Madrid's Barajas airport is living proof that bigger isn't always better or more beautiful. The original opened back in 1931 but the renovated Terminal 4 arrived in 2006. It's one of the world's largest and also strangest: as you wander around looking for your gate, it feels like you're inside the stomach of a giant space monster who speaks Spanish and won't give you an upgrade.

If you can find a single friend in Los Angeles who ever volunteers to drive you to Los Angeles International Airport, then you also believe in miracles. That's because if one thing unifies Angelenos it's their hatred of LAX, one of the most sprawling, non-user friendly airports in existence. The futuristic Theme Building opened in 1961 and looked outdated two days later.

Did somebody say KGB? Maybe not, but it does seem like spies could be lurking inside the cheerless expanse of Moscow's Sheremetyevo Terminal 2. It was built to coincide with the 1980 Summer Olympics, and most of the hallways are at 60-degree angles to one another. It's not clear why. 

If Paris is the city of dreams, then Charles de Gaulle Airport, also known as Roissy Airport, is where the nightmares come in. The busiest airport in Europe after London Heathrow, it's also one of the largest and ugliest, culminating in the round concrete hulk of Terminal One. Inside its tombstone-gray hollow orb, a tangle of enclosed escalators connect the different floors and take you to the gate so you can make your escape.

Ah, London Heathrow—where does one begin? The world's sixth busiest airport and gateway to Europe for many is as much manic as mythic. The airport site is enormous, terminals seem endless and everything is overpriced. If you were feeling relaxed before arriving, Heathrow will work its icky charms to make you as miserable as everyone else around you.

Should we give El Paso's airport a free pass? Apparently not: it's architecture makes no sense, the food court wins no applause, it's more of a regional than international airport and it's in El Paso, Texas. At least if you find yourself there, for any reason you can buy yourself a ticket to get out.

Cue the eye rolls for one of the world's busiest and most maddeningly amorphous airports. No one really knows what the Atlanta Airport looks like because there is nothing in the way of distinctive architecture and most people are making connections, meaning they're never outside. It's always overcrowded, with loud TVs blaring the latest from CNN which also makes its home in Atlanta.

The best we say about Washington Dulles International Airport is that it's hideous. Its main terminal was designed by 1958 by Eero Saarinen to be suggestive of flight, but it's really more suggestive of a whale skeleton. Also, the airport is nowhere near the nation's capital, unless you consider 26 miles west of downtown D.C. to be near. An altogether icky airport experience.

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New York's LaGuardia airport is infamous for its flight delays. Which wouldn't be so bad were the airport itself a nice place, but it's not. Redevelopment plans are under way, but for the foreseeable future think small, outdated and overcrowded terminals. Worse, though LaGuardia is closer to Manhattan than New York's other airports, it's situated on the waterfront of Flushing Bay, Queens and feels totally cut off from the city.