‘This is one of the coolest places I’ve ever seen’: Splurge on a stayover — or grab a cocktail during a layover — at this nostalgic airport hotel

It is my husband’s birthday weekend, and we are standing, awe-struck, in the retro-themed TWA Hotel at JFK Airport in New York City. Designed by Finnish-American architect Eero Saarinen in 1962, the landmark former TWA flight center, lauded by the American Institute of Architects as one of the grandest examples of mid-20th-century modern architecture, is listed on the National Register of Historic Places.

With a soaring roofline, it serves as the spacious lobby of this amazing amalgam of hotel and museum, with multiple exhibits, curated by the New-York Historical Society, serving as a grand tribute to the era known as “The Golden Age of Flying.” When Trans World Airlines closed in 2001, the TWA terminal did, as well. After being empty for years, in spite of its architectural pedigree and as all things midcentury modern enjoyed a new vogue, the terminal reopened to the public in May 2019 as the showpiece of the new hotel.  

We check in with a pleasant reservation clerk, and chat with her about all our possible adventures. We gape at the classic Solari split-flap departure board with authentic original mechanical operation, manufactured in Italy. 

Holding hands, we walk through a cherry-red carpeted hall with stark white walls and take the elevator to our room, one of 512 guest rooms. Period music — Frank Sinatra hits interspersed with the Beatles — is playing at exactly the right volume for my baby boomer ears.

An amazing runway view

Our Runway View room (pricey, and worth every penny) with its floor-to-ceiling windows, overlooks the JFK runways, where we can watch takeoffs. Mesmerized by our proximity to departing flights, we are amazed by how quiet the room is. The hotel’s windows are said to be the second thickest in the world. (The windows at the U.S. Embassy in London are thicker.)

Less expensive rooms, still lovely, overlook the iconic TWA flight center. If you want to go for broke, the roughly $1,000-a-night (depending on when you’re staying) Howard Hughes Presidential Suite has a runway view with a luxurious sitting area. (Reclusive business magnate Hughes owned TWA from 1939 till the 1970s.)

After plopping on the king-size bed (supremely comfortable for our slightly arthritic lumbar spines) we decide to stroll through the hotel. There are many nooks and crannies to explore, more than 2,000 TWA artifacts to examine and extol, and several bars to choose from. Photo-ops lie around every corner.

We make a lovely leisurely stop at the bar in the Sunken Lounge, where we have drinks (“Vodka is My Co-Pilot” for me and “Mile-High Margarita” for the birthday boy), served with TWA swizzle sticks.

Also read: There’s a whole world out there: Tips for widows who want to travel

Many touches of nostalgia

Do you recall Tab, the diet cola designed to “help us keep tabs on our weight” in the Twiggy era? The hotel has 4-foot-tall replicas of Tab cans and an oil painting of what was, growing up, my favorite soda, especially when it was paired with those fluffy pink Hostess Sno-Balls as an after-school snack.

Next, we head to the photo booth (remember those, when the grainy black-and-white images were four for a dollar?) where we take pictures with goofy grins on our faces. We visit the Twister room, with an oversize spinner, where we play the wall-to-wall version of a game I remember from way back when.

We also check out the display of flight-attendant and pilot uniforms spanning from 1945 to 2001. I reach over to touch one particularly pretty one, and my husband shoots me a warning look. Chastened, I step back.

The office of Howard Hughes is re-created with a big desk and many details emblematic of the ’60s, as is Saarinen’s, complete with drafting table and pieces of graph paper.

Check out: Book a flight with a long layover, it can make for a better trip—here’s why

We wax nostalgic over a re-creation of a 1962 living room with an authentic Barbie dreamhouse and enjoy the hallway lined with vintage posters and large-scale TWA artifacts. There are wonderful plaques and photos with descriptions of airline history, including one with President John F. Kennedy and first lady Jacqueline Kennedy descending the steps of a plane. 

Later, we swim in the heated rooftop infinity-edge pool, from which we get a bird’s-eye view of planes taxiing down the runway and taking off. When we turn our heads in the other direction, we can see planes hanging low in the sky before landing. We order glasses of sparkling club soda from the Pool Bar, seated next to a woman who is staying overnight in the hotel before her flight to Dubai the following morning.

“This is one of the coolest places I have ever seen,” my husband says, and the woman, much more a world traveler than we are, immediately agrees. 

We skip skating on the outdoor Roll-a-Rama because neither of us wants to risk an ungraceful flop on our bottom; ignore the huge and sparkling clean hotel gym, (purported to be the world’s largest hotel gym) and head back to our room.

Don’t miss: Flying with Thanksgiving food? TSA dishes up rules for traveling with foodstuffs this holiday season.

The Connie lounge

When we get hungry, the hotel’s restaurant, Michelin-starred Chef Jean-George Vongerichten’s Paris Café offers excellent options to fill our stomachs with scrumptious and beautifully plated food.

After dinner, we lounge in the lobby, reminiscing. I grew up in Flushing, Queens, 20 minutes away from what was originally called Idlewild Airport. When we were little, my friend Felicia’s father used to take us to the airport on some special Saturday mornings, and we’d watch the airplanes’ comings and goings and imagine all the glamorous places we would someday visit.  

Later in our TWA Hotel evening, my husband and I head for the elegant Connie Cocktail Lounge, housed in a restored 1958 Lockheed Constellation “Connie” jet, which now sits stationary on the tarmac serving drinks and nibbles to visitors nestled in red-and-tan plaid seats — with pull-out ashtrays intact — flanked, of course, by white Saarinen tulip tables. The “Connie” is approximately 116 feet long and 23 feet high, with a wingspan of 150 feet. Five years ago, the propeller-driven, four-engine airliner, originally commissioned by Hughes himself, was restored to its original glory, and is now a favorite spot for visitors.

After breakfast in the self-service food hall the next morning, of course we pop into the gift shop, where we splurge on matching red hoodies and a $10 enamel silver pin before we check out.

Don’t miss: The best and worst days to fly this December

The hotel is accessible by the Air Train, free within the airport, and a connection between the TWA Hotel and all terminals. If you’re in the JetBlue Terminal, it’s an easy elevator ride to the hotel lobby.  

Whether you spend a couple of hours meandering, especially if you’ve got a layover before the next leg of a flight, or the hotel is your final destination, it’s a place you shouldn’t miss. Many parts of it are free — you can wander in, check your luggage, and spend an hour or three exploring. Other attractions, such as the pool and sometimes the Paris Café, require reservations.

Other options to revel in the past

If you’re not going to be in New York anytime soon, you can visit the TWA Museum in Kansas City, Mo. You can look over the many TWA artifacts, housed in glass cases; test your wings, as they say, on an immersive flight simulator; and surround yourself in cockpit simulator panels once used for pilot training.

Also on MarketWatch: U.S. drivers are likely to pay highest Thanksgiving gas prices on record

And if no trip is in sight, you can read author Ann Hood’s 2022 book, “Fly Girl: A Memoir,” about her years as a TWA stewardess, as they were called back in the days when people still applauded as a plane landed safely. (“We made it!” I remember my fearful flier mother shrieking, on my prepubescent trips to Miami Beach.) Hood’s memoir beautifully captures the glory of air travel in its heyday.

Barbra Williams Cosentino RN, LCSW, is a psychotherapist in Queens, N.Y., and a freelance writer whose essays and articles on health, parenting and mental health have appeared in the New York Times, Medscape, BabyCenter and many other national and online publications.

This article is reprinted by permission from NextAvenue.org, © 2022 Twin Cities Public Television, Inc. All rights reserved.

More from Next Avenue: