I like to build in long connections at HKG so I have time to head into the city for a few hours.

Last year I flew SFO-HKG-AKL, with a 6am arrival in HKG and 930pm departure.

Took a shower in the arrivals lounge and left my carry-on at the left-luggage office. Hopped on the Airport Express train and grabbed an espresso at Fuel Espresso in the IFC. After that, I took the MTR into the New Territories and explored the Ping Shan Heritage Trail, grabbing a pineapple bun along the way.

Back towards Central for a lunch of roast duck on rice at Joy Hing, then over to the Wan Chai immigration office to register for eChannel. More coffee after that—Omotesando Koffee, the HK outpost of the legendary Tokyo cafe. Relaxed a bit after that with a foot and shoulder massage. Finally, I topped off the day with some egg tarts and a few beers at the Beer Bay on the harbor before hopping back on the train and enjoying a few hours in the CX lounges.

I'm lamenting the new airport's distance from the city center, since I liked taking the metro to Yenikapı, then the Marmaray to Kadıköy, then walking to Kuzguncuk.

I tried to do this in Shanghai (flight arrived at 6 AM and next flight would depart at 3 PM) but the transit counter denied my request to leave the airport.

[MENTION=43606]milepig[/MENTION] - I would love to hear about Leiden. I'm taking the family to the Netherlands in a couple of weeks, and we've decided to base in Leiden for the week.

But back to the original topic, the "micro visits" are one of my favorite things to do. I just try to get enough of a feel for the place to know how soon I want to come back and how much time to invest there, and get one or two good photos! I've done a few places in SE Asia (SIN, BKK, DPS, NRT), Doha, a number in Western Europe, and PTY and EZE.

The city for an hour - Tallinn, Riga, Vilnius, Stockholm. Beautiful places, but not interesting. In Istanbul I was twice for several hours, but this year I plan to go there with my family for a few days.
I liked this city.

I spent 12 hours in Taipei. TPE has lockers outside of security where I stored my carry-on. Then it was an easy train ride to the city, and I had time to see Taipei 101 and have lunch at Din Tai Fun. I could have found more stuff to do but it was raining and I was pretty exhausted, so I just headed back to TPE and waited for my flight.

In retrospect I should have found something else to do - I was not a fan of TPE at all.

I spent about 15 minutes in Qatar. I got my Visa at the airport walked out of the airport in to the heat, fought with my husband then went back inside to the airport lounge.

Had 19 hours in JNB on a crazy (cheap) J class jaunt CMB-BOM-JNB-LHR(stop)-PHX.... Grabbed a car...went to the Lion Park. Morning to evening in VIE (on a US miles redemption JFK- BRU-VIE-BKK-SYD) Went to the Heeresgeschichtliche - the Austrian War Musuem… NRT...long layover....went to the Temple complex. Thoroughly enjoyed all those mini visits.

Also spent 4 hours wandering around Diego Garcia - British Indian Ocean Territory... but that was a refuelling stop on the way to the Persian Gulf...by sea. Was amusing to see the BIOT Police with the proper "Bobbys" helmets. (But short sleeves due to climate!)

There's a big difference between just ticking the box and genuinely experiencing a place. I track that by using color coded pins in my map! I chose a handful of categories describing the extent of my visits ranging from "hours" to "months/years".

Macau, Honolulu and Seoul.

Some 20 years ago most EU countries dropped the visa requirements for my impoverished post-communist homeland. I had something like a 3 hour connection in Vienna but lined up at passport control so that I could experience a visa free border crossing abroad for the first time. Took a photo in front of the airport and then went back in. A five-minute visit to (not even) Vienna but most memorable... repeated it in Milan a year or so later but it wasn't the same.

In the early days of easyJet, and when I lived 30 minutes from London Gatwick I could get a day trip
to Germany for the princely sum of around £24.
Flying to Cologne, it enabled me to have a long day in either there or Bonn (or both).

I have a 12 layover in Taipei coming up and it's a toss up between going into
the city or booking a day room and I think the day room will win

In 2015, my wife and I did LAX-JFK-LHR-FCO. I arrived at 7:30 am at LHR and flew out a 8pm (on Alitalia, but of course that was late). We stored our carry-on at one of the storage facilities.

In 2014, my wife and I did LAX-AMS-CDG with 8 hours at AMS. Stored our carry-on in the lockers and took the train downtown, wandered around, had lunch.

I do this very often in Europe. Have done it in LHR, CDG, FCO, MUC, VIE, AMS, ZRH, BRU, WAW - some multiple times.

I have done this whenever I've had the chance, usually in Europe (LHR, FRA, MUC, ZRH, IST) while connecting between USA and India.

On one trip I went IAD-FRA-BKK-SIN-BLR, and returned BLR-BKK-LHR-FRA-AMS-EWR. Spent a few hours in every transit city.