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I want to visit some countries my flights transit through. I live in Pakistan and flights to America often transit through the UK or Europe. Flights to Europe mostly transit from Middle East. I assume that I need to have a regular visit Visa for these countries.

Can I book some flight that allows me to exit the airport and stay about 2-3 days (48-72 hours) in the country I'm transiting through?

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    Look at the site you use to book your travel and see if there is an option for 'longer transit' or some option for a break. I know Iceland is a good one for getting a longer stop. But also check visa requirements. Often people traveling from Pakistan need Schengen visa and find them hard to get.
    – Willeke ♦
    Commented Aug 7, 2016 at 10:57
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    What is a "transit flight"? Do you mean you want to book a ticket with longer layovers/stopovers between flights?
    – hippietrail
    Commented Aug 7, 2016 at 11:31
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    Yes exactly that's what I mean @hippietrail
    – Asad Moeen
    Commented Aug 7, 2016 at 11:31
  • There are a couple airlines that promote their country's tourism through longer layovers. Off the top of my head there is Icelandair, and I heard Turkish Airlines offers a free hotel night for overnight layovers (but I am not sure they actually offer the long layover option). I'd recommend to search for the right airlines instead of the right flight.
    – Vince
    Commented Aug 7, 2016 at 15:33
  • I used to do this every time I flew JAL or Korean. In fact I booked those airlines for my flights to Canada, Europe, Mexico, and Turkey specifically because they were the cheapest option at the time and charged zero extra for the added stopover. Sometimes there were conditions such as only one stop or only in one direction. I usually got two weeks but I'm pretty sure I got a month once.
    – hippietrail
    Commented Aug 7, 2016 at 17:06

3 Answers 3

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A good way to search for these stopovers is to use matrix. Here's an illustration of a search for stopovers of at least 36 hours (2160 minutes).

First do a simple search to get an idea of prices without stopover charges:

enter image description here

Which produces this result (I requested prices in USD to make comparison easier):

enter image description here

Next add in the /minconnect option which requests a stopover/layover with a minimum connection time in minutes:

enter image description here

Which gives:

enter image description here

You'll often find the same stopover point, so you might want to eliminate one or several stopover points from your search and you can do that by specifying "~XXX" for not airport XXX or "~XXX,YYY" for not either of airport XXX or YYY, followed by "*" meaning any number of additional flights, e.g.

enter image description here

and you might end up with an alternative set of stopovers:

enter image description here

Once you've found a set of flights that look suitable, you'll need to check visa requirements and then try to book the flights either on an airline's website with the multicity option, or call a travel agent.

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  • And remember to fill in the return routing codes if you want a stopover on the return flight.
    – Michael Hampton
    Commented Aug 7, 2016 at 18:10
  • @MichaelHampton Good point. I only included them one way to prevent it getting even more complicated than it already was.
    – Berwyn
    Commented Aug 7, 2016 at 18:12
  • Looks perfect I'll check this out.
    – Asad Moeen
    Commented Aug 7, 2016 at 19:02
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A transit is by definition less than 24 hours, with some rare exceptions if the best available connection is longer.

If you want to stay longer, you'll need to look for a stopover. These often cost extra (US$100 is typical), although some airlines like Singapore and Emirates offer well-priced stopover packages including hotel, and usually need to be booked by a travel agency instead of online.

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    Iceland Air (who do a lot of flights between Europe and the USA) offers this as well, for short stays in Iceland.
    – Tom Harrington
    Commented Aug 7, 2016 at 16:34
  • I even got a 10 day stopover for hardly any more money, all three day and less stopover are free on Icelandair.
    – Willeke ♦
    Commented Aug 7, 2016 at 18:39
  • @Willeke Did they shorten it to three days? Icelandair used to have free stopovers up to a week.
    – gerrit
    Commented Aug 8, 2016 at 14:02
  • May well have been a week, I know I was over the limit but I do not remember by how long.
    – Willeke ♦
    Commented Aug 8, 2016 at 15:42
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Basically you are going to stop or have a short stay for 2-3 days within EU countries and your final destination is USA, you are talking about multi destination flights and you can only do that with valid visas on you passport(Pakistani Passport).

I have traveled many times with multi destination flights from Pak-MiddleEast-eu-Usa in the last 15 years. However tickets prices may increase because of additional airport taxes and stopover charges.

Do you have any specific itinerary in your mind?, so that I would be able to suggest you a nice and affordable itinerary.

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  • +1 but suggesting itineraries is off-topic and you should do that in a chat.
    – mts
    Commented Aug 7, 2016 at 13:41
  • I wanna travel to New York and stopover in London. Also I can travel to London with a Dubai stopover.
    – Asad Moeen
    Commented Aug 7, 2016 at 14:10
  • 4 way sectors are always costly and sometimes 2 to 3 times more expensive than normal fare. Still you want to buy that?
    – Ali Awan
    Commented Aug 7, 2016 at 15:26
  • @AliAwan I meant it separately. London stopover for flights of destination New York.
    – Asad Moeen
    Commented Aug 7, 2016 at 19:02

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