Helen Dalling went to seven countries she’d never seen in a single year.
Paris, Budapest, Geneva, Prague, Amsterdam, Split, and a handful of stops in Spain.
The whole lot came to £1,600, and some of it she fit between breakfast and bed.
The trick is keeping each trip short. Some are overnighters.
Others are what Helen calls “extreme day trips,” where you land in a country and leave again inside 24 hours.
The £1,600 covered everything. Flights, airport parking, hotels, sightseeing, food, drink and spending money.
She’s 55, works full time, has kids, and lives in Milton Keynes.
The maths of seeing the world the usual way didn’t add up.
“I’ve always loved travelling but as I’m getting older and I’ve got kids and I work full-time, I thought ‘I’m not going to see enough countries in the world,'” she told Creatorzine.
“If I don’t start going to see a few of them, I need to do them quick and cheap. That’s really why I started doing it.”
The £8.99 flights
Helen started in 2024. In 2025 she went all in.
The method is unglamorous. She checks the airlines that fly from her nearest airport, Luton, and books the second a price looks good.
“When I went to Paris, I was basically just browsing on New Year’s Day, not doing much else and I spotted that you could get a flight to Paris for £13, one way and £12 the other.
I just booked it, and then when I told a friend, she booked it too and came with me.”
Budapest was cheaper still.
“The Budapest flights were about £8.99 each way; you can’t even get them that cheap anymore.
I’ve done others that were £15-£20 return; when I see the price, I just go for it.”
A day trip instead of lunch
Most trips double as a catch-up. Rather than meeting a friend in London, Helen meets them in another country.
She did Geneva twice. The second time, at Christmas, she went with an old friend who loves food, and they spent the day at the city’s Christmas markets.
“Everybody that I’ve done one with has said ‘oh my God, that was amazing.’
I’ve got a bit of a queue of people wanting to go as well, but only so much money.”
Budapest won
Of everywhere she went in 2025, Budapest stuck. £191 for an overnight, and she still talks about the thermal baths.
“We just fell in love with Budapest. Every time we did something else afterwards, I just said to my friend ‘it’s not Budapest though, is it? It’s not Budapest.'”
It was February. The sky was blue anyway.
“We were just sitting in these massive pools of boiling hot water with the cold air on our skin, just going ‘this is amazing.’ It was so lush.”
2026 is already moving
She hasn’t stopped. This year she’s done Palma in Mallorca for under £120 each, an overnight in Lithuania and a day in Albania.
The Palma trip alone had a sky bar lunch, a swim, and an iced coffee at a beach bar. All in a day.
“I’m always buzzing after a day trip. It’s a great way to visit countries you’d never visit by going on one holiday a year.
Last year I visited seven new countries and it’s liberating.”
Helen’s 2025 trips, in full:
Paris – £139 (extreme day trip) Budapest – £191 (overnight) Alicante – £62 (extreme day trip) Malaga – £118 (extreme day trip) Geneva – £182 (extreme day trip) Split – £315 (overnight) Prague – £165.11 (overnight) Amsterdam – £290 (overnight) Geneva – £138 (extreme day trip) Total – £1,600.11
Why it matters
Budget travel is one of the most replicable formats a creator can touch.
Helen isn’t selling a £4,000 retreat nobody can afford.
She’s a working mum doing seven countries for the price of one package holiday, and the numbers are checkable down to the penny.
That’s the kind of content people actually copy.
Extreme day trips have quietly become their own genre online, creators racing to prove how far they can get and back for less than a takeaway.
The cost-of-living squeeze has only sharpened the appeal.
Whether Helen turns that queue of willing friends into an audience is the open question.
For now she’s just booking the next £8.99 flight before anyone else spots the price.
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