Man Goes Viral For 1-Day Trips Across Countries — But After Trying One, I'd Never Do It Again

There's a common belief that travel has to be a whole production — planning your vacation days far in advance, arranging pet or babysitters, booking hotels, and making reservations. One could see the project of travel blogger Kevin Droniak (@kevindroniak on Instagram and TikTok) as trying to disprove that. Droniak goes on trips that span just a single day and posts about them, several of which have millions of views. 

These aren't simple day trips outside a city by train or car, either. In one, he flies from New York City to India. In others, it's NYC to Japan or to Germany (the latter post has over 8 million views on TikTok). Droniak's motives, as he clarified in a People interview, are to "break the stigma that you need a week to go anywhere if you want to go somewhere." 

His intentions are noble, no doubt — travel shouldn't have to be totally time-consuming or bank-breaking, or both. But is the payoff really worth it if you're traveling to an entirely new place (on a long flight, no less), and getting only a few hours of its culture and sights? I've undertaken one of these short trips myself — from London to Paris and back, no overnight stay. When I left, it hardly felt like I could say I'd been to Paris at all. Though it might make for a nice video, for most, one-day trips just aren't worth it.

When I was staying in London, it was easy to get to Paris in about 2.5 hours by train. Even travel writer Rick Steves considers it one of the best border-busting day trips. So I decided to give it a try: one train ride into Paris in the morning and one back to London at night. In that day, I picked up some sweets at a pâtisserie, saw the Louvre and Eiffel Tower, and walked along the Seine. 

But I wasn't really present for any of it. There was always a clock ticking in the back of my mind, and there wasn't enough time to make meaningful connections. On the train back, I felt depleted and unsatisfied. It made for an interesting one-time experiment, but as someone who likes to experience a destination's everyday side, it just wasn't worth all the rushing. You can't really enjoy somewhere if you only pass through in a sprint.

There's an asterisk to the promise of getting to bypass an overnight booking on a trip: If you don't stay overnight, you have double the transit to make in a single day. Getting back on a train and repeating the journey I'd made under 20 hours before, with no rest and lugging my backpack around all day, was a slog. It's even more punishing if you're taking the transoceanic flights that Droniak does. I'm not convinced the average traveler has the bandwidth to do that regularly. Even though you're back home after 24 hours, there's a good chance you'll need more time off to recuperate. It might look effortless when condensed into a minute-long Instagram video, but the reality of a day trip across countries involves too much legwork and too little time for enjoyment or spontaneity.

For most travelers, a one-day trip significantly limits their chances of bonding with locals and developing a new perspective, one of the ways Rick Steves says younger travelers can make the most of a trip to Europe. That doesn't mean you need to make every trip a two-week itinerary. Droniak was right in pointing out that some travelers might not have the time to take off work. 

But you can still make longer trips without needing to beg your boss for excessive vacation time. Take a Monday off and leave Friday after work for a trip over a long weekend, or use public holidays paired with a bit of PTO to maximize your vacation time, for example. A long weekend in Paris or Puerto Rico will feel infinitely more fulfilling than a rushed same-day outing.

You also don't need to limit yourself to a day to save on overnight bookings. Hotels can be a big line item in a travel budget, true, but it's not the only option. In fact, I recommend that travelers who enjoy meeting new people on trips try out a hostel. You can make the most of a stay in a hostel by turning it into an opportunity to build connections or get sightseeing recommendations. It might not be the most glamorous option, but at least you have somewhere to rest and can save your energy for spontaneously following that hidden, winding alleyway or sitting down for a drink with a local.