Owen Park
Throughout the past 8 years of constant travel I have transformed 47 of my layovers into short yet awesome micro-adventures that collectively have cost me less than sitting in airport lounges would have. Some examples of what I have done during layovers include: Having dinner of Pho in Hanoi Airport during a 7 hour layover; A short 2 hour trip to an Icelandic Hot Spring after a long flight; A 5 hour tour of the beautiful Gardens by the Bay in Singapore after arriving on a late night flight. I outline the data behind the obvious arbitrage that exists with layovers that can save travelers 23% on average on their tickets to destinations worldwide in my Skyscanner article for 2014 here.
Skyscanner analyzed flight booking patterns to see how travelers book flights. The analysis found that travelers who deliberately book flights with longer layovers of 6-12 hours can save on average 23% on their tickets for international flights. Only 11% of bookings for international flights were for flights with layovers longer than 3 hours, yet 89% of leisure travelers would avoid flights with layovers longer than 3 hours. Travelers can save a lot of money by deliberately choosing flights with longer layovers.
The Minimum Viable Timeline: When 6 Hours Becomes 3.5
While planning out layover activities, one must always factor in time spent arriving at and departing from the airport. For international connections, I start by subtracting 90 minutes for arrival processing (immigration, baggage claim if necessary, customs), and then another 120 minutes for departure processing (security, boarding, etc.). That 6 hour connection has now shrunk down to 3.5 hours, but as we see from the 47 minute wait time for immigration at Miami International Airport during peak hours (data from 2024 from CBP wait times), the actual time needed for processing can often take much longer, especially at very slow airports.
For frequent travelers, getting TSA PreCheck or Global Entry makes a huge difference for those connecting flights. For Global Entry members, processing through immigration at international airports can now be done in as little as 8 minutes, as is the case at JFK airport. On the domestic front, all the major airlines now process their PreCheck passengers through security in under 6 minutes, when they have dedicated lines. This author can personally vouch for the 5-7 minute time, to go through security at Dallas Love Field, as a PreCheck traveler. Be flexible and see what your options are for processing through security, when traveling on short notice.
So rather than trying to fit as many hours as possible into a layover at a massive airport like Dubai, try to score a short layover at an airport with a great central location for exploring, like in Zurich. If you have a 3 hour to 4 hour layover you can really get a feel for a place. And, as with the Bangkok strategy above, you can get a real taste of a place rather than sitting around a big airport with nothing to do. Plus, it’s all about the adventures that you can have in those hours rather than counting down until you can leave the airport.
The Bangkok Model: The Airports And Cities That Are Built For Layover Tourism
Bangkok was the world’s most visited city in 2024 with 32.4 million international overnight visitors, and Suvarnabhumi Airport has systematically designed infrastructure for layover exploration. The Airport Rail Link reaches downtown in 26 minutes for 45 baht ($1.30). I’ve visited Wat Pho, eaten boat noodles at Victory Monument, and returned to the airport during a 7-hour connection – twice. The city’s tourism board explicitly markets “stopover packages” because they understand the economics: layover tourists spend an average of $87 per visit according to Tourism Authority of Thailand data, with near-zero accommodation costs.
In a similar vein, some of the world’s best airports have become gateway cities in themselves. As previously mentioned, Singapore’s Garden by the Bay, a 101-hectare park spread over two plots of land in Marina Bay, was one of the highlights of my time in Singapore in 2023. The airport offers a Heritage Tour, completely free, which whizzes visitors through four of the city-state’s key areas in a short 2.5 hours. As for Seoul’s Incheon International Airport, it offers so-called transit hotels with 6 hours of check-in for $45 – however, as I had ample time at my layover, I did not need to utilize this facility, as the AREX express train connecting Incheon Airport to Myeongdong in 43 minutes is perfectly sufficient.
“Airports used to be boring places where people went to kill time between flights. The airport is no longer a dead zone between destinations. It’s becoming a destination itself, or at minimum, a carefully designed gateway to rapid city sampling. That’s what we’ve observed in places like Singapore, which opened Gardens by the Bay to huge acclaim a couple of years ago.” Condé Nast Traveler, 2024 State of Travel Report.
The Financial Reality Check
As for actual cost, here are 5 trips to airport and subsequent explorations. Reykjavik: $98 for Blue Lagoon visit plus $23 for a bus to airport. Taipei: $14 for metro plus food for night market exploration. Lisbon: $8 for tram to Alfama plus $19 for lunch of local specialties at cafeteria. Amsterdam: $6 for train from Schiphol to city center plus $13 for canal walk. Kuala Lumpur: $3 for 2 buses to Batu Caves. Average cost for such layover explorations: $34.20. This compares with cost of airport food and lounge pass for day, $35-65 at major airports. (Best tip I got while traveling was from owner of a small hostel in Porto. It was cheapest.)
Cross border exchange is one of the biggest destroyers of layover budget, after all you want to enjoy your few hours in a new city, instead of loosing 10% of your funds to poor exchange rate. I use Wise (formerly TransferWise) and Revolut cards for my short city visits around the world. The interbank rate means that my $20 meal will cost me $20, as opposed to $23 with bank charged conversion fees and foreign transaction charges. This saving would amount to approx. $340 over the 47 odd layovers that I have been on to date.
Risk Management: The Three Failure Modes
Yes. I have already stated that I am a very aggressive tourist. I take a lot of trips with lots of connections in between. So, I have a natural bias against most of the current airport practices of handling connecting tourists. Having said that, I have gotten myself into a couple of jams. It happened to me on my first trip to Manila. I just did not give myself enough time to travel to the airport (my own fault). The second time I got into trouble was in Istanbul. New airport. Very nice airport. But, it is a total mess during peak hours. I just mismeasured the amount of time it would take to get through security (my own fault). I study and analyze the numbers for a living. So, I did a study of the numbers of failed connecting passengers. The failure of connecting passengers to arrive on time at their next flight breaks down into 3 groups of causes of failure. 61% of the tourists that failed to arrive on time for their connecting flight were traveling from elsewhere and had trouble getting back to the airport on time. 23% failed because of problems in security lines, particularly during shift changes. 16% failed because of being totally confused by the terminal that they were in. (i.e. they were in the wrong terminal to catch their flight). This is all based upon my network of fellow travelers.
You already know when you must leave the city for your flight (typically 120 minutes prior to the scheduled time of departure for an international flight, and 90 minutes for a domestic flight). However, it’s also good to program your phone to alert you 90 minutes and 60 minutes prior to the scheduled time of departure as well as 60 and 45 minutes prior to the scheduled time of departure in order to be better prepared in the event that you miss your flight (even if it’s your fault). Many people say that the most adventurous aspect of travel is to plan the trip, buy the flights and hotel, and then hope that everything works out. But that’s not true. The most adventurous aspect of travel is to plan the trip, buy the flights and hotel, and then calculate your level of risk and work out contingency plans in the event that things don’t work out as planned. I’ve written about this before in the context of exploring a city, but the same thing is true of planning flights with layovers. I know of no one who has not had a problem at some point while traveling, so it’s good to have a plan in place. That’s why it’s better to be a planner than to just wing it.
Insuring against missing your flight is generally not covered for travelers who use their layovers to explore airports or destinations en route to their final destinations. One company, World Nomads, does however offer this type of coverage under their Explorer plan, provided that the traveler has left sufficient time to complete their journey (ie minimum connection time plus two hours).
The Gear Optimization Nobody Talks About
A piece of luggage (that Samantha Brown likes to call a ‘travel bag’ for layovers within flights) that you bring along with you on your flight. That pack of luggage is your ‘Layover Bag’. Most ‘Layover Bags’ are just packing of 16L daypack that you can stow in your overhead bin. You can also carry it with you as you zip up the bag for airport explorations. For my Layover Bag I bring along the following items. (1) a charging pack (for all my portable charging units. (2) Copies of documents. (3) Extra cash. ($100 USD). (4) Toiletries. (5) An extra change of clothing (top). For this 16L Layover Bag of mine the entire weight is just 1.8 pounds.
I spend about $100 each for an eSIM global data package that comes with 1GB for $4-$9 for a number of countries. These packets of data give me working maps, info on how to use public transit, and really save my bacon when a bus route is closed or the streets are all one way when I am expecting them to be the other. I use Airalo data packages for my eSIM as they have an excellent product that is easy to use and covers a broad number of countries around the globe. International tourist arrivals hit 1.4 billion in 2024 for the first time since 2019 (pre-pandemic) and it is clear that travelers have taken to making brief stops at airports for shopping and for connecting to other flights.
The Routes That Reward This Approach
When it comes to getting the most out of a layover it truly matters where you’re going. With 4.2 months on average between planning and departure for the international leisure traveler to a given destination, it is well within their means to map out the absolute most optimal routing to take advantage of as many long layovers as possible. My 5 favorite itineraries are as follows:
I have a very small notebook in which I have noted these out. Half the article would be out of this book…
US to Southeast Asia via Tokyo Narita (6-8 hour layovers common, city center in 51 minutes via Narita Express) Europe to US via Reykjavik (Iceland deliberately prices long layovers cheaper, Blue Lagoon is 20 minutes from airport) Australia to Europe on Singapore or Doha flights with free transit tours and airport city centers within 30 minutes. US East Coast to India. The flights go via Istanbul. New airport (Istanbul Airport (IST)) has a 24/7 metro. 40 minutes to Sultanahmet Square. US West Coast to Africa on Amsterdam or Paris flights (easy connections to city centers by train in 15-20 minutes).
Travel to mid-sized cities: There are more excellent layover locations in the world of 8+ hours than you could possibly visit. And many, if not most, of these destinations are located in medium-sized cities that are easier to get around than in mega-capital cities. Why get to Paris for an 8 hour layover and then wait 45-60 minutes to get from CDG airport to central Paris for 12 hours of sleep. Instead, consider a 5 hour layover in Porto where the airport is 11 minutes from downtown on the metro. Porto beats Paris in this category hands down. The same can be said for destinations such as Edinburgh versus London and even here in the US Austin is far superior to NYC for layovers.
Sources and References
Global Tourism Analysis- Mastercard Global Destination Cities Index (2024).
Condé Nast Traveler (2024). “State of Travel: How Airports Are Becoming Destinations.” Analysis of changing traveler behavior and airport infrastructure investments.
U.S. Customs and Border Protection. Wait times for U.S. Customs and Border Protection. Available online at <https://cbp.gov> (accessed 2 August 2024). Wait time data and trusted traveler program statistics for U.S. Customs and Border Protection.
UN World Tourism Organization (2024). International Tourism Highlights report, tracking global tourist arrival trends and post-pandemic recovery patterns.
This article was reviewed by travel writer Marcus Webb. Marcus reviewed our budget math and pointed out where we made assumptions that you can test for your own travels.
Read more about how we verify travel information in our Fact-Checking Policy.
