A woman and her friends took an extreme day trip from Newcastle to Ibiza and it cost them significantly less than a trip to London.
Nicola Maddison, from Cramlington in Northumberland, said she found extreme day trip opportunities from Newcastle International Airport via a Facebook group.
Speaking to the Express, she said: “It started when my neighbour told us about this extreme day trip group in January and I loved the idea, I just thought that’s amazing, so I joined it and ever since then I’ve been on at my friends to do this – and they just thought it was crazy, just going for a day!”
Nicola and her three friends, who are all in their early 50s, take a girls trip every year and while her friends were initially not too keen on the idea, they eventually decided they wanted to go.
She said she had been checking for reasonably priced day trips, adding: “It was great for the price, you couldn’t go to London for that price from Newcastle.”
After struggling to get everyone together on the same day for the trip due to needing to be flexible and possibly consider going mid-week, they finally found a location and date for a cheap price.
Nicola added: “I’d seen somebody post something on the main group about an opportunity to go to Ibiza in Newcastle and we went Saturday, October 26 when the price was quite good.
“It was just after my birthday and everybody miraculously was free so we went out for a walk one Sunday morning and I just mentioned it to them. They guessed the day trip would be to Belfast or Dublin at first and when I said Ibiza they all said they would do it.”
Nicola booked through separate airlines to keep the price low, with the group departing from Newcastle International Airport at 7.30am on a Saturday morning and arrived back at 10.30pm the same day.
They booked four weeks in advance which Nicola noted was quite good compared to how short notice some other peoples’ extreme day trips are.
It cost around £65 in total which Nicola said was more expensive than what Brits pay when extreme day tripping from airports in the south of England. It’s also cheaper than London, when taking into account averages of £80 trains from Newcastle to London without a Railcard, as well as £7 pint prices and eye-watering food costs.
She said: “It was just a giggle on the plane and when we got there it was around 22C so we headed straight to Ibiza town.
“First, we went for coffee, after the champagne on the plane, and then we had a walk around the old town.
“We did some shopping and then we walked to the Dalt Vila area where we got some pictures at the top with the nice views.
“After, we went for some sangria, then we decided it was time to have some food so we had some tapas. Then we went for some cocktails and we met a friend who lives there for a drink.
“We got a taxi to the airport at about 8.45pm, if it would have been warmer we would have gone to the beach too.
“The time just ran away with us really, but it was lovely, it was 22C so much warmer than it usually is at home in October.”
Nicola’s flight home was delayed so they didn’t get back home until around 2am in the morning but she said “it was great, I’m dying to do another one.”