Decorating your island is half (or all) of the fun for many Animal Crossing: New Horizons players! This iteration of the series allows players to do more than ever before, even altering the natural cliffs and rivers around them.
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They say to put your best foot forward, so, naturally, players are looking for ways to decorate the area just outside their airport, where visitors arrive on the island. We've gathered 10 of the best ideas that you can tweak and work with to create something perfect for your island.
UpdatedAugust 2, 2023: No one is ever truly done with Animal Crossing: New Horizons! We've updated this guide with a few extra suggestions and loads of extra pictures to help you decorate your airport exit/entrance to perfection.
Funnel With Cliffs
Our first suggestion is to build up cliffs around your island entrance!
First, it's a great way to separate parts of your island from the entrance and fully control the aesthetic that your visitors see when they arrive.
Second, by building the cliffs strategically you can funnel your guests out of the airport in whatever direction you prefer! It's much better than them getting lost among your villagers' houses or something.
Move Your Shops Nearby
If you're having a lot of visitors over to your island, it might be because they're visiting your local shops. For example, if you're participating in the online "Stalk Market," other players might be visiting to sell their Turnips!
So, why not place your shops front-and-center for ease of access? It also means that you can block off the rest of your island and not fret about your visitors shaking your money trees or picking your flowers.
Under Construction
As you play Animal Crossing: New Horizons, your island becomes more and more developed. You go from a handful of tents and a patch of dirt to a fully-blown town plaza, a museum, and several bustling stores! It's not far off the mark to imagine that all that growth and development means a lot of construction. Around your airport is a good place to start.
There are tons of construction options to choose from in AC:NH, from small things like toolboxes, saws, and safety cones, to big things like metal beams, cranes, and other construction vehicles. You won't be running out of new items to inspire you any time soon!
Emerging From The Wilderness
Even if your island aesthetic isn't full of trees, plants, and generally natural scenes, it might be nice to add a small forest to the front of your island.
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If it fits with your aesthetic, then perfect! The more trees the merrier! If you're going for more of a city vibe, this could still work. It can be powerful to be surrounded by the wilderness before emerging into a bustling town.
Unnecessary Waterfalls
If there's anything we know that Animal Crossing: New Horizons players love to do, it's creating large and unnecessary waterfalls. But are they really unnecessary if they make you happy?
Regardless, there are a lot of creative designs you can create with waterfalls and rivers beside your island entrance - only two of which are shown above! You can pair this with some of the other ideas featured on this list to create something unique and special.
Train Tracks
The nice thing about trains is that they fit into a ton of different aesthetics. Cities have trains. Country villages have trains. Trains pass through the wilderness. Do you have a fairy-core, fantastical island? You can make a train fit in - or have you never seen a Studio Ghibli movie?
With all the varied new decorations added in New Horizons - and then again in the 2.0 update - there are plenty of different creative options to run your own train track on the island and decorate alongside it.
Creative Use Of Stairs
Not many people choose to add significant cliffs near their island entrances, making stairs an uncommon sight here. However, there are some beautiful, creative ways to incorporate them front-and-center on your island!
Plus, consider that they might be combined with some of the other items on this list to create truly breathtaking results. For example, consider how the right-hand image above includes waterfalls. Or, how the left-hand image has built up a decorative sitting area for villagers and visitors alike.
Path Around A Centerpiece
A round path going around a centerpiece is a perfectly respectable way to decorate an island's entrance. It's pretty, but it also allows you to build a branching path off in any direction you choose.
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The players responsible for the images above have chosen fountains - a common and lovely choice - but there's no reason that you couldn't use something else, like the Nuptial Bell, a piece of art, or some unique flower breeds.
Practical And Fun
Who is your airport really for? You will spend a little time there, but the people who will really appreciate it are the visitors. If those visitors are strangers, you might want to build your entrance with that in mind.
You may need them to pay a fee before they continue past, build an area for tips, block off part of the island, and more. The image above creates a small area with a river to jump across - only a small number of people could fit at one time, and if they tried to jump across the river before paying the fee to visit, you'd have plenty of warning due to the extra time it takes to jump.
Match Your Aesthetic
One thing to keep in mind whenever you're building your entrance is your island's aesthetic. We've mentioned your aesthetic in passing but you should really keep it in the forefront of your mind as you plan.
First of all, there may be an obvious entrance idea that goes with your aesthetic. It's a great way to brainstorm. On the other hand, there may be obvious things that you can cross off the list for yourself. If you're making a fairy-core island, you may not want to include vending machines. It may sound small, but eliminating even some designs will help narrow down your list of options.
Airport Security
If you've ever flown on a plane in real life, you know it isn't simply a matter of asking a friendly Dodo to send you to your friend's house or to work! You need to book tickets, get there early to get through security, take off your shoes, belt, watch, earrings, and more to pass through a metal detector... It's quite an adventure before you even ever get to your destination!
If you want to add a little realism to your island, you could always add a little airport security section at your island entrance! This can serve a functional purpose, too, as we discuss elsewhere in this article, of funneling visitors who may need to pay a fee to move forward or whom you just want to keep from wandering. Plus, it can be as complicated or as simple as you like!
A Diagonal Bridge
.jpg "15 Ways To Decorate Your Island's Entrance In Animal Crossing: New Horizons (45)")
Is your plaza not directly in front of your airport? Did you want a path going directly to your plaza from your airport? You're not alone.
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This is so common that building a river in front of the airport just to put a diagonal bridge on top of it is extremely normal. It might be tricky if you're desperate to connect it to your other rivers, but undoubtedly possible. While you could lay down a diagonal path or custom path, they don't always look good due to the limitations of the system and the bridge feels particularly direct.
Group Party
No better way to make a good first impression than with a dance floor! If you really want to engage players when they arrive on your island, you can set up a groovy, music-filled area like the one above and start dancing.
While dancing may only fit some island aesthetics, it probably fits a wider range than you might expect. Historical theme? Build a ballroom. Tropical theme? Build a beach-side juice stand and attached dance floor. Cottagecore theme? Lean into the fairy ring aesthetic and line the border with trees.
Mini Plaza
If your Resident Services building is far enough from the airport, you might consider building your own little plaza in front of the airport for your guests.
There are tons of ways to make this fit your aesthetic, even if it's not conventional. Cottage-core? Use wooden furniture and dirt paths. Fairy-core? Add lots of colorful lights and mushroom furniture. As an added bonus, having only one entrance also makes it easy to funnel visitors one-by-one if necessary.
Show Off
There are lots of challenges to face in Animal Crossing: New Horizons. Each player may have a different priority. Some are interested in collecting the golden tools. Some want to earn a 5-Star Island Rating. Some care about breeding flowers. Some want to earn every bug and fish trophy. Whatever you fancy, you can show it off at your island entrance!
There are lots of things that can be displayed at your island entrance that are worth bragging rights. Perhaps you have real pieces of art. You could put the trophies you've won on pedestals. If you've managed to collect every color of every flower species, those make for a beautiful showing. If you've designed a lot of clothes, place them on mannequins here! Whatever you care most about - we guarantee that you'll get lots of compliments.
NEXT: Animal Crossing New Horizons: Every Co-Op On Harv's Island, Ranked
