The Secret of Stopovers: How to Visit More Countries at Cheap Cost?

I want to ask you if any of you know that you can add a stopover to well-known city into your flight itinerary, whether or not it is a round trip, one way trip, or round the world trip, for a small cost?

If you had no idea, then let me explain about the amazing concept of stopovers but I will explain a little about layovers first.

Suppose you want to fly to an international destination and purchase a round-trip flight ticket through any airline or booking site. Often it will cost you around $700-$1,000.

That’s expensive, right? In your flight itinerary, you would have to stop somewhere en route to the final destination. That usually means you have a layover of an hour or so, sometimes half a day, or even overnight. 

A layover is a destination where you change flights before going to your final destination. It is usually automatically offered through airlines’ websites OR booking sites that book tickets from different airlines into one flight itinerary.

Unfortunately, most travelers accept their layover(s) by unknowingly staying in the airport and waiting for the next flight to their final destination. Ain’t gonna lie here, I have been one of them.

Why don’t I just go straight to the final destination without a layover? I’m sure you feel that having a layover can be a waste of time because you more likely can’t get out to explore due to insufficient time.

Now, imagine this with me—what if you had a layover at Dubai? Don’t you want to check out these amazing skyscrapers? How about a few days in Tokyo en route to India? Don’t you want to take a ski day in Austria? Experience tailor made wine tours Douro Valley? Take a rest at beach somewhere warm and sunny?

The point is… What if you’re stopping by a city that you would totally love to explore? What if you passed a place you’ve always wanted to visit? I mean if you going to stop by a popular city and you can’t get out of the airport because you don’t have the time. I bet that kind of makes you feel like your money is a little bit wasted that way because you could have checked that country off your bucket list.

For me, Sometimes I get lucky and get a full day in my layover, so I get out of the airport and explore the city, but with some stress with time. I will have to make sure I return in time for my next flight.

Sometimes I don’t and that makes me feel like I’m restricted from exploring the best and most of the world. I do not want that, so I researched and discovered more about stopovers. 

A stopover is a “layover” where you request additional time to stay in the destination of your layover for to explore before flying to the final destination.

While you research for you flight, I am sure you will find few ticket with similar fares, but they all are from different airlines. How do you decide your flight? Sometimes, you would just buy the cheapest one, even if it is just by few dollars. Sometimes you would just pick the shortest time of travel.

Most of the time all different flight itineraries offer layovers in different destinations other than the origin and final destinations. Therefore, you should look into the destinations of the layovers to decide your flight because who knows it could be a city you’d want to explore before going to your final destination.

That’s one of factors that helps my decisions regarding my travel destinations. When I decide that, I would contact the airline to extend my time in the layover as a stopover.

With many flight itineraries, you can request the airline(s) you booked your ticket with to let you have a stopover in a certain city for a couple days with little charge to your budget (you can sometimes get it for free!).

Well, most airlines will offer stopovers if you purchased a round-trip rather than one-way. You can always try with one-way though it can be a bit harder to get.

The important part is that you contact the airline and find out what they have to offer. Sometimes it can be $20, $30, or even free! It depends on your situation and request.

I mean… What’s the matter with staying at that destination for extra few days if have the opportunity and time, I mean that is your golden opportunity to check out an extra destination for what it’s worth!

Bottom line: you should always take a look into your stopover options- giving you the opportunity to see more countries for less out of your pocket!

How to find cheap stopover flights?

1. Go directly through the airline sites
2. Fill out your destination and date.
3. Review the list of flight (layovers)
4. Discover the itinerary that comes with a certain city you want to visit.
5. Make a call to the airline you plan to purchase. (Making a call is necessary)
6. Let customer service know that you would like to have a stopover for a couple of days.
7. You’re done.

Some few examples here:

Iceland on a stopover:

Iceland Air offers all customers the option of stopping over in their country at no extra charge! Now you can have a free stopover in Iceland to explore all amazing cultural food, activities, landscapes, and more.

Dubai on a stopover:

When flying with Emirates Airlines from many places in Europe, Asia, or Australia (from the United States), you are more likely to have a stopover in Dubai. Because of this, Emirates Airline offers stopover packages and often encourages customers to visit the city for a day or two.

Istanbul on a stopover:

When flying with Turkish Airlines, they offer several free tours of Istanbul, even if you only have a few hours to stopover. Turkish Airlines usually offer flights through Istanbul from the United states to Africa, Asia, Australia, and amongst others.

Now you all know my secret going to many countries at small cost. Honestly, I wish I took advantage of the stopovers for any of my trips back then. I think I  would have been to over 100 countries if I had known that back then… Well.. maybe that’s a little exaggerated—you decide.

Well, it’s a big, beautiful, exciting, and fascinating world out there. Grab the most of it through stopovers!

To see the ASL version of this post, please go to our Facebook video post.