After taking a budget trip in 2024 that routed through several European cities for roughly €100 total, I became really interested in finding more itineraries built around longer stopovers instead of stressful short layovers.
The route I flew was:
Bucharest → Bergamo → Faro → London → Bucharest
What I enjoyed most was being able to spend actual time in each destination rather than simply connecting through airports.
I started trying to search for similar multi-city loops using Google Flights, but it became frustrating because I still had to manually combine all the flight segments myself.
So I ended up building a small side project called penguinhops.com to help find these types of routes automatically.
The tool searches for low-cost round-trip loops with multiple stops in between. Example itinerary:
Bucharest → Malta → Milan → Catania → Bologna → Bucharest
June 2026 · observed fare around €81 total
Current features include:
Searches loops with 1 to 4 stops
Focuses on budget airline routes
Includes a filter that aligns the cheapest available dates in chronological order so the displayed fare is realistically bookable
Currently supports departure cities including Bucharest, Sofia, Lisbon, Athens, Rome, Milan, Madrid, Barcelona, Warsaw, and Budapest
Right now the search is limited to June 2026, but more months and cities are planned
The project is currently free to use, with no ads or paywall.
I’d really appreciate feedback from frequent budget travelers:
Is anything confusing?
What features would improve it?
Would this actually be useful for planning trips?
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