You have to factor in the cost of the hotel if it's an overnight layover, meals, transport to and from the airport. It can add up. I always think about flying those Scandi budget airlines and then realize how much a night in Copenhagen would run.

I don’t mind budget hotels. These days with internet reviews it’s easy enough to find good ones.

We're French, go to Paris regularly, and have done Icelandair with a stop at Reykjavik more times than we've done a direct flight. We've also stopped in Dublin. I would rather do those stops than go to a budget hotel. Of course, we sleep at my parents, but when we travel across France, we don't do budget hotels. I need comfort to be able to sleep.

Anonymous wrote:I would use the 16 hours to visit the city. There are no direct flights from US to many smaller countries. Normal to have to take two planes. Never missed a connection. Once they even waited for me.
I would not go traveling if my budget was so tight. I'd double my money throught investing and then go.

You are very lucky that you’ve never missed a connection. But it’s really only the long flight I’d worry about - once you are in Europe, they’ll be ways to get where you are going.

Anonymous wrote:I would use the 16 hours to visit the city. There are no direct flights from US to many smaller countries. Normal to have to take two planes. Never missed a connection. Once they even waited for me.
I would not go traveling if my budget was so tight. I'd double my money throught investing and then go.

Same. I am a very frequent traveler to Europe.

You can book a day rate at many hotel airports and take a long nap.

I would use the 16 hours to visit the city. There are no direct flights from US to many smaller countries. Normal to have to take two planes. Never missed a connection. Once they even waited for me.
I would not go traveling if my budget was so tight. I'd double my money throught investing and then go.

Budget hotel because I have found amazing budget hotels in Europe. In general I think there are more and better options at every price point in most European cities/countries than you can find in the US.

If you post your destination(s) we could probably give you suggestions for affordable accomodations.

I always preference flying direct because every connection multiplies the chances of something going wrong (not just with the flight but also with luggage).

Where’s the 16 hour layover?

Also depends on how many people I’m traveling with and their ages.

Depends on the budget hotel, but I’d rather fly direct

It depends on the layover and which airports.

How much different is the cost of the flight?

Neither.

It depends how much time you have. I prefer direct flights, it makes things so much easier but then if it’s triple I might consider a flight with a stop. But won’t consider a 16 hour layover, it’s just too much, unless I decide to make it longer and make a destination out of it. I don’t book expensive hotels either, unless there is a feature like private beach that we’d actually be spending our days at the hotel.

I’m no stranger to budget hotels but I always fly direct. I’m tossing up the idea of a flight with 1-2 layovers. One layover may be 16hr. Destination would be in Europe.