The best window seats in the world, by route

Most of the time, seat choice is about legroom and how quickly you can get off. Occasionally it is about something better: whether you will see one of the genuinely extraordinary views available from a commercial aircraft, or the wing.

The rule is simple and almost never mentioned at booking: on a flight heading broadly north, the left side faces west and the right side faces east. Reverse it heading south. Sunrise, sunset and every landmark follow from that.

Here are the routes where it matters most.

Greenland's ice sheet — transatlantic, eastbound

Sit on the left.

Flights from the US east coast to Europe follow a great circle that arcs far north — this is the same effect that sends London–Tokyo flights over the Arctic. On a clear day the southern edge of the Greenland ice sheet passes below, and it is genuinely difficult to process: an unbroken white plateau, thousands of metres thick, with glaciers calving into fjords along its edge.

Eastbound puts it on the left. Westbound, on the right. Departures from New York or Boston in the early evening give the best light.

Manhattan on approach — into LaGuardia

Sit on the left.

The Expressway Visual approach to LaGuardia's runway 31 runs down the East River, past the full length of Manhattan, low enough to pick out individual buildings. It is the best city view from any commercial approach in the world.

It's not guaranteed — ATC assigns the approach based on traffic and weather — but when it happens, the left side gets Manhattan and the right side gets Queens.

The Alps — northern Europe to Italy

Sit on the left southbound.

Milan, Venice and Rome from London, Amsterdam or Frankfurt all cross the Alpine chain. Mont Blanc, the Matterhorn and the Bernese Oberland are all visible from cruising altitude on a clear day, and the transition from the Swiss plateau to the high peaks happens in about ninety seconds.

Winter is better than summer — more snow, clearer air.

The Himalaya — Delhi to Kathmandu

Sit on the right.

This is the famous one. On the short hop from Delhi to Kathmandu the entire Himalayan range runs along the northern horizon, and on a clear morning Everest is identifiable from the cabin. Some carriers have run dedicated sightseeing flights along the range for exactly this reason.

Morning departures, October to March, right-hand side.

The Grand Canyon — Los Angeles to the east coast

Sit on the left.

Eastbound flights from LA to New York, Boston or Washington routinely pass north of the canyon. It is smaller from 37,000 feet than people expect and unmistakable anyway — a branching dark scar in otherwise featureless red plateau.

The Nile delta — Europe to the Gulf

Sit on the right southbound.

At night, flights from Europe to Dubai, Doha or Abu Dhabi pass over Egypt, and the Nile appears as a thin continuous ribbon of light through absolute blackness, opening into the fan of the delta at the coast. It is the clearest demonstration from the air of a river as the only reason anyone lives somewhere.

Iceland — London to the US west coast

Sit on the right.

The polar-ish routing from northern Europe to Seattle, Vancouver or San Francisco crosses close to Iceland. Glaciers, volcanic fields and the strange green-black coastline are all visible on the northern side.

The general rules

• Ahead of the wing or well behind it. Rows over the wing see wing.
• Avoid the sun side on long daylight flights if you want to sleep, and take it if you want the view. You cannot have both.
• Check the aircraft, not just the row. Some seats have a window frame where the window should be — SeatGuru still maps this reliably.
• Sunrise is on the right heading north, the left heading south. Every eastbound transatlantic red-eye gets a sunrise about two hours before landing. It's worth staying awake for.

Log the view, not just the route

The flights people actually remember are rarely the comfortable ones. They're the ones where something was out of the window.

That's the argument for writing them down while the detail is still fresh — the specific flight where Greenland was clear, or where the approach came down the East River. Six months later you'll remember that it happened but not which flight it was.

Orbit keeps notes against every flight, alongside the route and the distance. Download now.