If you want to make the most of your trip and have a long layover you have options of going out into the city and taking a tour. Donna and I took an extra tour of Lisbon, Portugal when we had a 15 hour layover on the way to Barcelona, Spain. It was a great tour, we learned and saw a lot and beat some of the time at the airport. While you can make your own tour like we did you also have other options that include local guides provided by airlines. Here is an article going over some of those options: https://www.cntraveler.com/gallery/how-to-make-the-most-of-your-layover?mbid=social_facebook_aud_dev  

Budapest and Hungary are great places to visit. We took a day trip from Vienna to Budapest. Its a beautiful place with interesting churches, squares, fountains, museums and an interesting culture. There are many other things you can do in Hungary and I saw this interesting article that goes over other cities you can visit that have interesting sites in Hungary close to Budapest. https://www.cnn.com/travel/article/budapest-day-trips/index.html

The longest flights have been making the news a lot lately with new flights to Australia and Singapore breaking records but there are some extremely short flights out there. I have been on a couple of short flights back with Continental flew from Hobby and Ellington to Bush Intercontinental airport. It was around a 15-20 minute flight. Here is an interesting article on some of the other short flights in the world: https://www.cnn.com/travel/article/world-shortest-air-routes/index.html  

When you fly you can see all kind of different paint liveries for the different airlines. Donna and I have flown on a few special painted planes before like a plane painted like the State of Maryland’s flag, Shamu, the Triple Crown plane and others. If you watch closely at the airport you might be able to catch one of those special planes. Here is an interesting article about some of the unique planes that are out there in the world: https://www.cnn.com/travel/article/best-aircraft-livery-design/index.html    

Donna and I have been on quite a few cruise ships overtime. Some are huge ships like the Carnival Vista and the Norwegian Breakaway. Others have been fairly small such as the Norwegian Spirit and the Carnival Fascination. The huge ships do offer more activities such as screens on deck by the pool, I-Max theaters, sky ride bikes, and many other things but small ships can be great too by giving you the chance to meet new people easier and they are less crowded. This is an interesting article on the largest ships in the world: https://www.cnn.com/travel/article/worlds-biggest-cruise-ships/index.html  

A really interesting article on some of the most extreme airports in the world. From the Northern most airport to southern most airport there are many out there that the average traveler doesn’t encounter. I have been to some of the busiest airports in the world but I have not been to many that are exotic just yet.   https://www.cnn.com/travel/article/most-extreme-airports-world/index.html  

Viking cruises is now offering an around the world 245 day cruise. That would be a dream trip to me but the price tag of $90,000+ is a little too steep for me. We can all dream though right? http://www.foxnews.com/travel/2018/05/04/viking-cruises-announces-245-day-long-ultimate-world-cruise.html    

An interesting article about a country you do not usually hear a lot about when talking travel to Europe. When traveling to Europe you will find many of the smaller countries have just as much appeal as the well known nations. Donna and I traveled to Bratislava, Slovakia and it was a very nice place to tour (its not anything like the movie Hostel portrays). I would like to see Serbia one day. https://www.cnn.com/travel/article/serbia-best-places-to-visit/index.html