Why the Layover Is the New Vacation

No, you’re not imagining it. Everybody really is going to Iceland these days. More than a million people visited in 2015, outnumbering residents four to one. And many of them came for free. Well, kind of. Courtesy of Icelandair, travelers on their way to mainland Europe can spend an extended stopover in Iceland for up to a week at no extra charge. It’s a clever strategy: When visitors realize the country is great, they tell, tweet, and Snap their friends, who get jealous and then spend real money on real (though still pretty cheap) tickets straight there. And now other airlines are doing the same. From Toronto to Lisbon, the layover-as-vacation is taking off. The airline Copa now offers free connections in Panama City, and Qatar Airways includes a free guided city tour of the I. M. Pei–designed Museum of Islamic Art in Doha if you’re passing through. These destinations lack the star power of, say, London or Rome, but they do have nice hotels, buzzy restaurants, and solid public transportation options (or at least Uber). Plus you’ll look cool for going someplace your friends hadn’t even considered. Not yet, anyway.