'I've visited 50 places on extreme day trips'

A woman has become hooked on extreme day-tripping, flying to about 50 destinations from Birmingham Airport.

An extreme day trip is a travel trend where someone travels to a destination in a different country and returns home the same day.

Claire Howard, a teacher from Solihull, told BBC CWR that she has spent the day on the beaches of Benidorm, listening to French live music in Beauvais and eating Italian food in Bergamo.

She said: "I have seen more places for less money and go to places I would never have been to."

Howard began embarking on day trips from Birmingham after her friend bagged them both £29 return tickets to Dublin for the day for her birthday around two and half years ago.

She got a taste for it and decided to see where else she can go within 12 to 24 hours.

The furthest she has travelled in a day is to Malaga, about a two-and-a-half-hour flight. For beginners she advises heading to destinations such as Dublin, Belfast or Edinburgh.

Howard told BBC CWR that she sometimes flies out on a Monday evening, books a cheap hostel, has the full day in the destination the next day, flies home in the evening and is back in work by Wednesday.

Howard said she spends around £150 all-in for a day trip which includes transport, food and parking.

"I wouldn't try to do a whole city in a day, pick one or two things you really want to see and just wander", she added.

She was aware of the environmental impact of extreme day tripping but she tries to be sustainable in other areas of her life, she said.

"For the past year I have only bought second-hand clothes," she said.

"All forms of holiday, like cruise ships, have an environmental impact, but we all try to offset that where we can and live our lives."

Out of the near 50 extreme day trips Howard has embarked on, she said she has only ever had one bad experience when her return flight was cancelled.

She said: "I feel tired when I come home but you feel like you have done something kind of incredible.

"You might have been somewhere like the top of Mont Blanc and then the next day you are back in work – you just feel like you have done something really cool."

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