Day Tripping Philosophy

I rarely go so far as to leave an entire region just for a day trip so travel times to/from haven't been a big issue. But I have scheduled several en route stops between major destinations in order to fit one additional site into my itinerary. Several of these stops have gone so poorly that I am considering daytrips instead. For example, we thought it would be a good idea to leave Edinburgh, head to Glasgow early and store our bags for a day before departing for London late that night. The baggage storage fee in Glasgow was outrageous, we still felt rushed touring the city, and our Glasgow to London train was rerouted through Edinburgh anyway. Next time I certainly WILL make it a day trip and back instead.

Generally, I would agree. but there are lots of exceptions. If a day trip involves several stops in a loop, you can justify being en route a little longer, but not a lot.

If you wanted to do something physically draining, like a long hike, the time in transit after would actually be restful.

But, yes, I agree, it is a little silly to go so far away from your home base when there are usually alternatives that are better. One situation I often see here is a desire to take some sort of distant day trip with a tour group because the person is unwilling to drive and spend some time in a different corner of the country. That's a pretty poor choice, in my opinion, unless that person is elderly or otherwise unable to feel safe driving and the destination is a life-long desire.

When we stay a long time in a location and do day trips, we also usually rent a place with a kitchen and do dinner with the children at "home". So we need to be back by 6-7PM to make that work, too.

My rule used to be to limit a daytrip to 3 travel hours each way. Now I find that I have energy for trips of 1-2 hrs each way. I want the return time to be open. A trip to Rouen from Paris is a good example; it takes something like 1-1/2 hrs to get there by train. I walk around, have lunch, enjoy the ambience and cathedral, watch people, walk around some more. Then I'm ready to head for the train station. Trains run back to Paris about hourly, so I can return to my hotel when I want to. Chartres is also a good daytrip from Paris with frequent trains to/from.

When I've had a railpass, it was tempting to get as much travel as possible crammed into one travel day. From Paris it would be possible to take a daytrip to Avignon, Lyon, Aix, Colmar or Beaune. Probably not all on the same day!

Before kids, we didn't travel by having a "home base." We would just go to the other town and find a room. Now that it's cheaper to stay in one place with 4 of us (not to mention not having to pack up the kids every couple of days), we're doing more day trips. But, with those day trips, we haven't done any that are more than an hour. We know we're coming back. I'm also incredibly cheap and wouldn't dream of spending the money on a Paris apartment while spending the day out in the country.

Example: plans for next summer include finding a farmhouse apartment in Bavaria and doing day trips to the castles and Munich from there.

Something we see here (but not quite so much as in the past, we must be having an effect) is travelers planning day trips where it's evident they hadn't take the time, or didn't know how, to get even a rough idea of the total, realistic travel times required by their proposed "day trip."

I agree with the suggestions of about three hours each way with one caveat--one of my planned day trips is a river cruise, so the total "transit" time to the winery and back is about four to five hours, but the transit bit is half the fun! Similarly, sometimes the train, bus, boat, plane, or car ride on the way is a sight and event in and of itself.

We love to have a base and do day trips. Sometimes we have done extremly long trips to help us make a decision for the future. For example I spent several years trying to convince hubby to go to Scotland. I finally talked him into a day trip to Edinburgh from Lonond. 4 hours up and 4 hours back. We only got a small taste, but it was enough that he is as addicited to Scotland as I am now. Was it worth it? YES!!! Most of our day trips involve about 1-2.5 hours one way on the train. We also like places where there are regular return trains so we can keep our time in the destination flexible. I remember one day trip where we go there, spent 2 hours and realized we had really picked the wrong place. We headed back to base and were there for a late lunch.

We have done our travels in France by car and have progressed from staying in B&Bs for 2-3 nights at a time before moving on to the next destination, to renting a house & using it as a base for exploring one region. We pick a place that is fairly central to the sites we really want to see and alternate day-tripping days with a stay-at-home-do-the-laundry-read-a-book days. If we want to go further afield, we do it as an overnight trip. We generally use the auto-route to get to the place of interest and return by a slower route or vise-versa depending on what time we want to be at our destination. It works well for us and I don't mind driving 1-2 hours each way, especially if there's something to do or see along the way. We are usually home by 4 or 5 PM & since we have a house, we usually cook in on those days.

I think two hours each way is about right for a day trip. That's about what it is to either of two major cities from here (Chicago and St Louis), and we go to both fairly often for the day. It leaves enough time to do what we want during the day and still get home at a reasonable time.

I lean towards the two hours each going and coming back. It really has to be super duper to be longer, especially if you're driving. I agree that if part of the trip is the journey the decision dynamics change. I ask myself how often do I drive to Chicago for a day trip or would I really rather spend the night? Now, if we get the fast train service to Chicago I'll be changing my mind! Pam

I agreee with 2 hours each way, although I might break that rule to go to Zermatt from INterlaken. Looks like it takes a tad under 3 hours each way.

I built it an extra day in the Swiss Alps so if the weather is right, I plan on taking the early train from Interlaken to Zermatt (2 train changes) which takes about 3 hours. I think it would be worth it to see the Matterhorn in person, but that's just me.

i recently nixed a day trip my husband really wanted to take because i realized it was a 12 hour bus trip with only three hours off of the bus--and this was with a company that prided itself on 'lots of time off the bus'! i can't imagine what the alternative would be--something like 'look kids, big ben...the parliment...'?

along the same lines, we're 'losing' two days in paris this summer to do an overnight to amsterdam, as we felt that was the best 'usage' of our 'day trip budget'--budget being both time and money. i felt that the three hours each way train ride merited an overnight stay, so yes, i'd have to agree that two hours each way is enough for a one day trip. additionally, since we are doing the trip on our own--as in made train reservations and hotel reservations ourselves--we're saving tons of money as compared to a 12 hour bus trip to, say, the loire valley or normandy. really, it is all about the time/money budget!

Okay, now I'm laughing because I realized my daily commute is the upper limit for what people would allow for a day trip! Maybe that's why I suggested an extra hour each way, to deny that my commute is a bit nutty.

I figure if you leave at six, you'll get to your location by nine, which is early enough to grab brunch or a late breakfast (though I dislike traveling on an empty stomach). If you spend the day and finish dinner at, say, eight, you'll be back by eleven at night. Assuming you are on vacation and only need to wake at eight the next morning, even you take an hour to decompress and ready for bed, you should get a good night's sleep. Obviously I wouldn't try this schedule with kids in tow, though, unless they are patient when tired.

If it's Tuesday, this must be Belgium....

If this is London, why ain't it raining?

Brooke-seems like when you go on vacation, you would just go somewhere and then just plain STAY PUT!

One would think I'd like to stay put, yes. I've signed up for a group trip that will give me a month long "home base" from whence we'll do a lot of weekend adventures, while during the weeks before and after that month we'll do a LOT of traveling each day with no stay at one place longer than a week. We get to see almost all of Portugal, so I think it'll be worth the bopping around. But as I've said elsewhere, I'm a road-tripper at heart, so I don't mind travel time!

So long as you aren't the one driving, the travel time need not be an annoyance. After all, unless you're going by plane, you'll likely get a good chance to take in the scenery. Just sit back and relax!

Toni, You inspired me to go back to reading "General Europe" once in awhile, I forgot about all the good stuff that is on here. My travel time often depends on how badly I want to see a something. Last summer we drove from Keswick to Fountains Abbey and then to Shipley to visit a friend. Otherwise we, too, like to take in day trips that will allow us to visit more than one place.

I like to slow down on vacation. That is why we always rent and apartemtn or house for the trip and stay in one place for the two weeks we are there. That way, I get to shop and cook, meet the locals, etc. It is so enjoyable.

That being said, we do day trip a lot--but usually not too far. Last year we made a run from Reims to Verdun by back roads, and took the autoroute home. It took all day, most of it driving. It also cut into the places we could stop, because we needed to keep moving.

Generally, we keep it to 1 to 1.5 hours from our gite. We will do a trip everyday of some type, but usually closer to home. We tend to drive through the same areas several times, as we go to see some things and go back to see others. We can sleep in, come home and relax. We work so hard, that it is important to slow down a little.

We take day trips from Munich using the Bayern pass. We limit our travel time to about 2.5 hours each way. We've gone to as far as Nuremberg to the north and Salzburg to the east.

This thread made me LOL when I remember the longest and silliest day trip I've ever done. Many, many years ago, way before the internet and cell phones, my sister and I went on an 8 hour round trip excusion in one day just to get mail from home! We were 2 months into a 3 month trip and were expecting mail at one of the American Express offices where you could have mail sent for you to pick up. The city was originally on our agenda, but for some forgotten reason we weren't going to go there afterall. We woke up one morning, it was pouring rain, we didn't feel like sightseeing so decided to go get our mail. It actually turned out to be a nice break. We had a Eurail pass so it didn't cost us anything, we got caught up on our sleep, read our books and updated our journals. The best part was getting a stack of mail from family and friends whom we hadn't heard from up until that point. Thank God for email and cell phones!

Moving around too much definitely takes a lot of pleasure out of a trip - in my opinion. I also hate long car rides, unless of course the scenery is great! I wouldn't drive more than 2 hours each way for a day trip, and that's pushing it. Even for one overnight, I probably would not drive much more than that.

Sometimes I plan a day trip when I create my travel itinerary. But when I get to my home base destination, sometimes I just can't leave because the city or town is just too awesome or there is just too many things to do. It's happened to me in London, Budapest, Prague, and Paris.