Is This the Best Lounge in the World?

On my recent trip to Djibouti, I traveled through Istanbul both ways on Turkish Airlines.  Being a Star Alliance Gold, I had free access to the Turkish Airlines Lounge.  Now I had to literally with through the entire airport to reach it, including the duty free shops, but I kind of think this was by design.

They have a nice area in the front to store your carry-on.

The lounge is a massive 3500 square meters ( 35,000 Sq. ft.) covering two floors and is well decorated and furnished throughout.  I have been in a lot of lounges in my time, including the Business Class lounge of Emirates in Dubai, but this one tops my list.  I compare this with say the United First Lounge at Narita which has good food, but is very utilitarian throughout.  The furnishing are great throughout, although they could use more electrical outlets.

Of course the main things in the lounge is the ability to pass the time with a nice glass of wine and excellent food.  They have several of these station, smartly spread throughout the lounge to cut down on lines, where you can get a wide variety of Turkish foods prepared as you like.

If you have extra time to spend, they have some unbelievable entertainment options, including a golf video thingy and a slot car table.  There are computer with video games for the kids scattered all around as  well as big screen TVs.

Lastly, they have desserts galore and all the Turkish Delight you could handle.  Wish I had a longer layover to enjoy it more.  I don’t say that very often!