Save money and see the world with stopover flights

On our way back to SOuth Africa from Australia, we opted for a stopover at the magnificent Viceroy Abu Dhabi hotel - worth every cent and a must for all Formula 1 fans like us

A relatively new search engine to look for nice stopover experiences when flying is Airwander. The purpose of this page is to travel more by adding stopovers that allows you to discover more of the world while on your way to and from your destination. More often than not, these stopover flights are cheaper than non-stop flights, and you get to see places that your normally would not. This works best when you do not have a preferred airline because adding stopovers for less often requires the use of regional airlines (which can be challenging and adventurous).

When using the Airwander page to search for nice and affordable stopovers, do not change the currency to South African Rand. Keep it in US Dollar of Euro or Pound (I usually keep it in US Dollar and convert later to our currency). For some strange reason, when changing the currency to our Rand, some Internet pages start to act strangely. I saw this also when searching for hotel rooms, and it is even true for large hotels that have South African interests, like the Hilton group. If the currency is in US Dollars, there are 15-20 options on the page, but change the currency to Rand and suddenly there are no rooms available. Why providing such an option then, we all ask but as you know, there are no answers to such questions.

Keep in mind the time of year when you search for stopovers. In some places, winter can be a challenge if you are stuck in a small city due to a snowstorm and unable to get to your destination in time. Other places, like the United Arab Emirates, is much cheaper during their summer months than during their winter time. Talking about the UAE, I just got the call for papers fro the 4th International Conference on Humanities, Social Sciences and Education (ICHSSE-17), and the due date is the 1st of January - so not much time if you want to present at this conference on March 13-14, in Dubai.