Ed L.
Yelp
After my stint in Burlington, VT, I flew into Rapid City regional for a week of vacation and rest and relaxation. Taking 2 stopovers in New York LaGuardia and Minneapolis courtesy of Delta Airlines. This airport, like the name implies, is small and regional. Like the airplanes that fly into RAP, they are small too. I am surprised that as small as they are, they are roughly the same size airports to places I have been already - like SAV and IND.
They have jet bridges and all the modern improvements of any other airport in the country. They're just small in size. The rental car companies are in terminal, so you can get your rental car and drive into Rapid City or wherever your travels may take you. The airport itself is very clean and immaculate, so they know how to be clean and neat. The lines are very small, so the TSA can take longer to search your stuff if need be.
Bored much?
Probably.
I enjoyed my time here coming in, but hope to see stuff before flying out of here in a week or so. I'm sad that T-Mobile isn't the dominate force out here in South Dakota - AT&T is. Otherwise, I would have done a check in here. It is indeed expensive to fly here, but it's a sacrifice versus driving 6+ hours straight alone from Denver, which I am not keen on doing. I'm glad that this airport is about a 10-15 minute drive from downtown Rapid City, with a couple of gas stations along the way. Not much in the way of restaurant options, but they do have one. While I was there, they were in the middle of renovations to the main terminal, which is basically the entire terminal.
The car rental counter is also located inside the terminal, so you can get your rental car here too, not like other larger cities where there is a rental car shuttle to bus to you to their location. There is free wifi, which I used while waiting for a friend of mine to come and get me to drive up to Deadwood for a couple of nights, but it's very spotty and kind of a hit or miss. I actually checked a bag here and I'm glad the airline got it safely back with me when I flew back to HNL. Bag claim usually is a breeze, since the amount of flights that come here are fewer than other busier airports, but I am sure they get a lot of tourists who come just to see Mount Rushmore and other tourist attractions in and around South Dakota / Wyoming.
Just like me.
A+