing. I have TSA pre-check and it’s useless at this airport because everyone gets through quickly. I LOVE THIS AIRPORT.

Food and Drink

LGB has several local favorites to choose from when it comes to food and drinks. It caters to fast food goers as well as eat-in luncheon types. The great thing about the restaurants at LGB is they’re all restaurants you’ll find in Long Beach. This gives people a good representation of what they can find in our city. To give you a taste (so to speak) of the restaurants at LGB, they are: 4th and Vine, a great and popular local wine spot, Pollys Coffee and Sweet Jill’s Bakery, another Long Beach Favorite, George’s Greek Cafe and more.

Getting to and from LGB

Taxis to LGB are pretty cheap but depending on where you’re coming from in Long Beach it can range from $20-$40. The bus might be the cheapest option at $1.25 per direction. I usually opt for an Uber or Lyft which is very cheap as well (never above $12.)

There are multiple taxis at the airport taxi stand if you need to head somewhere specific. The taxis also offer flat rates to certain landmarks around Los Angeles.

More on LGB

This airport is so cute and efficient it makes me want to delete this review. I don’t want this secret out! I try to fly in and out of this airport whenever possible.

Considering LGB is tiny, you have to connect to bigger airports if you travel a major flight route. But, that’s a small price to pay for a good experience.

At one point last year Jet Blue wanted to put Customs and Immigration and start flights to and from Mexico. Considering this airport has a curfew and a flight amount constraint, they would only allow a few flights in and out of Mexico per day. Jet Blue decided to pay for it all!

However, the “Not In My Backyard” heathens opposed it terribly and this option was shot down. The heathens, which are the suburban zombies living near the airport stated it would make the airport louder than it actually is… This is not true considering they need to swap out some of their flights to make room for new flights since the airport cannot exceed its flight limit.

At the town hall meeting, it was decided that international flying means more business men and where there are business men there are hookers! LONG BEACH CANNOT HAVE MORE HOOKERS! 

The motion was struck down with lies and deceit, but I guess those are politicians for you.

Let Me Break It Down For You

If there is anything you should take away from this article is how amazing LGB is as an airport.

Check out their website for everything else you need to know about Long Beach Airport: HERE

The last thing you should take away from this article is: Never let a dirty asshole get in the way of a good thing.. (insert annoyed emoji here)