Jonathan and I are traveling again for a work trip but we have a long layover in Istanbul - one of my top 10 most fave cities!!

We’re flying with Turkish Airlines as it’s the most convenient airline to get in and out of Montenegro then with a connecting flight via Istanbul.

And the best thing here is that if you have a more than 12 hours layover then Turkish Airlines would give you a FREE HOTEL and return Airport shuttle service.. but for Filipinos like us, we need a visa to get out of Turkey.

You also need a negative PCR test and wear a mask everywhere

I have a Valid USA and UK visa (and if you have Schengen and Ireland) then I was able to get a Turkey e-visa for $20 that could even be done at the airport

We’ve been flying with Turkish since 2015 and always love the service. If you fly Economy then you’d stay in a 4-star hotel during your layover and if Business Class then at the 5 Star hotel which is usually the Renaissance Polat Istanbul Hotel) Thanks to Mr. Serhan of TK Podgorica for always assisting us on all of our upcoming trips

Time to explore and can you guess where is our final destination? We both have never been to our next country!

It’s going to be the 144th country I visited on my Philippines passport. If you guess it right then I’ll try to send you a postcard from there (if not, I’ll ship it from Montenegro when we get home!). Haha! Comment below!

Here’s the link to Turkish Airline’s long layover perks.

Our article on how to get a Turkey Visa for Pinoys.

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P.S. To some righteous people who are telling us NOT to travel, we travel for WORK and this is what we do for a living (we need to earn money at some point again, we're travel bloggers and I bet you know that). We lost a lot of work since last year and mostly stayed in Montenegro. Refused to go since we knew it wasn’t safe.. now, I think Jonathan and I are both very responsible and been following all the protocols. We also both have negative PCR tests for this. Our trips are private so limited contacts too.

Our upcoming trips are coordinated with tourism boards/ gov't officials and some countries won't even let you in for just "leisure reasons".