ok so i just landed at denver international and honestly this place is huge its like a small city designed purely for airplanes and people and if youre not prepared you could seriously get lost or miss your flight because its not like other airports its its own thing entirely.
when you first get here youre basically in the jeppesen terminal and this is where all the check-in and baggage claim happens and security too and it looks impressive with that tent roof but its also the bottleneck for everything and you need to know whats what if you wanna have any chance of getting to your gate on time and not feeling totally overwhelmed and honestly ive flown a lot and denver always gets me a little bit because of its sheer scale.
Navigating the maze
so after you get past security in the main jeppesen terminal which can be a whole adventure itself depending on the tsa lines and when you happen to arrive youre basically dumped into an area where you have to decide where to go and its always a bit confusing because theres signs for concourse a and concourse b and concourse c and you basically have to take a train to get to most of them and dont even think about trying to walk to b or c from the main terminal because thats literally impossible you cant do it its just not set up that way and its not like lax where you can shuttle between terminals on the outside or something because its all underground to the concourses and you basically have to take the train its the only way to get to your actual gates for most flights.
i mean concourse a is technically walkable sometimes after security if your gate is on the very very beginning of it but honestly most of the time even for concourse a its usually faster or just more convenient to hop on that train because its a long walk even to the closest gates and youre already tired from travel so why make it harder on yourself when the train is right there and basically just whisks you away to wherever you need to be and its pretty efficient too once you get on it and know which level youre supposed to be on for your concourse and its all clearly marked but you have to pay attention.
The long trek between gates
now this is where it gets really fun because even once youre on your concourse like say youre on concourse b which is massive you still have a whole other journey ahead of you to get to your actual gate and people dont realize just how long these concourses are and it feels like they just keep going and going and its honestly a bit much sometimes especialy when youre rushing or have a tight connection and youre basically just trying to make it without having a meltdown.
- between concourses (a, b, or c): you absolutely cannot walk between these its literally impossible you have to take the train back to the main terminal area and then re-enter the train system to go to a different concourse and dont even think about trying to find a secret path or anything because there isnt one its all very strictly train-based for inter-concourse travel and you just gotta accept that and plan your time accordingly because the trains run often but you still have to factor in walking to the train waiting for it and then walking from the train to your gate on the new concourse.
- within a concourse (e.g., from b10 to b90): okay so here you *can* walk it but honestly its usually a very very long walk because these concourses are stretched out for miles it feels like and they do have those moving walkways which are literally life savers but even with those its still a significant distance so if you have a gate number like b90 and youre coming from b10 you should definitely factor in at least 15-20 minutes of just pure walking time or even more if youre not a fast walker or have a lot of bags and its just a beast of a walk so plan ahead and dont assume its a quick jaunt because it isnt its a serious commitment to walking.
so basically my recomended advice is to always build in extra time at denver its not an airport where you can just show up 45 minutes before your flight and expect to make it and always always remember that train is your best friend and probably your only friend for getting to and from the concourses and even within them those moving walkways will be your new favorite thing and just try to embrace the walking because youll be doing a lot of it and honestly its not a bad airport its just a really really big one that demands respect and a good sense of direction or at least a map on your phone.