Travel insurance specialist AllClear has analysed a range of factors to reveal the best (and worst) cities in the world for a layover.
Frankfurt in Germany ranks top, followed by Warsaw in Poland and Cairo in Egypt.
The researchers analysed over 80 popular transit hubs to determine a ‘Stopover Score’, based on the following:
- Walkability (based on topography and elevation changes)
- Travel time from the most transited airport to the city centre
- Cost of a one-night stay in a four-star hotel
- Distance between the top three tourist attractions
- Number of onward destinations
- Average daily expenses, including the cost of a meal, a beer, a cappuccino, public transport, and a taxi
The world’s top 20 stopover cities
Germany’s Frankfurt leads the global ranking, with a Stopover Score of 78.3 out of 100. Its compact layout and high volume of onward connections make it a standout choice for travellers heading somewhere via Europe – offering an exciting day of sightseeing among tourist attractions like Römer, its historic square which boasts beautiful Medieval architecture, as well as a smooth trip to and from the airport.
Completing the top three are Doha in Qatar (75.4/100) – also home to one of the world’s most luxurious airports – and Atlanta in the United States (74.5/100), where hundreds of onwards destinations makes this one of the busiest transit hubs for routes between Europe, the Americas and beyond, and a diverse gastronomic scene offers stopover travellers a quick taste of southern cuisine like barbecue, shrimp and grits and cornbread.
The rest of the top ten includes classic gems such as Denmark’s colourful capital Copenhagen (74.2/100); Ireland’s Dublin (73.1/100), where travellers heading to the states can benefit from pre-clearance – allowing them to land in the US as a domestic passenger, and Amsterdam (72.7/100) home to the Dutch flag carrier KLM and offering low-cost stopover programmes.
AllClear international director Sarah Collinson said: “For those facing long journeys, planning a stopover can make a big difference to how rested and ready you feel when you reach your final destination.
“All too often, travellers land in popular cities and stay airside during their layover, missing out on what could be a thrilling 24 hours in a new city. We wanted to highlight the destinations that make for the perfect pit stop, and this list is designed to do just that.”
The world’s lowest-ranked 10 stopover cities
At the opposite end of the scale is Los Angeles in the United States, which ranked lowest in the study with a Stopover Score of just 21.9. The city was given low scores across several criteria, including travel time from LAX to the city centre as well as low levels of walkability, large distances between top tourist attractions and expensive day-to-day costs.
Other US cities also ranked poorly: Houston came second-bottom, largely due to higher costs for hotels and tourist expenses like meals and transport, while Lima in Peru took third place thanks to its hilly terrain, which makes it harder to traverse, as well as its limited onward destinations.
In fact, US cities made up over half of the bottom 10 rankings.
Also among the bottom 10 is Mumbai in India, where the city’s sprawling layout makes short visits difficult to manage; Hong Kong, which has popular tourist attractions set far apart; and Abu Dhabi – where attractions are also very spread out, and the airport is at least a 40-minute drive away from the city centre.
‘Skiplagging’
In addition, travellers are being warned about a growing trend known as ‘skiplagging’. The trend, which now attracts over 450,000 Google searches a month and regularly resurfaces on TikTok, refers to booking a flight with a connecting leg but deliberately not boarding the second leg of the flight and remaining in the connecting hub, as it can be cheaper to do so than purchasing a direct flight.
Searches for the practice have risen by 39 per cent in the past quarter, but travel experts at AllClear advise against trying it out yourself. While it may appear beneficial and cost-effective, skiplagging may violate your ticket’s terms and conditions and could lead to your return leg being cancelled by the airline.
