A self-styled ‘extreme day tripper’ has notched up more than 30 visits to Europe… without ever going to sleep on holiday.
Robbie Watson has spent nine years travelling everywhere from Iceland and Lanzarote to Helsinki and Tirana.
Robbie Watson is a part-time content creator who has been on 30 extreme day trips to all corners of Europe[/caption]
Construction manager Robbie Watson, 31, even made £260 on one of his extreme day trips[/caption]
Robbie posts his adventures on his Instagram page, robbiewatson, where he shares the realities of extreme day tripping.
Speaking exclusively to Sun Travel, the 31-year-old construction manager, from Bedfordshire, revealed all about his holiday hobby – from the best and worst places to visit, to how he finds his cheap flights.
He said: “One that always comes back to me is Iceland – it’s a bucket list trip and I managed to fit it into a day.
“I got to see the Northern Lights, explore Reykjavik and go to the Sky Lagoon all within 24 hours, and even slept in my own bed afterwards.”
While Robbie gushed about his day-trip to Iceland, he wouldn’t return to Lanzarote for a day.
He said: “Lanzarote was a 4 hour flight each way – so a fair distance to travel.
“There isn’t much to do in a day here unless you just want to have a beach day – great for some people but not for me.
“I spent a good 8 hours in Lanzarote, but that was more than enough for me”.
Extreme day trips involve a lot of “jeopardy” with holidaymakers gambling on the certainty that flights won’t be delayed, as it cuts into valuable holiday time.
But that doesn’t always mean a negative outcome, like when his outbound flight to Tirana was delayed last year.
Because while this did put a dampener on the day trip, he was able to claim £260 on his £9 flight.
He said: “Luckily, I hadn’t left the house when I got a text saying, ‘your flight’s been delayed by three hours’.
“Immediately, I thought, ‘I’m onto a winner here’ because I had a loose understanding of the claims rules”.
Because his flight was delayed by more than three hours, and it was the airline’s fault, Robbie was able to claim compensation for the delay, earning him £340.
After the day-tripper spent £72.50 in the Albanian capital, he came away with a profit of £260.
Despite the delay, Robbie was able to ride the Dajti Ekspres, the longest cableway in the Balkans and visit Bunk’Art 1 – a massive Cold War bunker turned museum.
On each of his extreme day trips, Robbie makes sure to book onto a free walking tour because ” you get a nice overview of the city in two hours and you just have to pay a small tip”.
The construction manager started going on extreme day trips nine years ago[/caption]
One place Robbie wouldn’t return to on a day trip is Lanzarote[/caption]
And while some people might search out the best beach or the fanciest bar… he always tries to do his homework on the best place to see the sunset.
He added: “I try and base one of my stops around sunset, which of course is free and who doesn’t love a great sunset in a random European city”.
Food can be a little trickier, as it is often quicker to find food like pizza or a burger, which doesn’t take much time to plan.
Robbie added: “In Lanzarote, I had a burger and chips, which was fine, but someone complained about it in the comments, saying, ‘You went all the way to Lanzarote and had burger and chips’.
“If I’ve got time, I try and plan a nice place to eat. One of my favourite things was a day trip to Pisa where I had a beautiful takeaway pizza underneath the Leaning Tower of Pisa.”
Later this year, Robbie will be going to Switzerland on a group day trip with a handful of other like-minded holidaymakers.
He said: “We’re going to head up to the mountains for a day in March, see some snow, mountains, and maybe a mountain rollercoaster. It’s going to be fantastic”.
How to do a day trip to Africa
AT THE end of last year, Melanie Evans revealed how she went on a day trip to Morocco when she was in search of some much-needed winter sun.
Having already been on a number of day trips abroad to Barcelona, Milan and Dublin, she decided to explore Africa for the first time.
Travelling with her son Max, 12, they boarded a flight at Manchester Airport at 5:45am, arriving in Agadir at 10am.
The pair were then met with 27C weather, as well as seven hours to explore.
Melanie said: “As soon as we landed, we got in the taxi and headed straight to the beach, where we chilled for a few hours.
“We then got a cable car up to the Kasbah and got some lunch at McDonald’s.
“He was playing away on the beach, which was nice to see, and he loved it.”
The pair then had to board their flight at 9:35pm that same day to return home, landing back at Manchester Airport at 12:30am.
Despite the short time, it was enough for the pair to check out an impressive number of local sights.
Explaining her full costs, she included everything from transfers to excursions, coming in to under £180 for the pair of them.
- Return flights – £57.57
- Airport parking – £12
- Morocco taxis – £20
- Cable car – £20
- McDonald’s – £11
Extreme day tripping has seen people book cheap morning flights before returning the same day and swerving any accommodation costs.
One mum booked £37 return flights to Ibiza, after wanting to visit London – only to find trains were £152.
The content creator’s extreme day trips have taken him to all corners of Europe including Iceland, Helsinki, Lapland and Tenerife[/caption]
Robbie currently has one day trip planned for 2025 – a group trip to Switzerland[/caption]
