Helen Dalling left Luton at 8am, ate tapas in Palma, swam in the Mediterranean, climbed around a cathedral and was back home in Milton Keynes by 2am.
The whole day cost £117.
She was up for work before her 7am alarm.
Helen, 55, flew to Mallorca with her friend Alina Durrington as a belated 50th birthday treat.
Alina had asked to come along on one of Helen’s “crazy day trips” as part of what she’s calling her year of birthday treats.
December’s milestone. May’s payoff.
“I love going somewhere new and although I have been to Mallorca a few times, never actually visited Palma itself before,” Helen told Creatorzine.
“Plus it was my friend’s 50th birthday in December and she wanted to join me on one of my ‘crazy day trips’ as part of her year of birthday treats.”
The pair flew EasyJet out of Luton at 8am and arrived in Palma by midday.
Their return wasn’t until 11.25pm. Sixteen hours on the ground. Twenty-two degrees. Blue sky all day.
The maths
EasyJet returns: £53 each, though Helen used a £20 voucher and got hers down to £33.
Luton parking: £15. The bus into Palma: roughly £8.63.
Cathedral entry: £9.49. Food and drink for the day, including airport bits: about £55 each.
Total per person: £117 to £137.
One ordering decision they regret
They walked the harbour. Ate pastries. Drank iced coffee. Swam in the sea. Had lunch at a sky bar. Then they tried to go fully local.
“The biggest challenge was going full authentic Spanish and ordering cuttlefish with black ink rice for our lunch main course but it was a step too far,” Helen said.
“We couldn’t eat it despite being adventurous with our food taste. We had black mouths and teeth.”
The cuttlefish was the only thing they couldn’t tick off.
Helen, who runs employer engagement at a university, managed everything else.
“We talked for about 21 hours straight,” she added. “Not about work.”
Why other creators are watching
Day-tripping abroad has gone from stunt to format.
Travel creators on TikTok and Instagram are filming Lisbon-for-lunch and Vienna-for-coffee runs, presenting micro-trips as proof you can have a passport stamp without a holiday budget.
Helen isn’t a creator. But the playbook is the same: one return flight, no luggage, no hotel, no real damage to the bank balance.
What’s shifted is audience appetite for honest costs. Receipt-style breakdowns travel further than aspirational ones. A £117 day in Spain is content people screenshot.
What’s next
Helen visited seven new countries last year and isn’t slowing down. “It’s liberating,” she said.
Got home at 2am. Up before the alarm. Going again.
READ MORE: I went to Tenerife to film travel tips – I came back with a list of SCAMS
