In simple words, stopovers are stopovers or connections between flights that are longer than usual, only instead of spending endless hours at the airport, they can be used to get to know a city along the way.
Are you going on vacation abroad soon? Why not visit two countries instead of just one? It is possible to visit two destinations for the price of one. Yes, you read that right. And the key concept is the following: Air Stopover. Stopovers are stopovers or intermediate stops of more than 24 hours on international flights, although some airlines even offer the possibility of stopping for up to 72 hours.
Or put another way, stopovers are stopovers or connections between flights that are longer than usual, only instead of spending endless hours at the airport, they can be used to get to know a city along the way.
What is interesting about this type of stopover is that, due to their long duration, they offer the possibility of leaving the airport and visiting the city where the stopover takes place. According to the International Air Transport Association (IATA), there is an exception: stopovers longer than 6 hours on trips made within Central America or on trips made between Central America and Panama are also considered stopovers.
This option is interesting, logically, if you also want to know the city or country in which it takes place. The Stop Over because it gives the option of visiting the stopover city spending a few hours or a few days there, and the rest of the days at your final destination without paying extra. And, in addition, you will save hours of waiting at the airport.
There are many airlines that allow you to extend your stopover without paying more for your plane ticket. You just have to check their conditions on the website. Trabber.com has compiled a list of some of the companies that offer this service without having to pay more.
Swiss International Air Lines have designed a stopover program so that travelers stopping in Zurich can spend 2 to 5 days discovering the city or even the rest of Switzerland ( https://stopover-switzerland.com/es/information / )
If you travel with the Portuguese TAP you can also make stopovers in two of its main cities: in Lisbon or in Porto when traveling between Latin America and Europe. If you find it interesting, Trabber.es explains how to do stopover with TAP to take into account all the conditions and special offers proposed by the Portuguese company: https://blog.trabber.com/2019/05/que-es- a-flight-stopover/ .
The Spanish Iberia has also just joined this trend ( https://www.iberia.com/do/es/stopover-in-madrid/ ) and has done it in a big way. Its website offers information on how to buy urban transport cards in Madrid, a hotel luggage drop-off and collection service, and a series of advantages. In any case, there has always been the possibility of doing stop-watching using price comparators such as www.trabber.es . Any traveler between Latin America and destinations in the rest of Europe or Spain. Just go to trabber.es and see the flight combinations to Madrid and then from that city to the final destination. The metro connects the airport with the center of Madrid in about 35 minutes, so any connection with about 10 hours allows you to take a tour of the Spanish capital
Emirates not only allows but promotes travelers between America, Europe and Asia to get to know their city. An interesting option for those who want to get to know this metropolis that, in any case, can be visited in its most typical parts in 24 or 36 hours.https://www.emirates.com/english/destinations_offers/dubai_stopovers/dubai-stopovers.aspx
Its direct competition, Qatar Airways, matches and expands the proposal. Stopover travelers have free visa and even 5-star offers from US$28. Of course, suitcases are not checked in Doha, the capital of Qatar, so you have to carry your passport, medicines and clothes for one day, as well as your wallet, in your hand luggage. https://www.qatarairways.com/en/offers/qatar-stopover.html
In Latin America the phenomenon is gaining strength. Avianca offers the possibility of stopping-over in Bogotá on its flights between South America and North America ( https://www.avianca.com/us/es/antes-de-tu-viaje/bogota-stopover/ ) and just like Qatar does not allow luggage to be taken out of the hold and shipped to the final destination. It is also necessary to have an entry visa to Colombia (if necessary depending on the traveler's nationality). For stops of less than one day, the company recommends a minimum of 8 hours between one flight and another flight. Copa also offers this possibility for flights between South and North America. Copa also offers the possibility of getting to know Panama during its connections https://www.copaair.com/es/web/ar/panama-atp-copa-airlines
How to get a free stop-over
1. Enter the trabber.com metasearch engine and select a round-trip flight to your destinations. Search
2. In the right side column select only flights with a stopover. In a few seconds only flights with a stopover will appear
3. Look at the total flight time compared to that of a direct flight. If the Lima Paris flight, for example, is about 17 hours and the results say that the flight lasts 30 hours, it has a stop over in Madrid (case of flying with Iberia via Madrid) enough to get to know the city. Check all the options.
4. Verify that you do not need a visa in the stopover country and that there are no restrictions for this issue. Especially when the stop over is done in a different country at the end. In Stopover within a country (for example if you fly Lima-Madrid-Seville, or Madrid-Paris-Marseille) there are no such problems. On flights within the Schengen area neither (Bogotá to Paris via Madrid) since the Madrid-Country section does not need to go through immigration again.
5. You can also use the multi-city search in the metasearch engine.
