Sweden: Siltanews – News Desk
(CNN) — After scoring a rock-bottom fare on Ryanair from London to Gothenburg, Graham Earl, his wife and their two daughters flew to Sweden for the day this past May to visit a popular theme park.
The family caught an early morning flight from London Stansted Airport, grabbed a ride share to the park after landing in Gothenburg and arrived just as Liseberg’s gates opened at 11 a.m. They spent the entire day tackling the rides and shows with their daughters, ages 11 and 13, and enjoyed a meal at an Italian restaurant before leaving for the airport at 9 p.m. to catch their flight home.
The Earls’ flights cost £24.99 (around $34) each, roundtrip. Add to that four theme park tickets and other expenditures for the day and the total came out to roughly the same as what the family would have spent for entry tickets alone to an amusement park near their home on England’s South Coast, Earl says.
For the foursome, the Swedish jaunt was one of five day trips around Europe they’ve taken so far this year. They’ve traveled there and back for the day from England to places like Dublin, Venice and Palma de Mallorca in Spain – all while keeping airfare costs under £25 per person and arriving home in time to sleep in their own beds.
While the United Kingdom — with its low-cost air carriers offering frequent connections throughout Europe — is a hub for “extreme day trips” like the ones the Earls embarked on this year, people have also tried it in the US and beyond.