BBC article ( https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/cn7v5lr2186o )on extreme day trips - defined as flying out in the morning and back in the evening.  Would YOU have an extreme day trip?

Workwise, I have done these in the past; these days, for pleasure, really it would not be a pleasure.  "Each to their own" - except should we really be encouraging all this extra travel in a less that carbon friendly way - or because people are using low cost fares, are the seats there anyway and otherwise empty??

 
Back in the late 1980's, [I forget the company's name] operated day trips from Exeter Airport - usually within a three-hour flight radius. I took advantage of trips to Naples, Bergen, Reykjavik, Berlin and Tromso - the latter actually being a 'night trip' to experience the land of the midnight sun, where it was as black as the Ace of Spades in the midst of a terrific thunderstorm!

I missed out on Barcelona and Rome due to heavy work commitments.



**** edited to correct a typo noticed long after the event! ****

 
In our case I think Exeter Airport would be the only viable departure point - a trip via Bristol might be doable - and vitually all the services, certainly at this time of year, are provided by aircraft based at what would be the destination thereby making an 'out & back in a day' impossible.

The only current exceptions would be some of the various TUI Fly services which use an Exeter-based aircraft and, for example, tomorrow (24th March) one could potentially do a day return to Gran Canaria. Although, assuming on-time flights, you would only get 45 minutes in Spain! And I haven't checked whether that would meet the check-in/boarding rules for the return.

 

Thomson's used to do these back in the 80s from LGW as well as regional airports.
The furthest East I got was Estonia & Latvia, and was at the Berlin Wall the day that it fell - I have a piece of graffitied wall somewhere in the garage.
Quite early starts I seem to recall, and occasionally a late delayed arrival back caused problems, but good more often than not.

 
I remember hearing that my ex took the children to Lapland to meet Santa on a day trip .. apparently not a very enlightening experience in midwinter.    But then ... they came back with stories to tell so it was certainly a memorable day.

 
I have voted - and took the opportunity to correct one of grahame's typos, in the interest of clarity. 

 

I suspect this would have been Air UK, or its charter subsidiary Air UK Leisure.

 
I would love to do it, the idea of flying to somewhere like Rome for the day sounds great
I did join the Facebook group for extreme day trips from Bristol, but never got around to finding a date where I was free to do a trip

 
Good morning from Bristol airport. I’m off to Geneva for the day. £35.98 return with easyJet. Cheaper than a return train to London for the day.

(My employment gets me free travel on the Falcon to the airport from Plymouth which makes it a very cheap day for me)

I did Krakow for 36 hours last month.

I use Skyscanner and select the explore everywhere option and sort price high to low and see where i end up.

 
These are not exactly new...about 30 years ago when easyjet and Ryanair were not around,Transun,an Oxford company ran 'Just for the day!' trips from Bristol Airport. Costing about £250, you got the first and last flights there and back, a hot meal both ways, airport transfers and various options at the destination including guided tours and entrance fees. I remember doing Vienna Christmas markets twice, Seville, Krakow,Prague, Paris, Berlin, Reykjavik twice and Amsterdam. They were generally very well organised, full aircraft and at the time seemed to be excellent value for money.
Transun are still in business and now seem to have cornered the market in Lapland day trips at about five times more  than I paid 30 years ago!

 

That sounds amazing, would have loved to have had that opportunity!

 
I rather liked this - a day trip to Saint Malo from Portsmouth, with bike:

https://www.reddit.com/r/bicycletouring/comments/1jkxzq9/microtour_brittany/

"Cycled to Cancale without hitting a main road, got some oysters, cycled back, ate a family sized babybel on the beach, washed down with a bottle of local cider."

(French cider is not very strong and the country lanes are very quiet. I don't think there was a serious drink-cycling issue here!)

 


Thank you, that's the name I was looking for!

 
OK ... 7 out of 30 members who voted do or would go on extreme day trips for leisure.  For the others, a whole host of resons why not from the pragmatic to the principled.  Interesting study / outcome.

 
I’d be interested to know what people find too much hassle with airports, if that’s the only reason deterring someone, maybe some of the other more seasoned airport users  could give some tips around reducing the hassle.



For those in Bristol wanting public transport to the airport, avoid the A1, it’s the most expensive option. The falcon undercuts it on price, or for a massive saving catch the U2 to the Airport Tavern and walk the few minutes into the airport grounds

A1 flyer £9 single city centre to airport.
Falcon £8.10 single city centre to airport
U2 £3 single city centre to Airport Tavern with a 5-10 min walk into the airport terminal

 
Thanks for posting, LiskeardRich.

I'll offer you my local example of Bristol Airport, for their apparently trying to discourage 'day trippers' to anywhere, frankly.

I live in Nailsea, so none of those airport public transport options from central Bristol would help.  However, I could ask my wife to drive me up to the airport and drop me off outside the Airport Tavern - just to avoid the minimum £3 charge for every vehicle daring to enter the 'drop-off zone' within the airport.

I'd then have to trudge up the road to the airport entrance, check in, and walk up to the security queues. After eventually passing through those, I'd then have to sit around waiting for my flight to be announced.  Then, I'd have to walk over, by whatever means, to board the aircraft.  I'd then have to sit around for another while, before the aircraft even starts moving.  That's without any luggage, as I'm hypothetically travelling on a same day return flight to 'somewhere extreme' in Europe.

And it would be the same on the return journey: I'd ask my wife to drive up to the airport to collect me, from outside the Airport Tavern - to avoid yet another minimum charge of £3 for daring to enter the 'meet & greet' zone within the airport.

Frankly, if I really wanted a one day out on a jolly, I'd do a railway journey to South Wales and back, with far less hassle. 

By the way: I don't have a current passport. That was another of my votes in the poll. 

 
Worth pointing out that you can reduce the price on the falcon still further by using a concessionary bus pass to reduce the advertised price by half viz £4.05. I was paying £3 one way until the last price rise, you get dropped at the airport bus station and it will pick you up /drop you off at Anchor Road as well as Bond Street.

 

This doesn't really make sense, with a day trip you would not be taking any luggage, could pre check in, so literally walk up to the airport at the last moment and board the plane

 
You can never simply walk up & get on - even without luggage.

the initial barrier that you pass through by scanning your boarding pass on is set to refuse admittance at a point prior to departure - usually 30-40 mins. You still have to clear through security, even with zero luggage/carry ons.

 

As I found out on a one day business trip some years ago from Leeds to Edinburgh. Having just a notebook and pen on me made me even more suspicious in their eyes, and I was given the full nine yards - security wise - both going there and returning in the evening.

 
From my own home to the plane push back is an absolute minimum of 2 hours. That's driving to Southampton, Bristol or Bournemouth Airports and parking short term / walking in to terminal 30 minutes before departure, which is cutting it a bit fine.  On return it might be 15 minutes less from arriving at the gate to being home.

First train of the day to Southampton is the 06:32 getting there at 08:22, last return at 19:47 from Southampton into Melksham at 21:31.    Amsterdam - flight at 09:20, getting to Schipol at 11:30 would be possible, with a 16:50 return flight getting in at 17:00 to Southampton - might catch the previous train.   Jersey and Guernsey also possible, I think.

No thank you - not these days; I would need to find a deckchair and grab some sleep in Amsterdam to recover from the outbound flight in time for the return one.   A decade ago, yes.

 

Under 25s get the discount too. (I’m a falcon driver)

 

I’m sure I seen a sign up recently that the drop off went to a minimum £7? I’m in and out twice a day.

 
I’ll add a brief write up of my trip last week.

Finished work in Plymouth at 2224 (driving a falcon), caught the 2300 Plymouth to Bristol Falcon (staff travel pass), where I slept for a couple of hours. As someone I get on well with was driving I went into the city and back out to the airport, arriving at the airport at 0400.
My flight was 0705 with EasyJet to Geneva. We landed at 0930 local time.i was out of the airport and on a train into the city centre by 1000. Passport checks on arrival was very quick.
I took the train to the main city station, where I transferred to a tram out to the UN HQ, had a 10 minute look around that area of town, before heading back to the centre. I walked along the lake before taking a ferry across the lake which was a pleasant crossing and included in the day transport pass. I walked back round the lake from where the ferry dropped us taking in various scenery.
Approx 1300 I found a nice little brasserie for lunch. I had a bacon cheese fondue burger, chips and drink which came to just shy of £30, but it was without doubt the best quality burger I’ve ever had. It was made from Swiss mountain beef.

After lunch I headed down to the lake, and it was a pleasant warm day touching 20C, so I sunbathed for a couple of hours and made  a brave attempt at cold water swimming in the lake, joining in with some locals. I lasted 3 1/2 minutes!

I grabbed a supermarket sandwich for dinner before heading for home.

Total cost
Falcon to airport - nil ( staff pass, normally £43 return from Plymouth, discounts available  for over 60/ under 25)
EasyJet flights £35.98 return.
Travel pass £7.04 (8 Swiss francs) it’s 10 CHF if purchased before 9am.
Lunch £30
Sandwich dinner and bottle of coke £5. 
Total for a day out £78. I’d have spent more than this for a day out in this country, and I got to see somewhere new.


I did 48 hours in Krakow last month having been inspired by the channel 4 show Travelman, 48 hours in. Krakow was incredibly cheap. 2 nights Ibis hotel was £44, and I struggled to spend money, I only took £75 changed into Zloty, and started buying little Polish sweet packs for the kids to use it up. Beautiful city.

 

Ouch!! It's not just Heathrow Express that charges then!! 

 

It’s a distance of 120 miles each way, £43 return is quite the bargain. Nil is even better :lol: Parking at Bristol airport short stay is £60 a day.

 

That is why so many erstwhile farmers in North Somerset have retired - simply by offering cheaper parking (even including transfers) on their farmland. 

CfN.

 

Yes: that rather strengthens my case, I think: see https://www.bristolairport.co.uk/to-and-from-the-airport/drop-off-and-pick-up/

CfN. 

 

True, but you can walk into the airport, straight through the security and assuming you checked in online already can walk up to the plane at the last moment that the gate closes

It is certainly do-able, I did very similar when flying to Newcastle, except had a laptop to go through the scanner, but again that added literally seconds to the day

 
I don't think I've NOT queued to get through the scanner - and if it looks to them as if you are in a hurry, you become a prime suspect for a full body search....not worth leaving it late, frankly.

 

I’ve flown 6 times since November, when I was deemed fit to fly after my illness of the last couple of years. My longest queue for security at Bristol has been 6 minutes. Last Tuesday it took longer to walk round all the barriers than get through the security check!

 

You've been lucky.  My experience in recent years is that the security check can be fast and can be very slow.  So I have to allow a long time for it because I don't want to miss my flight.  It's just one of the airport processes I have to undergo and over which I don't have control.  All of this adds to my jaundiced view of flying nowadays.

 

Forgetting any security at checkin - what about immigration checks on arrival?  Sometimes very quick, but certainly (2023?) I have had to queue at both Catania and Dresden having flown in with a low cost airline.   And - though on a cruise - the USA immigration at New Orleans managed to cut two full days in the city on our cruise down to an evening and a day as it took them six hours to process everyone coming off the ship.   At least we were called off in stages, but it was still painful - literally - for those who are not "disabled" but cannot stand for hours. 

Long overseas day trips are NOT for me personally any more. Part is environmental.  Part is that I prefer to have the freedom to get up and walk around rather then being packed in (and, yes, a prefer a train with 40% seats taken than 90%).  Part is the time and procedures at the airports.  Part is the home to airport and back journeys, and the delicacy of public transport connections to the final service of the day.  And part is wanting to spend longer there.

Lisa and I are planning a trip.  But not day - fortnight.  And not flying - trains and ferries. 

 

Whilst we had to go through Norwegian security on arrival at Tromso on my day (or rather night) trip from Exeter, we simply walked from coach to aircraft when returning to Tromso airport, with no checks whatsoever.

A complete contrast when just transiting at Los Angeles on a (rather longer than a day) trip to New Zealand ten years ago! All I did was walk from aircraft to transit lounge and back to the aircraft 90 minutes later, but much of that break was spent going through (hardly!) LAX security - body scanner, fingerprints taken, etc, etc. Obviously no luggage check as that was still on the aircraft.