Really? Just for two days?
Really? Thats it? You may have heard this one before. As an addicted, borderline obsessed traveler you may have found yourself embarking on a short getaway which your friends and family found absolutely bonkers. Welcome to the glorious club. What those friends, colleagues family and downright haters didn’t quite realize, was that you were a travel trendsetter ahead of your time. Micro trips are the new travel trend for 2019, so here’s everything you need to know about this new style of discovery…
Micro trips are well planned and even better executed short trips which maximize destination time, minimize wasted time and cut down on expenses with clever flight times and usage of optimal time zones. Tell me you’re not intrigued, I dare you…
Micro Trips Need…
- Enthusiasm.
- Favorable flight times.
- Favorable time zone changes.
- Short bursts of energy.
Micro Trips Don’t Need…
- Days off from work.
- Wasted extra nights paying for hotel.
- Jet Lag or time adjustment.
- Anyone to even know you’ve been gone!
Why Micro Trips Are Awesome
All the reasons above, obviously. Micro trips are the counter to everyone who says that travel is too expensive, requires too much time or that they don’t have any vacation days. They are for the people who are ready to throw themselves into a destination, make the most of every hour and turn up to work on Monday with a better “how was your weekend?” story than the rest of the office combined.
Micro trips generally center around great flight options which allow you to leave after work or land near the same time you take off. That may sound slightly crazy, but all will be revealed very shortly. You’re looking for destinations you can reach which involve one of these…
- Overnight flights. Leave after work, land in your destination in the morning.
- Flights going west. Why lose any hours if you don’t have to?
- Short destinations you can fly to in the morning and back in the evening.
By taking advantage of any of these options you’re able to maximize destination time you can actually use, and spend the hours you’d be sleeping, in the air instead. The more daily flights the better. Thinking outside of the box is your friend here and so is thinking farther away than you’d ever imagine. Here are a few really cool micro trip ideas…
Micro trips are fun, fast and exciting but thats’ not all. They can also save huge money. By flying overnight you easily avoid one night of hotel and if you can find an evening flight back, you get two full days while booking just one night. For trips shorter afield, which can be done in the same day, you don’t need to pay anything at all.
- Sleeping on planes is cheaper than hotels.
- Even if you don’t stay in a hotel, there’s always luggage storage.
- Even long haul trips can be done with just one hotel night.
Two days in an amazing destination is always better than none. Thanks to overnight flights from the USA and late departing flights from Europe back to the USA, you can put in a full days work whichever direction you go, and still make it onto a flight. You could take a 10PM flight from New York to London on a Friday evening, land Saturday morning, buy one night of hotel for Saturday night and spend all day in London Sunday, before heading back to New York on the 8PM flight, which gets into New York around 11PM. No days of work missed, two full days of exploration ticked off the bucket list. If you’re starting in Europe, you could take a 8PM back from the USA and land in Europe in time to make it to the office on time.
Europe to the Middle East or Africa works, Anywhere between Asia and Australia works and so does USA to South America or vice versa. All these destinations allow jet lag free travel, thanks to minimal time difference and overnight flights. Think: Tokyo to Singapore, Europe to Cape Town, USA to Rio De Janeiro or just something simple and short. You can fly overnight on a Friday and arrive jet lag free Saturday morning, fly back Sunday night and yes, once again be back in the office in time and actually pretty fresh too, depending on your last night wherever you were!
Example 3: Any Busy Travel Route With Hourly Flights
There are few things more thrilling than spending a day exploring a new city to the max and this is such an underrated way to see the world. In Europe, this is beyond easy. With hourly flights between major capitals, it’s not at all unreasonable to use points or a great flight deal to fly to Rome, Paris, Venice, Vienna or another incredible place just for the day, doing breakfast at the airport, lunch and dinner at your destination and then taking the late flight home. No hotel bill, no stress, just a riveting day. Flying from Paris to London means you land at the same time you take off, which s pretty cool. Leave Paris at 8AM, arrive London 8AM, you really can do a day…
Google Flights is your best friend when it comes to planning. Here’s how to become a Google Flights wizard. You can do all sorts of things like sort by schedule and even find the cheapest day of the month to fly in just one click. When it comes to safely storing luggage, there’s a cool new app called “StoreMe” which allows you to safely store your belongings in many parts of the city, not just airports. When it comes to Airbnb, Sweet Inn, hotels and other options – you can figure that part out. There’s always TripAdvisor, and hey – if you only stay for one night it can’t be that bad, can it?
Yeah. More money than time. This is horrible if you think this is a good trend.
This is a terrible idea. If you think “sleeping” on a plane after dealing with chaos of going to and from an international airport in a forgiven country, on top of being jet lagged will allow you to even have minimal energy to enjoy any sort of trip you are sorely mistaken.
I often do this, at least once a month. A cheap or reward BA flight to a city in Europe for under 2 or 2.5 hours flying, no jetlag, nothing to worry about. Fly out Saturday morning, fly home Sunday afternoon.
A night in a hotel can be a low enough cost if you plan it correctly. Flying more often means lounge access earned which then means no airport chaos.
I’ve had weekends in Europe for less than the cost of a train ticket to a location in the UK not far away from London. I know which I’d rather do!
Been there done that trying a red eye from Melbourne to Fiji. Except you end up getting wrecked tired and no hotel/resort let’s you check in till 3pm. I prefer making a few extra days and enjoying it.
That said, being in Europe would be totally worth a Friday night trip to Spain and back Monday. Very jealous of that
Now I know why we didn’t see you at the climate change protests.