ANYWHERE · IN A DAY
The best day out from wherever you're staying.
Pompeii from Naples, the Sahara from Marrakech, Cinque Terre from Florence, the Grand Canyon from Las Vegas. The world's great day trips, the ones you leave after breakfast and talk about for years, gathered by where you're staying and run by the people who do them best.
Worth the early start
Three day trips people plan whole holidays around.
A city break is a city break anywhere. But some excursions are the reason the trip gets booked at all: a dead Roman city under a live volcano, the Sahara at sunset, five cliffside villages on one stretch of Italian coast.
Frozen in time
Pompeii and Vesuvius
A Roman city stopped mid-breath in 79 AD, and the volcano that did it still smoking above the bay. From Naples it is barely an hour to walk streets with the ruts of cart wheels still in the stone, then up to the crater rim of Vesuvius for the view back down over the whole disaster. Most day trips pair the two, and a good guide turns rubble into the morning the sky went dark.
- 1 From Rome: Pompeii, Amalfi Coast, and Sorrento Day Trip
- 2 From Rome: Pompeii, Amalfi Coast and Positano Day Trip
- 3 Pompeii, Amalfi Coast and Positano Day Trip from Rome
Into the dunes
The Sahara from Marrakech
You leave the red city after breakfast and by afternoon the High Atlas has given way to actual desert: camel trains, Berber tents and the long shadows of Erg Chebbi. The full day trips reach the dunes at Zagora and Merzouga, where the sand turns copper at sunset and the silence is total. Few day trips on earth cover this much ground or change the view so completely.
- 1 3-Day Tour from Marrakech to Merzouga Luxury Camp with Camel
- 2 Agadir/Taghazout/Port: Sahara Desert 4×4 Day Trip with Lunch
- 3 3 Day Tour from Marrakech to Merzouga with Camel Ride Included
Five villages
The Cinque Terre
Five fishing villages stacked in pastel terraces above the Ligurian Sea, linked by a coastal train and a cliff path between the vines. From Florence it is a day of swapping the Renaissance for the coast: Vernazza's harbour, Manarola at golden hour, a plate of anchovies and a swim off the rocks. The walking trails and the boat hops are what the best guided days build around.
- 1 Cinque Terre Day Trip with Optional Hiking or Pisa
- 2 Florence: Cinque Terre Day Trip with Optional Hike
- 3 Florence: Cinque Terre Park Day Trip with Optional Street Food
Start here
The one more travellers book than any other.
Out of every day trip on the site, this is the single most popular. A safe first booking if you're still deciding which day to give up to the road.
The classics
The World's Most Popular Day Trips
Pompeii from Naples, the Cinque Terre from Florence, Stonehenge from London, the Atlas from Marrakech. The excursions the most travellers book, gathered in one place.
Where you're based
Tell us your base. We'll fill the day.
Most great day trips are decided by where you wake up. Rome opens onto Pompeii and the Amalfi Coast, Florence onto Cinque Terre and Pisa, Marrakech onto the Sahara and the Atlas. Pick your city and find the best run out of it.
One day on the Bay of Naples
Ruins, coast, or island?
Few places pack so much into one ferry ride and one coast road. From Naples or Sorrento a single day can take you to the ashes of Pompeii, along the Amalfi cliffs, or across to Capri, but rarely all three. Here's how to choose.
Out of Marrakech
Breakfast in the souk, sunset on the dunes.
No day trip changes the scenery quite like this one. The road leaves the red city, climbs the High Atlas past Berber villages and tips you out into real Sahara: camel trains, palmeries and the copper dunes of Zagora and Erg Chebbi. The shorter runs reach the desert edge and back by dark; the long ones chase the sunset over the sand and ride a camel into the quiet.
See the best Sahara day trips →A day on the coast
Swap the Renaissance for the sea.
An hour or two from Florence, five fishing villages cling to the cliffs above the Ligurian Sea, each a tumble of painted houses over a tiny harbour. The day runs on the little coastal train and the path between the vines: Vernazza for the harbour, Manarola at golden hour, anchovies and a glass of white, a swim off the rocks before the train home. The best guided days time the light and skip the queues.
See the best Cinque Terre day trips →Why we leave the city
The best memory of the trip is usually the day you got out.
You can see the cathedral and eat the famous pasta on any holiday. What you remember years later is the day you set the alarm, climbed into a minibus before the cafes opened, and watched a whole other country roll past the window: the coast road, the desert, the ruins, the loch. A day trip is the one part of the trip you can't fake from a hotel lobby.
Find your day out →Out of Edinburgh
A whole country, north of the city.
Edinburgh is two hours from another world. The full-day runs head up past Glencoe and the Glenfinnan viaduct to Loch Ness, through empty glens and weather that changes by the mile, with a driver-guide who knows the clan stories and where the deer come down to the water. It is a long day in the minibus and worth every mile of it.
- 1 From Edinburgh: Glenfinnan, Glencoe, and Highlands Day Trip
- 2 Edinburgh: Glenfinnan Viaduct, Glencoe & Fort William
- 3 Inverness: Isle of Skye and Eilean Donan Castle Day Trip
By how long you've got
How much of the day can you spare?
Some trips are a morning; some swallow the whole day and a chunk of the evening. We grade every one by the time it actually takes door to door, so you can match the excursion to the gap in your itinerary. Pick the length, then pick the place.
Half a day
Out and back by lunch.Pisa and the Leaning Tower from Florence, Versailles on a Paris morning, the Blue Lagoon on the way in from Keflavik. A few hours away and home with the afternoon still ahead of you.
A full day out
Gone by eight, back by dark.Pompeii and Vesuvius from Naples, the Cinque Terre villages from Florence, Stonehenge and Bath from London. One proper day, a packed lunch, and a city to come home to.
The long one
Dawn start, big country.The Sahara dunes from Marrakech, the Scottish Highlands and Loch Ness from Edinburgh, the Grand Canyon from Las Vegas. Hours on the road each way, and a place you would never see otherwise.
Beat the coaches
The famous places, before everyone else arrives.
The difference between a postcard and a scrum is usually an hour. The early Stonehenge runs from London put you among the stones before the day-trippers; special-access tours walk you inside the circle at dawn. The same trick works at the ruins, the palaces and the canyons everywhere: go first, and the icon is almost yours.
See all 18 Stonehenge day trips →By part of the world
Start with the map.
Italy for the ruins and the coast. Morocco for the desert. Japan for Mount Fuji. Scotland for the lochs. The USA for the canyons. Greece for the oracles. Pick a region and see what a day out of it looks like.
By kind of day out
Or pick the kind of day.
Ancient ruins if you came for the history. Dunes if you want the desert. Islands and coast if you want the water. Lochs, waterfalls, wildlife and geysers, grouped by the experience rather than the postcode.
When to go where
The day-trip year.
Somewhere is always at its best. Line the trip up with the season instead of hoping the weather plays along, and let the calendar pick the destination.
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