Who I Am
I am Marco Bellini. I grew up in Milan, studied journalism in London, and have spent the last eight years living in three European capitals - London, Paris, and Rome. I write about day trips because I am bad at sitting still and good at reading train timetables.
I started this site after a disastrous attempt to visit Stonehenge on a Sunday in August 2016. I took a train to Salisbury, waited 45 minutes for a bus, and arrived at 4:15 PM - 45 minutes after the last admission. I stood in the parking lot and looked at the stones through a chain-link fence. That was the moment I decided someone should write about the logistics of day trips, not just the destinations.
Since then I have taken the 8:23 from London Victoria to Brighton 14 times. I know which platform it leaves from (always 13-19), when the on-board cafe opens (East Croydon, 12 minutes in), and that the ticket machines at Lisbon's Rossio station reject foreign cards (carry €20 in notes). This is the kind of information that determines whether your day trip works or falls apart.
Three Things I Got Wrong
1. Stonehenge on a Sunday (August 2016)
The last admission was 3:30 PM. The Sunday bus from Salisbury ran once an hour. I missed the connection by five minutes. I arrived at 4:15 and stood in an empty parking lot looking at stones through a fence. I have never made that mistake again - every guide on this site lists the last admission time and the Sunday bus schedule if it differs from weekday.
2. The Lisbon Ticket Machine (June 2019)
Rossio station, Lisbon. The queue for Sintra tickets was 15 people deep. I reached the machine, tapped my Visa card, and got three beeps and a rejection. "MB only," said the woman behind me. Portuguese Multibanco cards only. I had no cash. The machine next to me was cash-only. I held up the queue for four minutes while I dug coins out of every pocket. I now carry €20 in notes specifically for the Sintra line.
3. The Versailles Monday (March 2018)
I told a friend to visit Versailles on a Monday because that was when I happened to be free. We took the RER C, arrived at 10 AM, and found the palace gates closed. Versailles is closed every Monday. The gardens are open but the palace interior - the thing you go to see - is not. My friend paid €7.30 for the train and saw a locked gate. I now check opening days before I check anything else.
The Idea
City Day Trips started from a simple observation: the best experiences rarely happen in the city you are sleeping in. They are the day trip - the stone circle, the palace, the coastal town, the thing you traveled to the country to see.
But day trips require logistics. You need to know what is worth seeing, whether to do it independently or with a guide, and which tour actually delivers. That is research work. And it is work that happens at the start of a trip, when you have the least time and the most enthusiasm.
I do that research so you do not have to. Every page covers: the logistics (distance, transport options, time required), the honest tour-or-DIY decision, and the three best tours ranked by use case.
How It Works
Every destination page follows the same structure:
- Logistics first - distance, how to get there, what the practical options are. You need to know if it is feasible before you think about tours.
- Tour or DIY - an honest comparison. Sometimes DIY is truly the better option. I say so.
- Three tours - not ten, not twenty. Three. One best bet, one most comprehensive, one for a specific need.
- What you will see - practical context about the experience, not a sales pitch.
How I Test
I take the trains. I buy the tickets. I stand in the queues. I visit destinations as a regular traveler - no press trips, no comped tours. The experience of a guide who knows they are being reviewed is different from the experience you will get.
For each day trip, I evaluate the logistics (does the train run on Sundays? what happens if you miss the last bus?), the value (is the guided tour worth the premium over DIY?), and the intangibles (what surprised me? what would I do differently?).
Affiliate Model
City Day Trips earns a commission when you book through links on this site - at no additional cost to you. I recommend tours based on quality and value, not commission rate. If a tour is not worth the money, I say so.
Affiliate disclosure: City Day Trips is reader-supported. We earn a commission when you book through links on this page, at no extra cost to you.
Editorial Standards
I do not use language like "lesser-known spot," "top-rated," "remarkable," or "must-do list." Those words are filler. I describe what you will see, what makes the destination worth the logistics, and when a tour adds genuine value versus when you are paying for something you could do yourself.
Every page is written to be useful before you have booked anything, and honest after you have booked.