To go abroad for one day?

[Teacherbee85]

I'm reading about people who do 'extreme day trips' from the UK to abroad.

I've been looking into it and I've found flights that go to various European cities - leaving first thing in the morning and coming back late at night.

I'm so tempted to say fuck it and just book a solo trip.

Any thoughts?

I just wouldn’t give a shit! Simple.

I’ve not done the maths but I think you could probably spend the entire year carefully reducing your carbon footprint by minimising food miles, eliminating unnecessary tat from your purchases and then spunk the entire lot up the wall for the sake of a one day jaunt. You’d have to buy a LOT of shit from Temu to rack up the carbon footprint of a flight.

The thing that I hate about the extreme day trips phenomenon is that it’s just so gratuitous - people seem to be doing them almost as a bit of challenge and because it’s enticingly cheap, rather than for any good reason.

Someone mentioned that they might be doing one day trips to visit their DD, others mentioned a special concert or to visit somewhere they had always wanted to see. I don’t really have a problem with that. But doing it just for bragging rights or as a bit of a minor novelty leaves a bad taste in my mouth - “I went to Spain for the day and it only cost me £40!”.

You wouldn’t spunk 10% of your annual income on a day out, why would you spunk 10% of your carbon footprint?

You've no idea how I 'spend' the rest of my carbon footprint so I'm not going to lose sleep over causing a bad taste in your mouth ....

I’d have more respect for someone saying “I simply don’t care about climate change” than those trying to convince themselves that they can justify flying across Europe for a one day jaunt. “But other people are worse!” “But I think about the environment in other ways!”. Just own it: being able to spend 8 hours in the sun for a bargain price is more important to you than climate change. That’s selfish but at least it’s morally consistent.

...not one of which appeals to.me in the slightest. I'd rather have go and meander somewhere, eating, seeing, smelling and hearing difference.

The more times you go, the lower the percentage of each.

I can manage without your respect and accept our opinions on this differ.

The more times you go, the lower the percentage of each

That’s a joke, right? I hope it’s a joke.

I do get it - I love travelling. But if you’re that interested in your destination then surely you should stay longer, not try to rush in and out in a day? You’d be getting more out of it and contributing more to the local economy. Savouring fewer, longer, trips is a better travel experience and more sustainable.

Honestly I’ll get a lot of heat for saying this but I do this regularly. My husband is a pilot and if he has a layover in a Western European city I’ll often go for less than 24 hours. A nice dinner and a walk around in the morning with a coffee/pastry is about as much as I can manage on most trips

I used to do this back in my 20s when I lived near Cambridge. Had some great trips. Airport travel seemed less complicated/quicker than it is 30 years on though.

Would you like her to (pretend on the internet to) plant a fucking tree or something?

Yep do it. I’m planning Venice for the day :)

Of course it's a joke 😁

Is the bad taste in the mouth from the carbon or the spunking?

Ah, the good old days when we were younger, energetic and worked for an airline ☺️.
Go for it!

"You wouldn’t spunk 10% of your annual income on a day out, why would you spunk 10% of your carbon footprint?"

That's a lot of spunk 🤢

I do this with Eurostar and go to Pairs and Bruges a fee.times a.yr for the day. Cheaper than spending a day in London tbh.

I've also done Rome in a day

"I do this with Eurostar and go to Pairs and Bruges a fee.times a.yr for the day. Cheaper than spending a day in London tbh."

How can it be cheaper? Not knocking it but surely it can't be. Before you've started you're £70 down on the fare. Isn't the lowest £35 each way? I've had many brilliant days in London for less than £70

I get discount through work costs me £59.50 return.

Well depends on what your doing in London if you not paying any transport and walking everywhere and not buying any food or drink and only doing free stuff and you live in London so zero transport cost..otherwise...

Yeah I can see it depends but the tfl cap is £10, same as Paris €13.50. Food and drink the same, popular sights and museums I find more expensive in Paris.

Fine for a day trip. Just not seeing where you're making your £60 back really.

I wouldn't because I find it too tiring, and stressful as you end up clock watching. I'd rather go on holiday less often but stay longer.

Slightly different as we are in Saudi but we did a day trip to Dubai from Riyadh. Flew in. Had a business meeting and then a late lunch opposite the Burj Khalifa then back to the airport. Was home for 9.30pm.

If only I lived near an airport. I would spend most weekends in Rome (let's forget I also don't have the money).

Environmentally it’s fairly terrible
you’ll get much more out of the trip if you stay at least a night

but I did this in my youth.
good fun but knackering as the 6am flight out probably means leaving the house at 3….

It's not about making money bsck it's about for the dame price or less I can go to another country and city for the day. Thats the point. I live zone 5 London so I cna do London anytime and there are times.cna easily.spend £100 on a day in London what with natioan rail tickets, then tube costs, shows, food and drink

I was inspired by the Facebook group to do a few of these last winter. Great way to get a holiday feel cheaply and ‘feeling tired’ is a pathetic reason not to have an adventure. I live a 35 min bus ride from Heathrow, so flights not as cheap as Stansted etc but convenient. On a day trip to Copenhagen I met a couple who were also doing a day trip but on that day were talking the train across to Malmo in Sweden and back too…