A walk through Dubai Airport's Terminal 3

The first thing that strikes you is just how big it is.

Stepping through the sliding doors you are faced with an enormous free standing expanse.

Load bearing pillars are understated, leaving an impression of space as you crane your neck to take in the high ceiling and the direction signs.

Video: Hit the travelator with GNTV

Dubai's new Terminal 3 is the complete opposite of its cramped, older counterpart up the road. Light, spacious, easy to navigate – it's like the designers visited Terminal One, found every single gripe and remedied.

Even from the outside the new terminal is visually pleasing.

Taking cues from other ultra-modern airports and mixing it sympathetically in with its present surroundings, the architects have really done their homework.

The futuristic Metro station has shades of the Burj Al Arab's sky high Al Muntaha café, while across the road the giant suspended canopy apes the design while also attempting to also shade the entire road from the searing Dubai sun.

Once inside, light and space dominates too.

The check-in area doesn't really resemble a traditional check-in area – and there is plenty of room for those queues to build up.

But it is when you get to the business end of the new terminal that things really come into their own.

It seems to have taken an eternity, but airport designers now seem to realise that space, and passenger comfort are key when it comes to creating the airport experience.

Despite its teething problems, Heathrow's new Terminal 5; and Singapore's new Terminal 3 are prime examples of how good airport design can be.

Fortunately, the guys in Dubai have also remembered that the customer is king.

After clearing immigration there is a prime example, passengers are greeted with a series of escalators and elevators.

Now that in itself is not particularly impressive, but just take a glance past them at the back wall.

As you gently wind your way up to the more harried environment of the departures areas, you will be greeted by an enormous cascading waterfall which drops water from more than three floors up.

Stand at the bottom if you're not late for your flight and look up, it's a pretty impressive sight. And believe it or not, its very calming too.

Once you get into the departure gates the new terminal is a shoppers paradise. I'm not a big duty free shopper myself but the retail space seems to have doubled or trebled and I know many people who will probably come close to having their bags offloaded after spending a few too many minutes bashing the plastic.

More important to me was the feel and the ambience of the waiting area, this is helped by a flood of natural light that bathes the building, and the appearance of some much needed greenery in the form of Japanese gardens which sit at each end of the hall.

Standing on a wooden bridge, watching water flow beneath me was a very un-airport experience. And that's important, for me making you forget – even for one second – that you are in an airport is a big deal.

Next to the gardens are a host of internationally reknowned eateries, selling what I would call ‘proper food'.

There appears to be far greater emphasis on seating areas and quiet spaces (although it is easy to say that when there are not thousands of other people in the building at the same time).

Transfer passengers have a properly designed focal point, with proper seating areas and a much larger check-in area, and if you're lucky enough to get into one of the lounges, then you will not recognize them from the tired and cramped ones that exists in Terminal One.

First class passengers are treated especially well, with a futuristic spa on hand to pamper and cosset the expensive behinds of those lucky enough to be a premium passenger.

For the rest of us, the terminal is still a huge leap forward from the old one. In short, Dubai's new terminal three achieves exactly what it set out to achieve.

It's really been thought through and a world away from the current terminal. Who knows, it might even make flying a pleasure again.