You already paid for the flight.
The extra country is sitting in the fine print.
Airlines will hand you a free week in Iceland, a paid-for hotel in Istanbul, or fifteen days in Panama, on the ticket you were buying anyway. Most travelers click past the button. We read the fine print, verify it, and date every fact.
Every free-stopover airline, comparedOne table. What is truly free, what is not, and the catch on each.
The DIY methodNo program? Build your own stopover on any airline with multi-city pricing.
Stuck with a long layover right now?Whether you can leave the airport, by hub, for US passports.
Start with your situation
I have a long layover comingCity guides by the hours you actually have: Doha, Istanbul, Tokyo, 10 more.
I'm still booking the tripThe 11 airline programs that add a country for free, rules verified.
I just have questionsVisas, luggage, connection times, layover vs stopover.
Why trust this site
Airline stopover rules change quietly and most articles about them are years stale. Every page here carries a last verified date, and the facts trace to the airline's own pages. When something is pending or unclear, we say so instead of rounding up. That is the whole editorial policy.