Stopover: how to visit two cities for the price of one

Which airlines offer free stopovers

Besides Icelandair and TAP Air Portugal, which integrate the stopover directly into the booking engine, Emirates follows a different logic: the Dubai Connect program offers free hotel and transit visa for those with a layover between 8 and 24 hours, while for longer stays it offers stopover packages for a fee with discounted hotels.

How to book the stopover

With airlines that have a dedicated program, the stopover is added with a specific option – often called «stopover» – directly in the flight search page. With others that do not offer this tool, you must build the itinerary as a multi-city flight (multi-city), inserting the intermediate city manually as a separate leg, usually at an additional cost compared to a simple round trip.

Visa and baggage: what to check first

The first check concerns the visa required by the stopover country, sometimes necessary even just to leave the transit area. If the suitcase remains checked through to the final destination, you need to carry in your carry-on what you need for the stopover days: the rules on checked baggage explain when it's better to claim it right away.

Organize the few hours or days well

Choosing accommodation near a rapid transit line to the airport reduces the risk of arriving late for the next flight, a factor that weighs especially in stopovers of one or two days, where available time is already limited.

Before adding the stopover, verify on the airline's website whether it is included free in the ticket or requires a paid package: with Emirates, for example, the difference hinges on the 24-hour layover threshold.