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At airports, 'tis the season for delays. With many travellers heading to see family - or to escape the cold with a beach vacation - the week between Christmas and New Year's is one of the busiest air-travel periods of the year. It's also the slowest: eight-to-10-hour waits at the airport aren't uncommon.

"There's nothing normal about travelling in December," says Debra Ward, an airline analyst and president of Ottawa-based Trope Communications. For one thing, there are more inexperienced travellers, which does mean slowdowns, she says - and then there's weather like this weekend's storms, which clogged airports across the continent.

All this can add up to some unpleasant stays - evoking the nine-day layovers many tourists experienced at Bangkok Suvarnabhumi International Airport a month ago. On the other hand, airports are more comfortable than they used to be: Responding to a steady increase in flight delays across the board, they have decked themselves out over the past decade with amenities for time-killing travellers. Here are some of our picks for the best places to get stuck.

CHANGI AIRPORT, SINGAPORE

Changi is consistently rated among the best in the world for keeping travellers rested and entertained. Not to mention well stocked with stuff: Two malls let you shop for anything from a 7-Eleven Slurpee to a Mercedes-Benz. For less-expensive thrills, each terminal has a planted "nature trail," and guests can play free Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3 games on Terminal 2's entertainment deck. Changi also operates a hotel at each terminal, with layover-friendly rates of $54 for a six-hour stay - and you don't even have to clear immigration to sign in. Around the airport, free napping and rest stations have alarm clocks affixed to the chairs. For less than $7, fatigued travellers can grab a hot shower. Just over $20 lands you four hours in a lounge area, including a shower and finger food. Or for real refreshment, grab a $12 swim in Terminal 1's pool.HONG KONG

INTERNATIONAL AIRPORT

This Asian hub has some of the cushiest seats you'll find, Ward says, and plenty to do. You can swing your stress away at the new SkyCity Nine Eagles Golf Course, a nine-hole golf course on an artificial lake. The club, just outside Terminal 2, boasts a swanky clubhouse with a sauna, foot-massage service and luxury Thai restaurant. There are also entertainment options including movies and virtual basketball, soccer and boxing. If you're lucky, there might be space at the ritzy Hong Kong SkyCity Marriott, which opened just this month. Here's where

interruption insurance

JOHN F. KENNEDY AIRPORT, NEW YORK

If you're in a New York airport over the holidays, JFK beats the alternatives: It's closer to Manhattan than Newark Liberty Airport and more comfortable than LaGuardia.

While you're here, hit up JFK's malls for fancy shopping at Hermès or Mont Blanc in Terminal 1.

If you want to escape, the Airtrain service will get you to a subway station so you can enjoy some sightseeing in the city (though it's a long ride to Manhattan). But there's plenty to see - and eat - at Terminal 5, the newly reopened Jetblue hub. Originally designed for TWA by famed architect Eero Saarinen, it's a curvaceous example of midcentury modernism, expanded with interiors by the Rockwell Group.

The best thing, though, is the food, with high-quality restaurants from chefs including Mark Ladner of Del Posto and Michael Schulson of Buddakan.

If a good meal doesn't get you relaxed, complain

away to your loved ones. JFK offers a cellphone rental service, should yours run out of juice.

MIAMI INTERNATIONAL AIRPORT

Its luggage tags say MIA, but this airport is Florida's best bet for marooned travellers. As part of a major renovation, the airport pumped up its list of attractions and amenities for stranded travellers.

In keeping with Miami's growing reputation as an art centre, the mia Gallery, in the Central and South terminals, blends contemporary and folk art exhibits. Just past the security checkpoint, kids will appreciate colourful exhibits at the Children's Connector Gallery. Inside the airport's South Terminal, sit-down restaurant options include decent French and Italian restaurants with full menus.

Given the ice-free roads and the airport's central location, you have plenty of outside options, too: For even a three-hour delay, the airport suggests visits to museums and shopping malls in nearby Coral Gables and Coconut Grove. City tours are also on offer if you visit the lobby of the Miami International Airport Hotel on Concourse E. And if you brought Sparky along, the airport has four different animal "relief" areas.

PEARSON INTERNATIONAL AIRPORT, TORONTO

Canada's largest airport has a comfortable, straightforward layout and lots to see: The newly revamped Terminal 1 has an extensive collection of public art, including pieces by Richard Serra and Sol LeWitt as well as lots of Canadian

art. Be sure to check out the contemporary Canada in the Making at the International Departures gate.

Pearson's shopping is limited, but travellers can pick up reading materials and the odd toothbrush or spend hours sniffing soaps in Lush or Fruits of Passion. (Ward says the bookshops have the continent's best selection of science reading.)

Quick 10-minute manicures and shoeshine services can also serve as minor distractions.

There are also Internet stations, Wi-Fi and phone booths.

If you need to stay over, the Sheraton Gateway Hotel in Terminal 3 offers a spa and rooms for 50 per cent off the second night of your stay.

AMSTERDAM AIRPORT SCHIPOL

Blackjack or roulette? Yes, you can gamble inside the terminal here. Not many airports boast their own casino, but this hub airport has one among its huge array of amenities.

Sleeping may be a cheaper alternative: Comfy chairs meant for napping are dotted throughout the terminals, and Schipol also boasts four hotels. That includes a branch of the innovative Yotel chain, where tiny but sleek rooms offer somewhere to freshen up without leaving the airport. You don't have to enter the Netherlands in order to stay here.

Not only does Schipol have a chapel, it also does weddings in case the mood strikes while you wait for your flight. Or else you could visit the airport's branch of the Rijksmuseum, the Netherlands' national art museum. A selection of drawings by the likes of Rembrandt and Rubens is on display until next month.

Shopping is also in full supply. Pick up some new threads at H&M or grab some Dutch tulip bulbs at one of three florists. After all, if you are stuck, it's a good idea to stop and smell the flowers.

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Terminal to-do's

GET PEACE AND QUIET

Airline analyst Debra Ward

suggests finding a chapel or prayer room (usually located before security) to sleep or just sit silently for a few minutes. "I find that's a nice place to ... start to feel human again," she says.

STAY HEALTHY

Sitting in an airport for hours can not only make you cranky, it can also make you sick. "Between being tired, dehydrated and stressed out, it's just a smorgasbord for bugs," Ward says. Bring along a tube hand sanitizer small enough to carry through security and use it to wipe terminal chairs.

BRING A TOY

"I'm a mom, but I have been a hero so many times when ... other kids are bored with what their own mom brought," says Meara McLaughlin, vice-president of Flight Stats, a Web-based flight-tracking service. "You pack a Hot Wheels car and suddenly you get another hour of quiet out of that kid."BUY INSURANCE

If you buy cancellation and interruption insurance from your travel agent - usually about $35 for a short trip - your airline will put you up in a hotel and cover the cost of food, transportation and even new clothes, says Dean Boukydis, a professor of travel and tourism at Seneca College in Toronto. "If your trip is interrupted in any way, the insurance automatically kicks in," he says.

"It really is key, because anything can happen." S.B.