Meet the person who goes on ‘extreme’ day trips as a hobby — covering 1000’s of miles in only 24 hours.
Michael Cracknell, 35, spends his spare time traveling across Europe — reaching so far as Switzerland and Athens from his home in West Sussex.
And he does all of it in at some point — so he doesn’t should take any time without work work and still has one other weekend day to get well.
A photographer by trade, Michael, from Haywards Heath, can be the founding father of the Extreme Day Trips Facebook group — which has greater than 250,000 members.
He uses the group — founded in October 2022 — to arrange trips with others, while members also share their experiences with like-minded people.
Michael said of his first trip: “There have been people who were quite skeptical and told me I couldn’t possibly do anything in a day. I desired to prove that you would.
“It just grew from there and exploded into what it’s today. I’m very surprised by how popular it has turn out to be. I had no clue this may occur.
“It’s all done in a day, so that you don’t should take any time without work work and you continue to have at some point of the weekend left to get well, do your shopping and your washing.
“You then can go to work on Monday and say ‘oh I popped over to Athens on the weekend’ and also you haven’t used any holiday days.
“I wasn’t very keen on being away from home for long periods of time so the day trips were the proper answer to traveling for me.”
Cracknell says his love for one-day trips began in 2002 when he was training to be a pilot and visited Toulouse along with his father.
In 2020 he reignited his passion for 24-hour adventures and booked a load of trips, before the Covid 19 pandemic put a pause on his hobby.
After starting his Facebook group, he says a post went viral where he planned a day trip to Benidorm for under $125, which he says is his most cost-effective trip yet.
This 12 months he began bringing people from the group on trips with him — taking 20 people to Switzerland just last weekend.
To this point, he has planned around 12 trips with roughly 15 people on each of them.
Cracknell is unsure on what number of holidays he has been on since he began, but he says it’s “quite lots”.
He added: “I even have been throughout Europe on day trips since 2022. People love the trips and so they enjoy themselves.
“I don’t charge I just plan it, and folks book for themselves.
“I can’t consider how good the community is. They are only so grateful and so they can’t consider we’ve done it in a day. And there are actually well over 100 people who I even have done that for.
“I even have made many friends from this. The friendships that are forged from there are incredible.
“More often than not while you get back you might be absolutely drained. You might be still buzzing from the day, but you definitely sleep well that night.
“You type of get used to it but for brand spanking new starters the tiredness could be overwhelming.”
When reminiscing on his favorite trips, Cracknell also mentioned visiting Athens along with his father and two brothers.
In what he says was a “really big day” the family flew to the Greek city and visited all of the tourist sites in 24 hours for under $185 each — including dinner and activities.
The planner says that with a train to Edinburgh alone costing greater than that, it’s a no brainer to participate in his fun packed trips abroad.
For 2024, Cracknell says he has yet one more group trip planned in two weeks time to Switzerland — with 2,500 people having applied to go to the country with him.
He added: “I like Switzerland a lot. The general public transport there may be so way more reliable than what we’ve here.
“The important thing to low cost trips is to book flights as far prematurely as you’ll be able to during a sale.”
Meet the person who goes on ‘extreme’ day trips as a hobby — covering 1000’s of miles in only 24 hours.
Michael Cracknell, 35, spends his spare time traveling across Europe — reaching so far as Switzerland and Athens from his home in West Sussex.
And he does all of it in at some point — so he doesn’t should take any time without work work and still has one other weekend day to get well.
A photographer by trade, Michael, from Haywards Heath, can be the founding father of the Extreme Day Trips Facebook group — which has greater than 250,000 members.
He uses the group — founded in October 2022 — to arrange trips with others, while members also share their experiences with like-minded people.
Michael said of his first trip: “There have been people who were quite skeptical and told me I couldn’t possibly do anything in a day. I desired to prove that you would.
“It just grew from there and exploded into what it’s today. I’m very surprised by how popular it has turn out to be. I had no clue this may occur.
“It’s all done in a day, so that you don’t should take any time without work work and you continue to have at some point of the weekend left to get well, do your shopping and your washing.
“You then can go to work on Monday and say ‘oh I popped over to Athens on the weekend’ and also you haven’t used any holiday days.
“I wasn’t very keen on being away from home for long periods of time so the day trips were the proper answer to traveling for me.”
Cracknell says his love for one-day trips began in 2002 when he was training to be a pilot and visited Toulouse along with his father.
In 2020 he reignited his passion for 24-hour adventures and booked a load of trips, before the Covid 19 pandemic put a pause on his hobby.
After starting his Facebook group, he says a post went viral where he planned a day trip to Benidorm for under $125, which he says is his most cost-effective trip yet.
This 12 months he began bringing people from the group on trips with him — taking 20 people to Switzerland just last weekend.
To this point, he has planned around 12 trips with roughly 15 people on each of them.
Cracknell is unsure on what number of holidays he has been on since he began, but he says it’s “quite lots”.
He added: “I even have been throughout Europe on day trips since 2022. People love the trips and so they enjoy themselves.
“I don’t charge I just plan it, and folks book for themselves.
“I can’t consider how good the community is. They are only so grateful and so they can’t consider we’ve done it in a day. And there are actually well over 100 people who I even have done that for.
“I even have made many friends from this. The friendships that are forged from there are incredible.
“More often than not while you get back you might be absolutely drained. You might be still buzzing from the day, but you definitely sleep well that night.
“You type of get used to it but for brand spanking new starters the tiredness could be overwhelming.”
When reminiscing on his favorite trips, Cracknell also mentioned visiting Athens along with his father and two brothers.
In what he says was a “really big day” the family flew to the Greek city and visited all of the tourist sites in 24 hours for under $185 each — including dinner and activities.
The planner says that with a train to Edinburgh alone costing greater than that, it’s a no brainer to participate in his fun packed trips abroad.
For 2024, Cracknell says he has yet one more group trip planned in two weeks time to Switzerland — with 2,500 people having applied to go to the country with him.
He added: “I like Switzerland a lot. The general public transport there may be so way more reliable than what we’ve here.
“The important thing to low cost trips is to book flights as far prematurely as you’ll be able to during a sale.”
