Extreme Day Trips - How To
How I booked my first Extreme Day Trip and how you could too
I signed up to the newsletter for extremedaytrips.com. It takes out a lot of the difficulty of planning an extreme day trip by finding combinations of flights that work, departing and returning the same day and maximising the time you spend in that other country.
The website is designed for travellers departing from UK airports, but you could do the same thing yourself using websites like Sky Scanner. Extreme Day Trips makes it easier because it finds the cheapest fare combinations, that maximise the amount of time you get to spend in a given destination. There is also the option to extend your trip with an overnight stay if one day isn’t enough.
There are some considerations you need to make to get the most out of it. Budget Airlines like RyanAir often fly to/from cheaper airports that are less popular, for example, flying to Paris with RyanAir means Paris-Beauvais Airport, which is 80km (48 miles) from Paris. It takes 90 minutes by shuttle bus to reach Paris itself and when you’re only visiting a place for a day, every minute matters.
Paris was indeed one of the places I considered for my trip. I’ve been to France several times but never to the capital. The flight fares were very attractive, just £46 for the return.
Extreme Day Trips - Tips
I would recommend that you make a shortlist of places you’re considering, then check things like where the airport is, how good is the public transport and how affordable it is too before buying any tickets. Sometimes the cheapest options are cheapest for a reason.
Often the cheap fares are mid-week flights, if you need a weekend option though, you can filter by the day of week. I also filtered my search results based on a minimum of 10 hours at the destination location.
Remember, there could be delays and there could be queues to get through border control. There could be heavy traffic or irregular transport to get to and from the airport. You need to factor in enough time to get back to the airport for your return and to make use of the short time you have in the location.
Plan what you want to see and do before you get there. You only have a short time, so pick one attraction that you really want to see, make sure it’s open and that you know how to get there. Do not try to cram in too much and risk missing your return flight.
Whilst the main benefit of an extreme day trip is to cut costs by not having to pay for accommodation or baggage, it can still be more expensive than you anticipated by the time you factor in transport to/from the airport, food and drink and attractions. A package holiday may be better value over all as you have more time to enjoy the location.
My shortlist
So, I created my shortlist looking at the available search results from my home town airport. I ruled out UK and Ireland trips, such as Belfast and Dublin. I ruled out places I’ve visited before. My goal was to visit another European country that I wouldn’t ordinarily have visited.
My shortlist looked like this
Paris, Thursday 7th May, depart 0640, arrive 0900, return 2215. Total cost £46, 13 hours in destination.
Naples, Wednesday 6th May, depart 0815, arrive 1220, return 2205. Total flight cost £59 for 9 hours 45 minute in Naples.
Pisa, Tuesday 5th May, depart 0605, arrive 0935, return 2215. Total flight cost £69. 12 hours 40 minutes in Pisa.
Rome, Wednesday 6th May, depart 0550, arrive 0935, return 2045. Total flight cost £73. 11 hours 10 minutes in Rome.
Paphos, Sunday 10th May, depart 0920, arrive 1600, return 2230. Total flight cost £83. 6 hours 30 minutes in Paphos.
Malta, Sunday 10th May, depart 0640, arrive 1010, return 2140. Total flight cost £115.11 hours 30 minutes in Malta.
Corfu, Saturday 9th May, depart 0655, arrive 1225, return 2330. Total flight cost £121. 11 hour 5 minutes in Corfu.
And the winner is…
In the end, it was a toss up between Malta and Corfu. I had been to France and Italy before, and although I really would like to visit Rome, Pompeii and Pisa, I would like to have plenty of time for a trip like that. I’d never been to Malta or any part of Greece. I am more interested in visiting Athens than the Greek islands so I decided it would be a good opportunity to tick Malta off my list of EU countries as it’s one I probably wouldn’t have thought to go to normally.
Corfu would have been easier as it would have been a Saturday trip. My Malta trip was on a Sunday, which meant I was back in work the next day after getting home in the early hours but at least I did not need to use any annual leave to accommodate the trip.
How to book
You use the Extreme Day Trips website to help you find the flights, then book them yourself on the airlines website. Extreme Day Trips is free, but there is a paid subscription if you want to get early access to the best offers. I haven’t paid for the premium version as I was just dipping my toe in the water, but that may become more helpful if the cost of such trips increases in the future and if you intend to do multiple short trips a year.
In my next post, I will give you the low down of how my trip to Malta went, so subscribe below for more.