A team retreat location either has a nonstop flight (no change of plane) from every office, or it costs someone a connection. Midway’s route data lists nonstop flights only, so it cannot time a connection. It can show how long the nonstop list is, how much it grows when one office connects, and which city that office would change planes in. This page works through four teams of four offices, in Europe, Asia-Pacific, Latin America and across three continents, with route data as of 24 October 2026.
For these four teams, when the nonstop list runs to dozens of cities, a connection buys a preference rather than access. When it is under ten, a connection widens the choice, and the extra cities almost always come at the expense of the same one or two offices. The offsite destinations cluster covers the flight-first method these examples build on.
The four teams
- Berlin, Stockholm Arlanda, Lisbon and Athens (BER, ARN, LIS, ATH)
- Singapore, Bengaluru, Ho Chi Minh City and Brisbane (SIN, BLR, SGN, BNE)
- Mexico City, Medellín, Lima and São Paulo Guarulhos (MEX, MDE, LIM, GRU)
- Washington Dulles, Manchester, Cape Town and Nairobi (IAD, MAN, CPT, NBO)
See every city Singapore, Bengaluru, Ho Chi Minh City and Brisbane all reach nonstop
What the route data shows about connections
Midway returns each destination with a nonstop flight from every airport entered, with the flight time from each. A city that needs a connection from any office does not appear. To see what a connection would add, take one airport out of the search. Every new city on the list is one the other offices reach nonstop and the removed office would connect to.
The connection itself is two nonstop flights in the data: the office to a hub, then the hub to the retreat city. Midway has a scheduled flight time for each, so the two can be added up. It has no layover time, no connection schedule and no fare for the two-flight trip, so that sum is the time in the air, not the travel time. An airport here stands for one office. Weigh the results by how many people fly from each before deciding.
Berlin, Stockholm, Lisbon and Athens
Around 60 destinations have a nonstop from all four airports in at least one month of the next twelve. The count moves with the season, from around 35 in November 2026 to around 55 in June 2027. Milan Malpensa runs all year from all four, at 1h45 from Berlin, 2h45 from Stockholm and 2h35 from Lisbon and Athens. Zurich is no more than 2h50 from any of them.
Lisbon is the office that limits the list most. Leave it out of the search and the other three share around 85 destinations, against around 70 when Berlin, Stockholm or Athens is left out instead. More than half of the cities Lisbon would connect to are in Greece, Croatia and southern Italy, including Heraklion, Rhodes, Corfu, Split and Dubrovnik. Berlin has no nonstop to Prague, Hamburg or Kraków in Midway’s data, so those three appear only when Berlin is out. The shortest flight pairs to Prague, through Frankfurt or Munich, add up to 2h00 in the air.
Each of the four office cities is also reachable nonstop from the other three, all year. A retreat in Berlin is 1h35 from Stockholm, 3h30 from Lisbon and 2h55 from Athens, with no flight at all for the Berlin office.
Singapore, Bengaluru, Ho Chi Minh City and Brisbane
Eight destinations have a nonstop from all four airports, and all eight run every month: Bali, Kuala Lumpur, Hong Kong, Tokyo Narita, Bangkok, Sydney, Dubai and Doha. Bali has the shortest longest flight, 6h50 from Bengaluru, against 2h35 from Singapore, 4h00 from Ho Chi Minh City and 6h05 from Brisbane.
Leave Brisbane or Bengaluru out and the list more than doubles, to around 20. Leave out Singapore or Ho Chi Minh City and it gains nothing beyond that office’s own city. So every city that one connection adds is a city Brisbane or Bengaluru would connect to. Phuket shows the trade. It is nonstop from Singapore in 1h50, Bengaluru in 3h40 and Ho Chi Minh City in 1h55, all year. Brisbane has no nonstop to it, and its shortest flight pair, through Singapore, is 8h00 and 1h50, or 9h50 in the air before the layover. Bali is 6h05 from Brisbane, nonstop.
Singapore and Ho Chi Minh City are each reachable nonstop from the other three offices. Singapore is 4h50 from Bengaluru, 2h00 from Ho Chi Minh City and 8h00 from Brisbane. Bengaluru and Brisbane have no nonstop between them, so a retreat in either city means a connection for the other.
Mexico City, Medellín, Lima and São Paulo
Nine destinations have a nonstop from all four airports, all year: Bogotá, Panama City, Punta Cana, Santiago, Miami, Buenos Aires Ezeiza, New York JFK, Houston and Madrid. Bogotá has the shortest longest flight, 5h50 from São Paulo, against 4h45 from Mexico City, 0h55 from Medellín and 3h15 from Lima.
Leave Medellín or São Paulo out and the list nearly doubles, to around 15. Leave out Mexico City or Lima and it gains one city besides that office’s own: Aruba without Mexico City, Orlando without Lima. Cartagena is one of the cities São Paulo would connect to. It is nonstop from Mexico City in 4h00, Medellín in 1h10 and Lima in 3h45. The shortest flight pair from São Paulo goes through Bogotá, at 5h50 and 1h30. Bogotá is itself on the shared list, so the city where São Paulo changes planes is one the whole team reaches nonstop.
See which cities Mexico City, Medellín, Lima and São Paulo share in a given month
Mexico City and Lima are each reachable nonstop from the other three offices. Lima is 6h00 from Mexico City, 3h05 from Medellín and 5h00 from São Paulo. Medellín and São Paulo have no nonstop between them.
Washington, Manchester, Cape Town and Nairobi
Seven destinations have a nonstop from all four airports: Amsterdam, Doha, Dubai, Frankfurt, Istanbul, London Heathrow and Paris Charles de Gaulle. From June to September 2027 the list is six, because the Cape Town flight to Paris runs from October to May. Istanbul has the shortest longest flight, 10h55 from Cape Town, against 9h00 from Washington, 4h00 from Manchester and 6h35 from Nairobi.
Leave Cape Town out and the other three share 13 destinations. Without Nairobi they share 10, without Manchester 8, and without Washington 7, the same as with it. Any city off those seven means a connection for at least one office.
No office city is reachable nonstop from the other three. Cape Town comes closest, at 14h25 from Washington and 5h45 from Nairobi. A retreat there leaves Manchester to connect, and its shortest flight pair, through Amsterdam, is 1h15 and 11h15. Manchester reaches none of the other three offices nonstop, so a retreat there means a connection for all three.
The four teams side by side
| Offices | Nonstop for all four, all year | Office whose absence adds the most | Office cities nonstop from the other three | Shortest longest flight on the nonstop list |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Berlin, Stockholm, Lisbon, Athens | ~60 | Lisbon (~85 without it) | All four | Milan Malpensa, 2h45 from Stockholm |
| Singapore, Bengaluru, Ho Chi Minh City, Brisbane | 8 | Brisbane or Bengaluru (~20 without either) | Singapore, Ho Chi Minh City | Bali, 6h50 from Bengaluru |
| Mexico City, Medellín, Lima, São Paulo | 9 | Medellín or São Paulo (~15 without either) | Mexico City, Lima | Bogotá, 5h50 from São Paulo |
| Washington Dulles, Manchester, Cape Town, Nairobi | 7 | Cape Town (13 without it) | None | Istanbul, 10h55 from Cape Town |
Counts of 15 or more are rounded to the nearest 5. Smaller counts are exact. Flight times are the shortest scheduled nonstop over the next twelve months, rounded to 5 minutes. Midway route data as of 24 October 2026.
When a connection is worth it
A connection is easiest to justify when the nonstop list is short and only one office has to change planes. For the Washington, Manchester, Cape Town and Nairobi team, the nonstop list is seven hubs, and a retreat anywhere else costs at least one office a connection. Choosing which office connects is then the decision, and rotating it between retreats spreads the cost. The remote team retreat planning guide sets the usual standard at 80 to 90% of headcount flying nonstop.
Before accepting one, check two things in the data. First, look at where the connecting office changes planes. If that city is on the shared list, as Bogotá is for São Paulo, the whole team could meet there with no connection at all. Then add the two flights and compare the total with that office’s nonstop flight to a city on the shared list. Phuket costs Brisbane 9h50 in the air plus a layover, against 6h05 nonstop to Bali.
A long nonstop list makes a connection hard to defend. The European team has around 60 cities without one. A connection there is probably best treated as a cost to show next to the city, priced before the vote with the offsite flight cost method.
Limits of the route data
Midway’s route data covers the 600 busiest airports in the world over the next twelve months. It lists nonstop flights and the months each one runs, not the days of the week. It has nothing on layovers, connection times, missed-connection risk, trains or the fare for a two-flight trip. The price lookup in the table shows the cheapest direct round-trip from Kayak, so a connecting fare has to be searched separately.
Enter your offices’ airports in Midway to see every city all of them reach nonstop, then take one airport out at a time to see what a connection would add. The list does not know which office connected last time, and on a recurring retreat that usually settles it.