help with decorating an entrance for an airport off to one side, near the beach?

[asuka]

hi ! been awhile since i've been active on this site ;w; i have some questions for the expert island designers out there!

i recently recent my island for the 3rd time. i actually never got super into decorating my island at all despite being obsessed with acnl, i guess i just felt really overwhelmed by the game. but i really want to lock in and make a cool island for once, so i did another reset and got a map i'm pretty happy with:

though i'm trying to imagine how i can decorate the airport entrance area with so little space on the west side.

i'm going to be moving everything around eventually once i decide a spot for them. so the museum/nooks/ables will be in a different spot. i just have no clue what i should do for the entrance! should i make it lead to my house? a shop? i have no clue...

i really like having the west+south facing river and a mostly centered resident services, but gosh the unevenness of the airport makes me a bit uneasy! i won't be resetting again because the tutorial is just a slog to get through..so i need to think of something!

does anyone have a similar airport layout? or have ideas for how to make a cute entrance?
and if you have any suggestions for someone who's never really made a cool island before, i'd love any advice as well !

 

[LambdaDelta]

tbh I kinda like the idea of having it lead straight up to one of the shops/museum and then having that section be a whole "street" with just about every other major building accessible as well

alternatiely, you could pull the shop buildings closer (plus, optionally, maybe the museum too), and make the entrance a sort of shopping plaza

 

[Pyoopi]

Personally I feel like themes help set the environment/general mood of your island. Like a town/city would make your entrance more urban and forest/cottage could showcase more terraformed cliffs.

For my island, I started around the town hall and built outward. Then I'd skip around if I felt tired/overwhelmed on one area and ultimately ended here. My airport entrance might've been the second to last thing I decorated, lol.

Spoiler: old map before hotel update