Six women left Leicester at dawn, flew to Mallorca, spent the day eating tapas by the marina, celebrated a birthday with cocktails and were home before the following morning.
The whole thing cost roughly £160 each.
Becky Smith, 38, organised the trip for herself and five friends.
They caught a 6am Jet2 flight from East Midlands Airport, landed in Palma by 9:35am and didn’t fly back until 11pm.
Thirteen hours in Spain. No hotel. No luggage. No time wasted.
“When we were comparing it to things like spa days in the UK with food included, the cost was actually very similar,” Smith told Creatorzine.
“The difference is you’re getting a completely different experience. A new country, culture and climate, which makes it feel even more worthwhile.”
The numbers
Return flights cost £60 to £65 per person. The group split a £96 return taxi to East Midlands Airport, adding £16 each.
Taxis in Palma came to around £11 per person.
Food and drink across the day totalled roughly £60 each, covering tapas, paella, sangria, wine, beers, ice cream and cocktails.
All in, each person spent between £150 and £160. Smith says that figure could be lower on a tighter budget.
They weren’t trying to be frugal. It was Nicole’s 40th birthday.
“We definitely treated it as a celebration, so spent more than you would need to on a tighter budget,” Smith said.
Tapas, a castle and drinks by the seafront
The group explored a castle, walked along the seafront, ate their way through several rounds of tapas and paella and found a spot by the marina for birthday cocktails.
Smith says the day never felt rushed despite the time constraint.
“We managed to see some key sights, enjoy great food and drinks, and still have time to relax and take everything in,” she said.
People they met in Palma couldn’t believe they were only there for a few hours.
The concept of a day trip to another country apparently takes some explaining over sangria.
Minimal childcare, maximum trip
Part of what made the day work was logistics that had nothing to do with flights.
All six women are in their late thirties and forties. Several have children.
A full weekend away would have required planning that a single day didn’t.
“It required very little time away from home and minimal childcare, which made it much easier for everyone to commit,” Smith said.
She runs a travel business and shares budget travel tips on her social media at @travel_by_becky.
The Palma trip is the kind of content her audience responds to most: real numbers, real trips, no sponsorship gloss.
“I love showing people that travel doesn’t have to be complicated or expensive,” she said.
“It can fit around real life.”
Why it matters
Extreme day trips are a growing content niche driven by budget airline pricing and the simple maths of comparing a domestic spa day to a flight south.
The format works on social media because it invites the audience to do the calculation themselves, and the answer is usually surprising.
A day in Palma for the price of a facial, a robe and a mediocre lunch in the Cotswolds is the kind of comparison that gets shared.
For travel creators, this style of content has a built-in audience of parents, shift workers and anyone else who can’t take a full week off but could swing 13 hours.
Smith’s approach of publishing exact costs and honest itineraries builds the trust that vague “travel cheap!” content doesn’t.
Budget airlines from regional UK airports continue to make these trips viable.
The window is seasonal and price-dependent, but when the numbers work, they work convincingly.
Smith says she’d do it again without hesitation.
“It’s proof you don’t need a week off or a big budget to have an amazing travel experience,” she said.
Six women, one day, one country, £160 each. The spa can wait.
