My bonkers break in Barbados to unearth the latest travel trend

No jet lag, no days off and maybe no hotel bill. Micro-trips open the door to a new form of tourism – just don't forget the coffee

Last weekend, I went to Barbados… for 43 hours. I know that sounds crazy, but it really wasn’t.

I landed late Friday afternoon, immediately sank two strong rum punches at a beach bar, which rolled into dinner at “Rihanna’s favourite restaurant,” Daphne’s. Saturday was spent snorkelling with turtles and jet-skiing along the glittering blue-green western coast of Barbados. There was just enough time for a long lunch on Sunday before … the eight-hour flight home.

Once you’re in the air, it doesn’t really matter whether your flight is an hour or eight, does it? I didn’t even get jet lag, as I never settled into the Caribbean time zone.

British travellers are more tactical than ever. Research from the Office for National Statistics last year showed that Brits are shunning longer trips for short breaks and quickie holidays. It makes sense. We can get almost anywhere in just a day from increasingly well-connected airports, plus we have limited holiday days and less spend thanks to the tumbling pound.

So what are we doing instead? What I’m calling the “micro-trip”: parachuting yourself into a destination for a super short period and doing as much as possible in that time.

The micro-trip could be a day, or two nights at a push. It involves a squeezed schedule, bouncing around the best restaurants, bars, museums, architecture, beaches in the shortest time possible. You get that holiday feeling without taking any time off.

It’s a study in how to maximise your time as a visitor. It’s the ultimate extreme itinerary.

Next month the travel desk is launching a new video series about these micro-trips. And the first one is suitably bonkers, but totally possible thanks to a rash of super cheap flights across the pond. We’re going to New York: landing at 9am and departing at 10pm.

We’ve got time to sneak around MoMA’s new expanded gallery space, lunch in swanky Midtown, a wander around Central Park and whizz across Brooklyn Bridge. All without checking into a hotel or taking a spare change of clothes. Yeah, we’re going to need some of that great American coffee…

Thankfully the next one is a bit closer to home: Cork in southwest Ireland.

Of course, there are places where micro-trips are impossible (frankly, my 43 hours in Barbados was probably pushing it). So if you do want to take a longer trip and embrace “slow travel”, here’s how to take just 16 days of annual leave next year for 34 days off.

Yours,

Cathy Adams

Head of travel