Inside Birmingham Airport 'extreme daytrip' craze where travellers get bargain 24-hour holidays

Altea, Spain
-Credit: (Image: Getty Images/iStockphoto)


It is the travel craze that sees Brits bag a cheap flight from the UK for a cheap 24-hour holiday. 'Extreme day tripping' sees travellers use local airports to embark on a day-long adventure.

Costs are kept low as you don't need to book accommodation, but the 'extreme' element comes into play because you have to pack as much as possible into 24 hours. The most popular UK airports are Manchester, Liverpool and Bristol, however Birmingham Airport is fast becoming a place for extreme day trips.

Seasoned extreme day trippers using Birmingham Airport have enjoyed 24-hour trips to Alicante, Montreux, Dublin and Berlin. A fast-growing community of explorers are now sharing their experiences on Facebook groups to hundreds of thousands of members - providing advice on how to make the most of each micro-trip.

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One such group, Extreme Day Trips - Manchester, Liverpool & Leeds Bradford Airports, has more than 20,000 members, all enthusiastically sharing their tips for day-long adventure. Some trips are longer than 24 hours, where people can cost up if it is worth paying for accommodation if flights are so cheap.

Other groups have even more members, with one for Bristol Airport having 70,000 members and just Manchester Airport having 163,000 members. The idea of extreme day trips are for travellers to do something they wouldn't think is possible because of distance or timing.

Bargain hunters will scour Skyscanner and other deal sites to get a 24-hour round trip away from the UK for less than £100. One experienced BHX extreme day-tripper shared her best deals from Birmingham Airport on the Facebook group, much to the delight of members who asked for more information on how to plan their own.

Ryanair flights are often used for extreme day trips -Credit:NurPhoto via Getty Images
Ryanair flights are often used for extreme day trips -Credit:NurPhoto via Getty Images

Examples of extreme day trips from Birmingham Airport:

  • Chamonix

  • Alicante

  • Montreux

  • Bucharest

  • Warsaw

  • Bydgoszcz

  • Paris Beauvais

  • Malaga

  • Berlin

  • Palma

  • Dublin

Most trips will depart in the early hours of the morning and arrive back in the UK late at night, giving intrepid travellers enough time to fit in at least two to three activities. While travellers in the group tend to favour flying from Manchester, Liverpool and Leeds Bradford, there are plenty of opportunities to plan a 24-hour escape from Birmingham.

In addition to travel trips, the group also sees people post their ideas of a picture of themselves to see if anyone wants to join them. An example of prices from Birmingham Airport that travellers have found is £39 Friday night flights to Dublin from BHX, Bucharest for £72, £27 for Santander and Barcelona for £33.

As the winter season approaches, day trip enthusiasts are eyeing up potential Christmas market destinations like Krakow and Berlin. However there are still opportunities to get a bit of last minute sun, with destinations like Faro and Lanzarote experiencing average December temperatures of 22C.

Have you tried an extreme day trip from Birmingham Airport? Let our reporter know - naomi.desouza@reachplc.com