Some airports hold and some-Frankfurt is a good example just extend the downwind leg -before they got the extra runway that extension could be very long indeed so you could see the 'field' off to the side at about 10,000ft but probably didn't land for another 20 minutes while you went half way to Stuttgart and back . Not possible at LHR due to all the other airports and traffic but works well at Frankfurt where people were spared the going around in circles experience and don't in general realise whats going on.
Arlanda in Stockholm has situation where because of geography almost all flights arrive from the south and so rather than hold they slow everyone down over along distance and separate them in trail as the head for the turn onto finals like long drawn out queue . Singapore have their own version where you go for another trip around the island when its busy and again its less obvious the racetrack patterns. Horses for courses as they say but a lot depends on geography/traffic patterns and nearby airports or lack of.
When its extremely busy LHR (Someone will no doubt correct me if I am wrong on this) sometimes use high level or 'en route' holds where inbounds are held at points on the approach path like Southampton or one of the Lambourne inbound waypoints at say 15000 ft and above because the normal holds can get full and for ATC reasons can only operate between certain altitudes, as the stacks empty aircraft are released for these points only to pick up another hold-the normal one closer to the field.
On 'the' Sept 11 I spent 6 hours in one such hold over Lands End before returning to Gatwick from where we had originally departed-a nice sunny day and some nice scenery on part of the track but the novelty, and the view, did wear off after a while-like the first hour lol
PB