Send us a text

What if you could add another country to your itinerary with zero costs, and potentially lower your costs? What if you could do the most iconic trip in that country in just one day? On today’s episode we tackle a dirty word in travel - the dreaded LAYOVER - if this word strikes fear into your heart, stick around to find out how a layover can become the highlight of your trip. 

#1 How to Use Layovers and When To Choose Them

Layovers can be a pain, but use them correctly and they can be a trip highlight. We would choose a layover with the following criteria: 

• It’s not just an overnight layover
• There are no additional visa/documentation requirements (Check out our layover fails to see why we included this!)
• It is either very long or the airport is set up to allow for some exploration (ie: Qatar and Iceland)
• We have the time (our trip is more than a week long)

We had an amazing experience in our Iceland Layover where we got to travel the Golden Circle and even hang out in a “secret” lagoon. We skipped the more touristy hot springs in Iceland but on a return trip, we’d definitely be interested in checking them out. 

#2 Success Stories and Fails 

• Iceland is our #1 success story. It was actually my favorite country we visited on our 2017 trip (other countries on that trip were Germany, Czech Republic, Austria and Budapest). We (self) toured the golden circle and spent about 15 hours driving around 300km on the first stop. Then on the return trip we got about 8 hours to check out Reykjavik, which included a cute farmer’s market, some amazing fish and chips and some really fun street art. A great way to spend a travel day! 
• Our fail is definitely Qatar. We had an 8 hour layover and a booked excursion from the airport to check out some city highlights (a very popular thing to do from this airport). Unfortunately Bruce got COVID and while he was cleared for travel for Uganda, he would not have passed the PCR test that was required to enter Qatar. Unfortunately, that meant we had to cancel the tour and instead had to spend 8 hours lounging in an airport. Not i

Scott's Cheap Flights
The #1 way to traveling more is through Scott's Cheap Flights.

Disclaimer: This post contains affiliate links. If you make a purchase, I may receive a commission at no extra cost to you.

Support the show

Subscribe to our Newsletter for a bi-weekly points and miles tip, an update on the best current travel deals, points and miles transfer bonuses and interesting places we've found in our travels.

Join our Travel Community on Facebook to connect with other like minded travelers, share stories, tips, tricks and travel hack wins- Travel More Insiders

Visit our Website https://travelmorepodcast.com/

Join Going (Scott's Cheap Flights) Use code: MAGIC20 for 20% off your first year!

Check out our travels in real time and get additional tips on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/travelmorepodcast/

Get in touch with us at [email protected]

Disclosure: We only recommend products we would or do use ourselves and all opinions expressed here are our own. This post may contain affiliate links that at no additional cost to you, we may earn a small commission.