Excursions in transit or where the tourist will be offered a free trip during the connection of flights?

Flights with a “long” transfer – not the most favorite offer from tourists. However, at some airports, “being stuck” for a few hours may be an added bonus to travel, because a number of air ports offer tourists not only endless rows of duty-free shops and cafes, but also free educational tours, thanks to which you can replenish your traveler’s collection with one more destination point, often very nontrivial.

But let’s start with the familiar hub of our tourists – Istanbul Ataturk Airport. Here, free tours of Istanbul, however, are available only to tourists of flights of the Turkish national carrier “Turkish Airlines” and provided that they wait for a transfer from six hours to days. By the way, including this concerns transfers from domestic flights. In order to get on a free tour of Istanbul, tourists will need a passport, boarding pass, as well as some luck – after all, you must have time to register a tour before it starts. Trips start at 8:30, the duration is different, from two hours or more. The tour includes all the main attractions of Istanbul – Aya Sofia, the Blue Mosque, Topkapi Palace, Galata Tower, Taksim Square, etc. Sometimes a tourist can get on an alternative water excursion – in this case he will be rolled on a boat along the Bosphorus. What is important – the program can also include a cursory acquaintance with Turkish gastronomy, as a rule – a rather hearty Turkish breakfast and a three-course lunch in one of the cafes in the center of Istanbul.

Often, our tourists, traveling to the countries of Southeast Asia or Africa, stop for a transfer in the Qatari city of Doha. True, the problem is that without a visa, tourists can only be in the transit zone of the airport. But if it is available, and when transplanting for more than five hours, you can try to go on a free tour of Doha.

However, it is worth noting that the capacity of such excursions in Qatar is limited – registration for a tour opens two hours before the start of the excursion and is only 45 minutes long, and the number of places is limited to 22. In total, four excursions take place during which tourists can see the cultural Qatar Village, Old Market, Qatar’s Pearl and the Museum of Islamic Art.

But for excursions from two airports in Southeast Asia, Russian tourists will not need a visa at all. For example, if tourists from 5.5 hours to days wait for their flight at Singapore Changi airport, the administration of this air harbor, in addition to other “lures”, can offer a free tour of Singapore. At the same time two routes are offered at once – a tour of the sights of Singapore (City Sights Tour) or a heritage tour (Heritage Tour). Tourists will be shown as ethnic quarters of Singapore, such as Chinatown and Little India, as well as modern sights, such as the Marina Bay Hotel, one of the modern symbols of Singapore. Tours are held daily, five in all, from nine in the morning until 18.30, each lasting two hours. Tourists need a passport and boarding pass. Registration is available at a special stand in the transit zone an hour before the tour.

Enlighten tourists offer and at the airport of the capital of South Korea, though for a nominal fee of $ 10. In this case, the choice offered several options for tours of Seoul, which takes from an hour to five. During tours of Seoul, you can see Incheon Bridge, Gyeongbokgung Palace, markets, temples and natural attractions. At the same time, you can sign up for an excursion both at the airport at the counter and via the Internet.

Of course, all offers are not limited to this – either Taiwan airport, Narita airport in Tokyo (with a transit visa), Salt Lake City in the USA, etc. offer free or almost free tours. If the tourist is willing to part with a more serious amount – the circle, of course, expands. For example, if there is a valid Schengen and the willingness to part from about 40 euros per hour for a three-person “accommodation”, a tourist can ensure a tour of Paris.