Extreme Daytrips: Redefining rules around holidays and how far you can travel in a day
With budget airlines booming, the development of flexible working hours and a grind-set obsession with maximising our free time, there’s been a rapidly growing travel trend that has taken hold of the United Kingdom and Europe.
This is known as extreme day tripping, and it does exactly what it says on the tin, being a no-nonsense way to see the world. Despite increased scrutiny over our carbon footprints and a global cost-of-living crisis, people are obsessing over some trips that many others would say are bonkers.
The rise of the extreme daytrip has taken the internet by storm, and for some, it’s a way to see new countries, and for others, it’s a challenge, but what’s really going on here?
An extreme day trip, or EDT, involves leaving your home country early in the morning, visiting a new destination, exploring, then flying back and spending the night sleeping in your own bed. Maximising your time abroad in the name of the game here, so we’re talking catching some seriously early doors flights. Fortunately, they’re often the cheapest, which buys into the ethos of EDTs, with airports like Luton, Stansted and Manchester becoming hugely popular, thanks to their blend of early flights and low-cost airlines, and when you don’t need a hotel at the other end, it makes travel on a budget very easy.
If you book your flights in advance, or during sales, you can get some steals, with some return flights for under £30 from the UK. That’s substantially cheaper than rail travel within the country, so it’s understandable that people within easy proximity to an airport would consider taking part in EDTs. If you look online, there are a number of thriving communities based around the concept, with a group, Extreme Day Trips on Facebook, containing 349,000 members. Cash is only part of the attraction here, with travel becoming more mundane and easier, this offers something that is usually hard to find, real adventure and a challenge.
It’s not easy to get up at the crack of dawn, spend a long day on your feet rushing around a city, and that’s before you consider all the planning, research and organisation that goes into making the most efficient use of your time. Regardless of financial constraints, there are often work and family commitments that make it hard to travel as often as people would like, and this acts as a workaround for that. This isn’t for everyone, as comments under a Reddit post about the trend describe extreme daytrips as “absolutely hellish”, “selfish”, “the embodiment of our absolutely fucked morality” and “self-centred mental illness”, but are they being too harsh?
As well as understandable criticism over the carbon footprint associated with extreme daytrips, there’s also a common criticism that it doesn’t allow enough time to properly experience a destination. That was certainly my first thought, but online comments show that many daytrippers don’t agree, saying you still have a chance to see famous landmarks, try the food, speak the language and talk to locals. While there are some cities in Europe, like Paris or Berlin, that deserve far longer than a day, there are some cities with airports in which a short stay could probably allow you to tick off all the main sights.
This is a very online trend, and the Facebook group really acts as a functioning community, despite its size. People share itineraries, ask for advice, post the latest deals on cheap flights, and review their experiences afterwards. Like all communities, there are many who take it more seriously than others, and a lot of people do multiple EDTs in a year, as well as other challenges, such as visiting multiple countries in a day or the longest distance travelled in doing so.
One thing that really shines through is that this takes a lot of effort, with preparation absolutely integral to success. Routes need to be perfect and offer minimal time between airports and the city centre, while the exploration itself needs to allow for the maximum amount of things to be seen and enjoyed, in the minimal amount of time, all of that with maybe a battery pack, passport and headphones for company.
Extreme daytrips may not offer full cultural immersion, but they offer adventure and a chance to explore new places and new cultures in a way that’s both cheap and convenient for a busy schedule. With air travel continuing to grow and develop, and the cost-of-living crisis unlikely to end anytime soon, we could well see this trend continue to grow and grow. We’re undergoing a shift in how people think about travel and their place in society, as they look to add adventure into everyday life, so maybe this is the time, set that alarm clock nice and early, pack your passport in your pocket, and go explore.
