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

[SonnyHoney]

For instance, London Luton to Venice.
How can anyone enjoy leaving their house at 2 a.m. to fly out ridiculously early, spend a few hours somewhere walking around exhausted, and then fly back the same day?
It feels like people are just trying to collect places these days, rather than visiting somewhere because it's somewhere they've aways wanted to go.

if it's a couple of hours travel, it's not that outrageous.

that's the time many people spend commuting on a normal day!

Not much difference in time to take a 2 hours flight to Europe or a 2 hour -ish train to London for the day

I am not "exhausted" because I only slept a couple of hours the night before? I can imagine snoozing in the plane, coffee on arrival and good to go. It's not that tiring. I wouldn't do it every day for a month, but a short night? non issue

Why not more protest about impact on climate and environment ?

I’ve never heard of anyone doing this. Are people you know doing it or is it just a social media thing?

Why do you care? If someone enjoys the trip I'm happy for them.

Why do you always have to have wanted to go somewhere to be justified in going?

If you're close to an airport it probably isn't much more faff than getting a train to another city. I fly a fair bit for meetings and always prefer to fly out and return same day. It really is very easy.

When I’ve seen them before I think well what about environment etc. but in reality a person getting a quick flight to another European city isn’t actually going to make any difference that flight is still going weather your on it or not. If you were flying private then yes 100% as it wouldn’t be going if you were on it or not.

if I lived close to an airport I could see the appeal. But I’m too far to make it worth it with faffing with parking etc I’d be there longer as having to mess around with that

Well they're obviously not everyone's cup of tea, but no one is forcing YOU to leave the house at 2am and do one, or are they?

You could say "How can anyone enjoy <.........>" (fill in the blank) about absolutely anything, we don't all like the same things, so what 💁

I don't live in the UK and often take a 2 hours flight to London early in the morning and leave back home on the last flight in the evening. It's not bad if you plan your day.

The travel element feels long to me. Travel to airport, 2 hrs at airport, 2hrs (ish) flight, 1 hour+ time difference, transfer to city…. X2!

Carbon emissions wise it's the same as doing a holiday normally. Actually it's less because no hotel stays.

2hrs at the airport? For what??

It’s the recommended time to allow (I'm sure you know this.)

Maybe not everyone can afford a hotel.
It’s also no worse for the environment than flying somewhere, staying for a week, then flying back.

It's actually better. Because no hotel stays emissions.

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! 😱

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’.

I can agree with you there , we had that when we visited Rome. .

It was hard to get near monuments a d have a proper look, as there were people taking about dozens of pictures of themselves, not even looking at them, but just posing in front of them with no interest.

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

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

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

And politically near impossible

Obviously it has an impact, and I care deeply about that but not sure on statistics/facts of effect on environment from extreme day trips.

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.

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

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.