Has anyone done a “extreme day trip”?

[inkyspells]

Well mines not a extreme day trip but will be 47 hours (2 nights ) in gran canaria
The one I’m looking at arrives at 5pm Monday and leaves 4pm Wednesday.
Do you think this is worth it ?
Hotel is 30 mins away
Will have to leave at say 1.30pm on the Wednesday

I did one to Palma - flight 6.30 ish, flight home 9pm.

was exhausting but fun. A bit of warmth was very nice in Feb half term.

I do agree that it’s not great for the environment…but I have done it twice and have another booked.

our rules:
flight time two hrs or less
a small place that isn’t ‘wasted’ with a small amount of time to visit
somewhere I probably wouldn’t go otherwise
somewhere with one or two big reasons to visit ie touristy things
always an overnight stay, right in the city centre - better that than having day 2 at home sleeping, and you can have a drink on day 1
low-cost flights £30 or less each way

Its always tempting to look for the next one while waiting for the flight home

Did Dublin (apparently known as Dublin dash) in a day after DC finished GCSEs. Long day but fab

In 2003 I did a day flight to Italy. Left UK airport at around 4am and home in time for dinner! (I live less than a 10 minute drive from an international airport).

I’ve flown to hong Kong for the rugby 7s flew out Thursday back Sunday night. But I was 30(ish) the thought of that now is awful!!

I really couldn't justify doing this on environmental grounds. It's quite shocking that anyone would think it was OK, especially several times a year

Another thing is that everyone seems to go to the same places which is worrying for those areas. Some people do odd things like flying to Bucharest to visit a spa. I can't see why you'd go to the trouble if flying somewhere to then spend all day in a spa rather than visiting the actual place!

On top of that; it must be totally exhausting!

You do meet really interesting people - as well as trips alone, I have been in a few day trips with people I’ ve met on the FB group -all lively curious people and entirely different jobs etc to those I’d just meey in my own environment. Great fun and always feels like one been away in a holiday for more than just a day.

Palma would be a brilliant day trip because the airport is so near to the city centre
and the city centre is beautiful

We did a day trip to lapland
6am flight. 4 hour flight. Spend the day at Father Christmas village. 8pm flight home.
It was fun, we got loads packed in. It was exhausting though.

Also did a day trip to Nice. That was easy. Short flight. Swim in the sea, explored the city, late flight home.

Yes! Dublin for the day.... brilliant. Really worth it

I've done this to Tenerife. Was definitely worth it.

DP and I have a done a few two night trips over the years, but mostly to cities e.g Paris, Frankfurt etc. Once we travelled to Germany for an overnight to visit his parents. Was lovely seeing them but the travel was exhausting and not worth it. I wouldn’t do it again.

I wouldn’t do any less than 3 nights now.

I agree with this. I am actively trying to reduce how often I fly. I'm flying this year for the first time since 2023. It's short haul which I'd prefer not to be doing, but just couldn't get the logistics of getting the train to work for the length of time I'm going for. However, because of those flights, my longer holiday later this year will be by train.

I keep reading about extreme day trips and people who go on multiple short weekends away by plane a year, and part of me despairs and part of me wonders why the hell I bother trying to reduce my flying when others don't give a shit. I will continue to try to reduce it though.

Yes last January we went to Benidorm for 1 night. Early plane out, early evening back the next day. We wanted tapas and there’s no nice restaurants in our town so we just hit a flight, found a hotel when we got there and spent a lovely afternoon on tapas alley. Train back to Alicante the next day to sightsee. It was brilliant

I’d never heard of extreme day trips before this thread, can’t believe it’s a thing. Makes me wonder if there’s any point not flying, reducing car use, etc. when there are people doing stuff like this.

Yes. Flew to Geneva, had a look around the town and did some of the sights. Then walked across the border into France and took the cable car up Mont Salev which was fun. We were out of the house for pretty much 24 hours but it was fun.

Oh bore off. Short haul leisure flights are such a tiny amount of the global contribution to climate change that it's barely worth measuring. And this is just a tiny subset of all the millions of those each year.

International flights are such a faff with all the airport time, I couldn't be bothered with it. I have been to Paris for just over 24 hours by Eurostar though. Arrived in the evening, went to dinner and the theatre, stayed in a tiny cheap air bnb, spent the day wandering and eating, home early evening.

No faff these days -everything on the app, hand luggage only -electronic passport gates.

Did one, it was pre kids and I didn't feel like I properly got to see the city or area, and was utterly exhausted after. Never again.

But if you take multiple holidays abroad every year then flying will be a significant chunk of your own carbon footprint. And to simplify it, if two-thirds of the people in a country fly abroad once for their summer holiday, then if half of those people add one weekend abroad and an ‘extreme day trip’ on top, that doubles the emissions from leisure aviation.
When we’re so close to climate tipping points, extreme day trips do feel like a big fuck you to future generations. Although realistically I guess people just don’t understand the danger climate breakdown poses to things like food supply so it doesn’t feel like a big deal to them. It doesn’t help that at least half the media in this country would rather not inform people so they can carry on running snide comment pieces about ‘net zero’ without having to face awkward questions about the costs of the alternative.

Makes me think the travel industry is behind it...🤔

That's not a freaking day trip, that's a mini break? two nights away?

Extreme day trip is what I had to do for work many times - either last flight out and last flight back the next day - or in an EXTREME case first flight out (Warsaw in the case) and last flight back for a meeting.

Yes, lots of people have to fly to meetings. Even I have, and I wasn't particularly high-powered. Early start, late finish: no different to meetings in the UK, for which I drove or took the train.

My brother often flew to meetings in the US, Middle East and Asia. That must be brutal.

If you disagree with the premise of EDT’s rather pointless to post on a thread where people are discussing them, not debating climate.