There and back in a day: Extreme day trippers share their tips for stress-free trips around Europe

Have you ever considered taking a flight hundreds of kilometres away - and coming back the same day?

If you have, you’ll be in the company of nearly 240,000 people, all members of the Extreme Day Trips Facebook group.

Many of us have limited time and budgets, but still have an urge to travel. Some people now have decided to take it to the extreme - literally.

While some day trippers have managed to get as far as New York and Abu Dhabi and back in a day, the majority tend to stick to European hubs. While visiting a place for under 24 hours is hardly a relaxing way to see the world, it’s sometimes the only way to do it.

Euronews Travel spoke to the founder and several members of the UK-based Facebook group, to find out what it is about these extreme day trips that makes them tick.

“I would say it's extreme in that the way train transport is in the UK, it's cheaper to go abroad to, say, Billund for Legoland than it is to go to Windsor [home of the UK’s Legoland],” Nat Bocking, a film technician from Suffolk explains.

Train prices in the UK are often unaffordable for many and, despite rail travel being significantly better for the environment, the fact remains that flights abroad can be much cheaper than a train ticket.

For people with budget constraints, flying can often be the only way to see new places and take a break from daily life, while stretching the definition of what ‘extreme’ means.

“Before I joined the group, I figured that these flights were cheaper than rail tickets… When I saw Ryanair offer flights for 1p each way I thought ‘what do I have to lose?’” Nat says.

Michael Cracknell, the founder of the group, took his first extreme day trip back in 2002, travelling to and from Switzerland in a day.

20 years later,