It's always tempting to add day trips to your vacation rather than taking the trouble to pack up your stuff and staying overnight. But I've often felt that day-trippers run the risk of missing out on the essence of a place.
This was never more in evidence than when we visited the Lasithi plateau on Crete. We took the typical Greek bus ride to get to the village of Pyschro, a long ride on a narrow, rutted road punctuated by moments when the men were expected to hop off the bus to move a haphazardly parked car blocking our way. We found a hotel room (actually, it found us via a woman who meets the bus every day).
The place was rockin'. Tour buses were everywhere. The local restaurant was packed. Every language you can imagine (and some you can't) rang out in the hot, sticky air. Everyone was lined up for the town's attraction: Diktaion Antron, the cave that is marked as the birthplace of Zeus.
How could we have gotten a room at a four room hotel when so many people were in town?
Soon we had our answer. Just as the sun started edging toward the horizon, they disappeared.
What a difference! Day trippers had left "the real Greece" to us! Just us, hundreds of windmill skeletons, a few donkeys and the smell of herbs rolling off the parched countryside. We were there. It was magic.
The next day we left town before the tour coaches rumbled in to walk the road that circles the plateau. Apple trees loaded with red fruit hung over the road, as if placed there for the pilgrims along it.
We stopped for some grilled lamb and salad at a roadside restaurant which consisted of a single, small hibachi and a shed where a woman made salads. Whatever you ordered in English, you got grilled lamb and salad. It hit the spot.
We saw a Greek wedding. We talked to shepherds in broken Italian. We saw more caves. We came full circle, home after the tour buses had gone, ravenous for dinner. We ate alone, choosing from the boiling pots in the kitchen and finishing off a bottle of slightly warm wine. Our entire day, including hotel, cost us $9 for two. It was the 1980s, but cheap none the less.
Getting a Sense of Place - If the Place has one
A quick day trip or short coach tour is fine if where you're going has only one or two attractions and no real charm of its own. Take Figueres, Spain:
Figueres, Spain - Damian Corrigan, guide to Spain for Vistors, says, "The Dali museum is the main (only?) reason to go to Figueres, but it is well worth it. So don't worry about boarding a bus out of Barcelona to see it."
On the other hand, even though Cesky Krumlov is a top day trip from Prague, according to Kerry Kubilius, it has charm to spare, being an UNESCO World Heritage site with an historic old town complete with castle and baroque theater. I'd want to be there after the tourist buses rumbled away. I'd want to be there first thing in the morning as people start to sweep in front of the shops and life moves slowly and the air is cool. Only then could I imagine that Cesky Krumlov would show me its evocative side.
Consider your day trip choices carefully. During the day Mont St. Michelle is awash with postcard stands, screaming children and tourists in tee shirts festooned with advertising. Whatever medieval spell pushed you toward choosing the destination is likely to be broken, only to return for a while in the wee hours of morning.
It'd be a shame if you weren't there.
