Am I being unreasonable to think extreme day trips are excessive?

I think they’re great. You don’t have to spend days somewhere to see a few sights, have some interesting food, absorb the vibe. It’s like going to any city for a day.

I think it’s fine and sounds like a lot of fun if that’s your style. There are limitations but there are also advantages and why shouldn’t people have a sense of adventure. It’s the more frequent flyer carbon footprint that I worry about - assuming that most day trippers are likely to take more than one or two trips per year.

Commercial air travel accounts for 2-2.5% of total co2 emissions. It’s about 3.5% of all greenhouse gases. Even if it all stopped tomorrow it wouldn’t make a difference.

I think YABU.

There’s spending a week in a place and experiencing every little part of it, and there’s going and seeing what you can and having a good time. I’m off on holiday soon and I’ll be using one place as my “base”, and taking various day trips. I won’t be seeing every single thing that I could if I spent a week in each place, but I also know I won’t be getting the opportunity to spend a week in each place any time soon. So do what you can.

Living on the south coast, I've done countless day trips into France and Belgium in the car. How is that different to a day in a UK city 3 hours away? First one was when I was 9 with school. Early 1980s, so it's not a new thing.

Ryanair flights were pence in the late 90s, so I did a few day trips then. Great days out.

"Extreme" day trips are nothing new. They've just been rebranded for the socials.

The plane is only leaving because there's the medium-term demand for that number of flights. Obviously when people fly less, airlines reduce the number of flights!

I spent some time with Holocaust researchers and one told me when she taught down in London a school would take a group of kids to Auschwitz for the day then come home that night. I was completely baffled by this and thought it was crazy, not in the least because hostels in Poland are cheap as chips but there you go.

As an extreme day-tripper, I’m going to say I disagree. I travel from a regional European airport on a 7 am flight to London/Paris wherever. Travelling luggage free means I can safely turn up 1 hour before departure there. The last visit was to the Second Life exhibition at Tate Modern so met a friend for breakfast, went to the gallery and exhibition, met a relative for an early dinner and got the 9 pm flight home. I was in my bed by midnight. I wasn’t even the only person on my flight doing it.

I’m OK with it, and I always have a day with a purpose to it. It’s also OK to not do it.

I can see why people would enjoy the novelty of a few hours in a city a long way from home. When the Eurostar started and I lived not too far from Waterloo, I went over to Paris for lunch and shopping a few times.

I fell strongly that we should be minimising how much we fly, given what we now understand about its environmental impact. The idea of a return flight in an aeroplane just to be a tourist for a few hours is somewhat distasteful.

People do it because it's often cheaper than driving down the road or taking the train in the UK, OP. That's because trains are way too expensive, flights are too cheaper, and Britain often is a rip off.

Ignore that. Either show up late, after all the baggage-laden passengers have queued to check in, or early and kill the two hours in the duty-free area.

Nah. I did loads of day trips when I could easily get to Gatwick. Didn't even need an early start to get a bit of shopping in, loaf around cafés, have dinner and a few drinks. Back around midnight, relaxed and happy.

Last day trip I did was Lisbon, the one before was Barcelona. Love both cities and am very sorry I now live too far from a useful airport.

XH1 and I used to drive over to France or Belgium for the day. Change of scenery, fabulous food, practise some French or Flemish.

Oh, and I once went to Caracas (from Brazil) for a party 😆

Didn't take any photos or have Instagram!

Cork is on my to do list and I should be able to get a return for about £30-40.

I've been to Dublin a few times for work so seen most of the 'walking around highlights' already so less interested in that.

In Ireland I'd expect you have to be near Dublin (or Belfast?) to have good options, I don’t know if there's ever enough flights from other Irish airports?

I'd have thought your best bet would be Paris, Brussels, Alicante, Milan or Palma from Dublin as they seem to be the most common ones from the UK, even from smaller airports. Also Barcelona or Malaga. Possibly also Polish cities like Gdansk or Warsaw.

You often need to combine airlines eg go out in the morning with Ryanair and back in the evening with Aer Lingus, or whoever else operates from Ireland, Jet2 and Easyjet use Belfast I think?

Not sure if it counts but we've done this in the uk all the time. Mostly visiting ds1 who lives 4 hours drive away but we've done other stuff too, day trip to butlins etc. Accommodation is so expensive, we save a fortune.

Plane is leaving regardless so may as well thumb a lift while you can. I have done a few although being in Ireland and going to nice places in the UK for a day is small fry compared to some I have seen but have had some fantastic experiences very cheaply.

Well, fortunately for you, no one is forcing you to go on them.

I’ve done a few European ones, and had a blast!
mainly for a day out with family or friends, cheaper than many uk activities and in the sun, a nice day on the beach and seeing something a bit different.

May do a Dublin one but prices are much higher than when I went - aim to get flights under £50 return, use public transport while out there and spend under £100 per person all in.

And politically near impossible

As long as no one forces you to go, I don’t see the problem.

If you're in the UK, I think that's about nine hours flight!

Selfish pricks who only care about themselves and the gram. Pathetic

I’ve done them through necessity rather than for pleasure when one of my dc was studying abroad and it just made it easier doing day visits than arranging overnight childcare for the others while I was away. I can see some of the benefits though . It’s nice travelling with no real luggage, not paying for a hotel, and if everything runs smoothly it can be a lovely way to have a micro dose of ‘abroad’ without organising extra time off work and so on .
I had one brilliant one a couple of days before Christmas where I flew in to a European city, had a great breakfast , spent a couple of hours shopping for stocking fillers, met up with dc for lunch/christmas markets, relaxed in a cool bar for the afternoon, and flew home . In bed for midnight.
The problems arise if anything is delayed though, that can end up being causing costly issues at one end or the other 😖
I can’t imagine it’s very practical to do it currently with the new passport rules /queues, and while it’s great if you know a city really well, I think it wouldn’t be relaxing trying to navigate a new place knowing you’re only there for a day.
Perhaps if it’s for a particular restaurant or attraction (I’ve seen lots of instagrammers going to spas/ water parks for the day) it’s less stressful than trying to ‘see the city’.

Was amazing and I didn’t even hear about the guy who plonked himself on the coach claiming asylum until the drivers told me they called the cops and had him hauled him away! 😱