Two hours out of Florence there is a vineyard. Two hours out of Marrakech there is a desert.
Which Tuscan day trip actually stops for the winery lunch. What the Atlas Mountains cost from Marrakech. Whether Pompeii beats the Amalfi road when Rome has left you one free day. Reviews of the day trips you can book, city by city.
Neuschwanstein · two hours from Munich
Four day trips that talk people into the flight.
The ones that go first out of Florence, Amsterdam, Marrakech and Reykjavík. What each costs, and what the people who took it say.
01The Tuscany oneTuscany Day Trip from Florence: Siena, San Gimignano, Pisa and Lunch at a WinerySiena, San Gimignano and a winery lunch, in one coach day out of Florence. The trip most people build the rest of the week around.
02The windmill runFrom Amsterdam: Zaanse Schans, Volendam & Marken Day TripZaanse Schans, Volendam and Marken, forty minutes north of Amsterdam. Green timber houses, a working sawmill, back by mid-afternoon.
03The Atlantic oneFrom Marrakesh: Essaouira Full-Day TripMarrakech to Essaouira and back, three hours each way through argan country. The ramparts, the blue boats, grilled sardines on the quay.
04The waterfall dayReykjavík: South Coast Waterfalls, Black Sand & Glacier TourSeljalandsfoss, Skógafoss and a black-sand beach on Iceland’s south coast. Twelve hours from Reykjavík, and worth every one of them.
Six cities worth walking out of for a day.
Rome, Paris, Marrakech, London, Florence, Athens. Every one of them puts a completely different landscape inside a morning’s drive, and the pickup is usually on your own street.
Every Italian city has a better day an hour outside it.
Florence sends you to Siena and a cellar lunch. Rome sends you to Pompeii and the coast road. Naples sends you to Positano. Four kinds of Italian day out, what it costs to board each one, and the base it leaves from.
The best day trips are the ones with a hull under them.
Longtails out of Krabi to the four islands, the Blue Grotto from Sorrento, Spinalonga from Agios Nikolaos, Bellagio by private boat from Milan. A day that ends in a swim costs less than the same day on a coach.
The day trips more travellers book than anything else.
Every day trip review →Tuscany out of Florence, the windmills out of Amsterdam, Neuschwanstein out of Munich. The days out that carry the most travellers, and what earns each one the seat.
1
Tuscany Day Trip from Florence: Siena, San Gimignano, Pisa and Lunch at a Winery
Meet Walkabout Florence Tours near Santa Maria Novella at 7:45am for an 8am departure. A professional English-speaking guide leads you through Siena, a Chianti winery lunch and tasting, San Gimignano, and Pisa. Expect a full 11 to 12 hours, plenty of walking, and optional Leaning Tower tickets.
From · $114
Read our review →
2
From Amsterdam: Zaanse Schans, Volendam & Marken Day Trip
from $34
3
From Munich: Neuschwanstein & Linderhof Castle Full-Day Trip
from $94
4
Reykjavík: South Coast Waterfalls, Black Sand & Glacier Tour
from $126
5
Bucharest: Dracula Castle, Peles Castle & Brasov Old Town
from $40
6
Lisbon: Pena Palace, Sintra, Cabo da Roca, & Cascais Daytrip
from $91
7
Florence: Pisa, Siena and San Gimignano Day Trip with Lunch
from $58
8
From Marrakech: Day Trip to Ouarzazate and Ait Benhaddou
from $21
A castle is the easiest day trip to sell to everyone in the car.
Neuschwanstein two hours from Munich, Peleș and Bran out of Bucharest, Pena on its ridge above Sintra, Chenonceau lying across the Cher. Half of them run on timed entry, and the coaches all arrive at eleven.
Every castle day trip →
What a day trip really costs, from the coach seat to the winery lunch.
Every day trip on the site, grouped by what you pay. The cheap end is not the poor end: Marrakech to Essaouira costs less than lunch in Florence and takes the whole day.
Morocco, Thailand, the Balkans and the Nile: full days with a driver, a guide and a long road out.
The European standard. Tuscany with lunch, Pompeii and Vesuvius, Sintra and Cascais, the Highlands.
Small-group Normandy, Yosemite from San Francisco, private cars, and the ones with a flight inside them.
Three kinds of day trip that only work as a day trip.
Nobody bases a holiday at a waterfall, on a mountain railway, or in a dead Roman town. You borrow the landscape for eight hours and hand it back at dusk.
The waterfall day
Ouzoud is three hours over the pass from Marrakech, Kravica an hour past Mostar, Skógafoss two along Iceland’s ring road. All three are a full day for twenty minutes of standing in the spray, and all three are worth it. The variables that matter are the season and the melt: spring runs them hard, late summer thins them, and the pools below only open for swimming when the flow drops.
- 1Reykjavík: South Coast Waterfalls, Black Sand & Glacier Tour★★★★★★★★★★ 4.8 · 11,030 reviews
- 2From Dubrovnik: Mostar and Kravica Waterfall Day Trip★★★★★★★★★★ 4.7 · 7,228 reviews
- 3Marrakech: Ouzoud Waterfalls Guided Day Trip with Boat Ride★★★★★★★★★★ 4.4 · 4,995 reviews
The train day
The Bernina crosses from Italy into Switzerland on a narrow gauge without a rack, climbing past glaciers to 2,253 metres, and it runs all winter. Salzburg from Munich is ninety minutes on a regional ticket that covers the whole party. The rule with rail days is the seat: on the panoramic cars the windows are sealed, so photographers book the ordinary carriages.
- 1From Milan: Bernina Train and St. Moritz Day Trip★★★★★★★★★★ 4.5 · 4,495 reviews
- 2Salzburg Sightseeing Day Trip from Munich by Rail★★★★★★★★★★ 4.5 · 3,125 reviews
- 3Bangkok: Damnoen Saduak, Train Market & Mahanakhon Day Trip★★★★★★★★★★ 4.7 · 2,162 reviews
The ruins day
Pompeii is forty minutes from Naples and half a day from Rome, and the site is bigger than most people plan for: two hundred acres, almost no shade. Volubilis sits an hour out of Fez with the mosaics still in the floors. Abu Simbel is a three-hour desert run from Aswan and the convoys leave before dawn. Bring water and go early; midday on an open dig is nobody’s idea of a holiday.
- 1Cape Sounion & Poseidon Temple Sunset Half-Day Trip★★★★★★★★★★ 4.8 · 8,241 reviews
- 2London: Windsor, Stonehenge, Bath, and Roman Baths Day Trip★★★★★★★★★★ 4.5 · 5,131 reviews
- 3From Aswan: Abu Simbel Temple Day Trip with Hotel Pickup★★★★★★★★★★ 4.4 · 2,807 reviews
Four day trips that will not wait for you to land.
Most of this can be arranged over breakfast the day before. These four run on ferry seasons, timed castle slots, a tide table and daylight that gives out at four in the afternoon.
- 01Similan Islands Early-Bird Tour From Phuket and Khao Lak!The Similan Islands close for the monsoon, roughly mid-May to mid-October. Inside the season the boats are gone days ahead.
- 02From Munich: Neuschwanstein & Linderhof Castle Full-Day TripYou go inside the castle on a timed slot with a fixed number of places on it. Turning up at the gate rarely helps.
- 03Day Trip to Mont-Saint-Michel from ParisThe abbey and the causeway run to the tide table, and the coach that reaches the mount for opening leaves Paris before seven.
- 04Small Group Yosemite and Giant Sequoias Day Trip from San FranciscoSnow shuts the high roads from November until late spring, and peak-season entry has run on booked arrival slots.
The day trip that still works in the rain.
A day trip is paid for days ahead and the weather votes last. Caves, castles, cellars and thermal water do not care: the Drach caves on Mallorca, a Loire château, the baths under Zakopane are the same day wet as dry. Book those for the doubtful forecast and keep the coast for the clear morning.
Six cities, and the day trip everybody takes out of them.
Marrakech
Lisbon
BucharestBy the city you are leaving
By the kind of day out
The newest day trip reviews.
The rest of the new ones →
Small-Group Grampians Great Wildlife Escape Day Trip with Hiking
Read our review →
Full-Day Trip Barcelona to Montserrat Monastery & Cava Winery
Read our review →
From Yerevan: 6 Most Instagramable Armenian Sights Day Trip
Read our review →
Loire Valley Wine and Castles Small-Group Day Trip from Paris
Read our review →
Loire Valley Royal Castles Guided Small group Day Trip from Paris
Read our review →
Day trip – Atlas Mountains Ourika Valley Waterfall From Marrakech
Read our review →
Bosnia Day Trip: Mostar and Kravice Waterfalls by Luxury Minibus
Read our review →
Niagara Falls: Canadian Side Day Trip with Maid of The Mist
Read our review →
From Venice: Dolomites, Lake Misurina, and Cortina Day Trip
Read our review →
From Venice: Dolomites and Lake Braies Day Trip by Minivan
Read our review →
Split: Krka Waterfalls Guided Day Trip with Swim & Boat Tour
Read our review →
From Venice: Cortina and Dolomites Mountains Day Trip
Read our review →