What places have you been

What places have you been to but didn't spend anytime there? Like a stopover. Overnighters not included. And everytime you may have stopped there, you have been meaning to revisit it one day?
I can think of three places I used to stop over and eventually got to visit, like DETROIT, another was San Francisco, another was HNL and even MIAMI. I have stopped over in SLC, Denver and Seattle but have yet to visit those places. NRT is another place, though I've been to other parts in Japan. I've driven past other cities that I never visited, like INDIANAPOLIS, CHATANOOGA for instance. Ive flown in and out of HKG a dozen times, alot due to working ETOPS there, but never spend any time there.

Let's see... I've been to California many times before, 9 times at SFO alone. Plus other layovers in LAX and SAN. But stepping outside of the airport and doing more than just maybe staying at a hotel? I can think of a trip to SAN, LGB (flew to LAX) for a day followed by SFO for a day, a trip to SFO, and I flew to SMF to take a side trip to RNO. So not quite "never visited" but a pretty big imbalance between layover and visiting. Plus, it took a while for me to actually do those trips.

To really address your question, I've got these cities on my "airport only" list:
SEA
OGG
PHX
OKC (unless you count a very short stretch/possibly dinner break on a separate road trip a while back)
FSD
RST (not counting driving through a few times since then)
CLE (not counting driving through at night several years before)
BTV
MAD
FRA (ok, I got a hotel here, took a bit of train/walking to get to)
LHR (ditto, but with a shuttle)

I can barely say I've been to, or returned to later:
PDX (flew to EUG, drove to PDX with friends, stayed the night and flew from there)
SLC (layover once, then training years later)
DEN now home)
OMA (had a few hotel stays here when driving DEN-MSP, plus dinner)
CVG (just a side trip for the day from IND)

Kind of amusing, I had a layover in CVG a while back, but their airport is in Kentucky. For years I was able to say that I had a layover in CVG, but have never set foot in Ohio. When I was in Cincinnati with the wife, we crossed the border in the car, and she commented that I still haven't technically "set foot" outside the airport yet. We were at a stoplight, so I opened my door, put my foot on the ground, then back in the car, and closed the door again. Tada! :-P

Taiwan was another wierd stopover because this lady was pumping out a kid, we had to stop in Taiwan due to the emergency while on our way to HKG. I was a flight mechanic at that time on an etops flight. Never really got to see it or visit it since. Iwo Jima, swam ashore, took good pictures, had one beer for a toast, maybe total of 1 hour on island, then back to the ship. Flying into Washington National Airport, you are technically in Virginia, not Washington DC. Go over a bridge and you can be in Maryland. There is probably alot more, like Madiera, where we pulled into the harbor, spend the whole day but were working and no launch service, it was only for picking up military personell. Fueling only in UAE in Persian Gulf. Floating by Socorro Island, Malta, Morroco, many many more places.

I guess as a traveller you are destined to make alot more layovers and short stopovers to get to your destination you are planning on being there longer.

Oh! I forgot about one other flight I've done a handful of times. When I worked in Wisconsin, our RON (remain overnight, not Rondon, Colombia) flight stopped in CWA on its way from ORD, ditto on the way back the next morning. I've taken that flight home a few nights, never left the plane until I flew to CWA when my late mother-in-law had surgery. And even then, I went straight to Marshfield, WI.

Not to mention with today's long range aircraft, stops I'm sure are becoming less than before. Narita will always be an Asian hub so I doubt points to Asia will change much. I know there are direct flights to Hong Kong, Beijing, and Seoul. Layovers are becoming less frequent. I remember Miami being a big pit stop for all points to Latin America. Now they go directly from New York, Houston, Dallas, Atlanta. From Asia and to Asia, I've gone directly from SFO, SEATAC, DETROIT, ORD, LOS ANGELES, EWR, HNL. Seatac is the only place I've never overnighted or visited.

Very true too. One of my majors was in geography, and I loved doing the computer mapping stuff (with lots of analytical tools). I've been meaning to try out some kind of project to figure out the reasoning behind many long-haul flights out there. Things like all the Polish people in Chicago and that ORD is the only US destination outside of JFK. Or that TAP Portugal flies to Angola, a former Portuguese colony.

Maybe someday :)

Kahalui, Maui (OGG)
Keflavik, Iceland (KEF)
Gunnison, CO (GUC)
Montrose, CO (MTJ)
Grand Junction, CO (GJT)
Rapid City, SD (RAP)

I actually have a different color pin on my "places I've visted map" for cities I've only flown through and not actually visited. Off the top of my head that includes:

CVG
BRU
COS
MIA
SJU
DTW
DFW
PHX

There are quite a few cities I've done very quick trips to such as just staying for a night where I ventured into the city for a couple of hours but the above places are places I never left the airport.

Interesting to have a map with colored pins to describe places you've been and places you've only been to the airport. You can imagine being on ship and sailing by islands, oceans, and actually being in a part of the world physically walking about under the sun that has no description of a place, just an ocean. Like going across the Atlantic and Pacific Ocean, that is very vast. Different climates and different skies. I have been to the Indian Ocean, Pacific, Atlantic, Caribbean, East China Sea, Sea of Japan, Mediteranean Sea, Straights of Gibraltar, Panama Canal, Suez Canal, many different bays, straits, channels, so it's hard to say I've been to these different countries without mentioning the parts and regions and oceans I've been to. Not to mention flying over regions like the North Pole and Greenland. Shipping differes from flying in that, in a plane you are in an enclosed craft pressurized in above clouds altitude. Shipping, you are right there experiencing the current climate at your location, feeling the elements, working under the sun, or walking on deck. You are actually physically in that environment no matter where the ship sails.

Hmm...road trips to fix broken planes count? If so, BRU, ZRH, ATH all count. Never left the airport on any of these. Back in my US days when I was a lead mechanic on internationals, I sucked every road trip possible.

Damn, I miss that overtime!

If you wanna talk field trips, how about Gulfport MS, LaCrosse Wisconsin, Alexandria Louisiana, Amarillo Tx, other places I've fixed planes at like SJO, GUA, Norflolk VA, Pope Airfield NC but I've been to those previously . Like for example, I was in Norfolk with the USMC at Little Creek, and in NC at Lejune, Costa Rica and Guatemala before I went there on field trip.

What the hell were you doing in LSE? :)

I was getting some Wisconsin cheese. I sent you a PM to tell you what I was REALLY doing at LSE.