Getting Off at Your Layover City: The Ultimate Itinerary Enhancing Travel Hack

That is actually the really fun thing about layovers. I’ve been using layovers more and more in recent years to have little add-ons to my trips that allow you to see more countries, and you won’t waste additional time in transit. Usually, you don’t even have additional costs.

I like to think of layovers as the ultimate itinerary-enhancing travel hack, but many people are unaware of the special searches that you often have to do to find them and the amazing stopover deals that you can take advantage of.

The Mini-Adventure

For example, on this layover in Abu Dhabi, I’m staying in this hotel entirely for free. Not because I’m an influencer or something—I’m not an influencer. This is something that anyone can get if you’re flying with Etihad and you’re having a stopover in Abu Dhabi. This place I’m staying for two nights normally costs €90 a night. A lot of airlines also make it so that if you book your layover in a certain way, it won’t cost more than a normal return ticket.

The first advantage really is to go to places that maybe ordinarily wouldn’t be top of your travel list but you wouldn’t mind checking out. You can check out a country in a kind of “try before you buy” way. It can be a preview perhaps for a future trip.

This was the case for me with Istanbul a few years ago. I was traveling to Georgia the country, and at the time I used a similar deal as the one that I used here where I got a free hotel. So I stayed for two nights in Istanbul. It was my first time in this city and I loved it. Even if you have like 24 hours available, it doesn’t matter; you can have a great experience in Istanbul. I was able to see the Hagia Sophia, the Grand Bazaar, and the ancient cisterns.

How to Find Layover Opportunities

So how do you find layover opportunities? Well, you can start by using whatever flight search engine you use anyway. I’m using Google Flights here. If you search, you might already find something interesting. For example, here is a layover we can go to Tbilisi via Athens and then stay there for more than a day, which is cool.

But these kinds of options don’t show up very often. Most of the options are either direct or just quick stopovers, not enough to really do much in the layover destination. So we want more control over the dates.

Booking Tips

Here’s a Turkish Airlines option, and if we go to the website, we may be able to play with the dates a little bit more. Here we should not use the roundtrip search or the one-way search the way you might be accustomed to. Definitely don’t try to book one-way tickets because that’s going to be more expensive than a roundtrip and you’re going to run into all kinds of practical issues with that.

What we want is the Multi City or Multi Stop search because here we can enter each leg of the journey separately, which will give us control over the dates.

I’ve done that and I’ve chosen to at least have one full day in the layover destination. I like to do that; probably it will be a bit more than that depending on the departure times of these flights. But that will give us some time in the layover and then the rest of the trip will just be all the days spent in Georgia, my final destination.

I have to say the Multi Stop searches are sometimes a bit annoying. I think because they don’t give as much developer attention to these parts of the websites of airlines. But once you have an option that lets you add 24 hours in the place or 36 hours or whatever you want, you can book that as a normal return.

Before you book a complex itinerary, you might wonder is expedia cancellation protection worth it in case plans change.

How to Get Free Hotel Stays

So then how do you get a free hotel? Well, it’s only in a few specific places where you can do this, but it’s worth checking the layover page of the airline you’re flying with because generally they have information specifically for these types of trips.

Now with some airlines, you can email their kind of travel agent—their internal travel agent—and give them your flight details. They’ll generally give you a list and then you choose from that list which ones you prefer. Then from the three that you prefer, they’ll book you one hotel that they choose. That’s generally how it goes and the kinds of hotels that are available will depend on which class you’re flying in.

Some places it’s not free hotels; it might be for instance Singapore Airlines offers a free tour of Singapore if you’re on a layover.

Airlines offering stopover perks:

• Etihad: Does free hotels in Abu Dhabi.
• Turkish Airlines: Free tours or hotels in Istanbul.
• Ethiopian Airlines: Offers perks in Addis Ababa.
• Qatar Airways: Has discounted hotels in Doha.
• Emirates: Dubai Connect service.
• China Southern: Accommodation options in Guangzhou.

A lot of them are kind of in the Middle East or between Europe and Asia.

Visa Considerations

Do check for visa requirements in your layover country. If you’re doing the free layover tour in Istanbul, chances are you’re going to need to apply for an e-visa for Turkey. So before you book a flight with a long layover with the intention of getting out to explore during your layover, make sure you know the visa requirements and apply in advance if necessary.

Some countries can be annoying to plan a trip to. Getting a China Visa normally is a bit annoying because you have to pre-plan your trip. Whereas the stay over or layover visas for China are very easy to get; they are just visa on arrivals that last for a maximum of 5 days.

However, unexpected issues can happen. If you need urgent documentation, you might need to check if an emergency passport and visa service is legitimate and available.

Important Layover Do’s and Don’ts

Booking Do’s

Let’s start off with the most essential flight booking tips when it comes to layovers. Don’t book a layover of less than 90 minutes. I mean you could and I have, but the shorter The Layover the greater the chance is that you’re going to miss your second flight if the first flight is delayed.

Check the schedule for subsequent flights. My friend recently came to visit me on the Portuguese island of Madeira. This required a connecting flight in Lisbon. She was initially looking at a flight itinerary that had a connection time of less than 90 minutes and had her arriving to Madeira on the last flight of the day. If the first flight was delayed, there was a good chance that she would miss her connecting flight. Not a good plan. So instead she chose an earlier overseas flight to Lisbon and then a slightly longer layover.

My last booking tip is to double check your connection airports. There are two things to look for: a change of terminal or a change of airport. Most search engines will alert you to both so you know before you book. A change of terminal is usually pretty easy, but it can be time-consuming depending on the airport.

Sometimes you can book a connecting flight that’s on the same ticket but still requires you to change airports in between. Depending on the city, these airports may or may not be easy or quick or cheap to move between.

Comfort Do’s and Don’ts

Do research what amenities are available at the airport where your layover is. If you have a few hours to kill, it’s great to know what you can do in that time. Airport amenities to keep an eye out for include lounges that you can access by paying a nominal fee. This will give you a place to hang out in comfort with decent Wi-Fi, food, and sometimes even a shower to freshen up.

Other amenities to look into include quiet rooms and Airport hotels or layover hotels that you can rent by the hour. A few years ago I had a five-hour layover at a really awkward time of night when airport lounges weren’t open. But with a bit of research, I found a layover stay service that had a special dark room with reclining lounge chairs designed to allow passengers to catch a nap in comfort in between flights.

Don’t put all of your essentials into your checked luggage. This is standard advice anyway since you want to have a change of clothes at the very least just in case your checked luggage is lost or delayed. But when it comes to layovers, in some cases you won’t have access to your checked luggage during The Layover. So if you do want to have that shower or change your clothes, you’ll need to have that in your personal item bag or your carry-on luggage.

Security and Shopping

Don’t assume that you don’t need to clear security at your layover airport. Some airports are designed in such a way that when an international flight arrives, even if you’re only connecting through that City, you still need to clear customs and collect your luggage before you can proceed to your connecting flight. When this happens, you are likely going to have to clear security again.

Don’t buy anything at duty-free or airport shops that wouldn’t clear security. This includes any liquids that don’t pass the 3-1-1 liquid rule. Even though that bottle of liquor or perfume or Jam or whatever may be a great deal at the duty-free airport shop that you are leaving from, if you have a connecting flight it may get confiscated if you have to pass through security again.

The only way around this would be if you have checked luggage that you collect at your layover airport. Then you can open your checked luggage and you can stash your duty-free goods in the checked bag before you check it again for your onward flight.

Adding Variety to Your Trip

The variety that it gave to my trip was really crazy because I was spending time on some Cambodian Islands with beautiful tropical waters. I spent New Year’s Eve there; it was an amazing experience, had campfires on the beach, that kind of thing.

Then I went to Bangkok, I flew to Beijing, and suddenly my face was just blasted with ice-cold air because it was in the middle of winter and there were people ice skating in the park. I was buying hot chocolates and hot teas not even to drink at one point but just to warm up my hands. I was using every layer I had for clothing.

That’s such a cool like contrast which if you ever done a round-the-world trip where you go from continent to continent around the world you’ll know what that is like because that will happen a lot on a trip like that. You go from one climate to the opposite climate. You can have a mini version of that with a layover.

There’s also islands in the middle of oceans that can be really good for this. Iceland is a great example of this if you’re traveling between the US and Europe then Iceland is kind of on the way. The airlines that go through Iceland they make it easy for you to do this.

Another great example that I really like is the Azores. I love the Azores. If you fly with the national carrier of Portugal, they won’t give you something for free necessarily but they will make it so that you can add I think a maximum of three days to your time on the islands without this affecting the airfare.

Some of these unique routes might involve smaller carriers or regional airlines, so be sure to check airlines not on Google Flights for hidden gem connections.

Layover Strategy Summary

Strategy	Benefit	Example Destination
Free Hotel Stay	Save money on accommodation	Abu Dhabi (Etihad)
Free City Tour	See highlights without planning	Istanbul (Turkish)
Multi-City Booking	Control dates and duration	Tbilisi via Athens
Climate Contrast	Experience diverse environments	Cambodia to Beijing
Island Stopover	Break up long trans-ocean flights	Iceland, Azores

So when you’re going somewhere, it’s always cool to look at the map of the world and see what is on the way and how you maybe could include some other place. Getting off at your layover city transforms a tedious wait into a highlight of your journey.