Day trips · six countries
Amsterdam, Bruges, Luxembourg, Alsace or the Eifel — and your own bed in the evening. No hotel booking, no luggage, no hunting for a parking space.
North Rhine-Westphalia sits well: the Dutch coast, the Flemish old towns, the Moselle valley and Luxembourg are all reachable in a single day — out, a proper stay on site, and back. That is what a day trip is: not a holiday, but a day that feels like one.
The practical advantage lies less in the travel time than in what disappears. No hotel booking, no suitcase, no parking charges in an unfamiliar city centre — and on the way home somebody else drives. Anyone who has driven back from the coast to the Ruhr in the evening knows the difference.
Every departure starts from four fixed boarding points: Dortmund, Duisburg, Essen and Düsseldorf. Prices on this page are final prices per person; entrance fees and meals are paid locally, and what the price includes is listed on each tour's own page.
Ordered by country. Dated departures can be booked directly; the others run on request, and for groups of 20 or more we arrange your own date.
Next departure · 26 September 2026
from €49
per person
Next departure · 20 December 2026
from €99
per person
Next departure · 5 December 2026
from €99
per person
Next departure · 16 October 2026
from €899
per person
Six countries, six very different days.
The most visited and the quickest to reach. Amsterdam with its canals, Volendam and Zaanse Schans with windmills at the water's edge, and Scheveningen for a beach day on the North Sea. In December the Light Festival joins them, turning the canals into an open-air museum of light.
Bruges and Ghent in one day: one old town a UNESCO site and museum-like, the other studenty and awake far later. Less than 50 kilometres separate them, which is what makes the double visit possible at all.
The short runs: Cochem with the Reichsburg above the Moselle valley, Monschau as a half-timbered town in the Eifel, Heidelberg with its castle and old town, and Neuschwanstein Castle as the one great outlier to the south.
Alsace, and with it the other side of the Rhine: Strasbourg with its minster and the Grande Île, Colmar with the Petite Venise and its half-timbered lanes. Closer to Germany in the kitchen than many expect — and then entirely its own thing.
Lucerne on Lake Lucerne with the Kapellbrücke, and Zurich with the Bahnhofstrasse. The longest drive in the programme, and in return the greatest contrast: mountains, lakes and a different price bracket in the café.
The capital on its cliffs above the Alzette, together with Schengen on the Moselle — the village whose name stands for open borders, and which is worth a stop for exactly that reason.
Four fixed boarding points between the Ruhr area and the Lower Rhine. Which one is nearest comes down simply to where you live.
Our main departure point. The trips are operated by Aydin VLD GmbH, a licensed coach company based in Dortmund — the vehicles are kept here, so most day trips begin in Dortmund. For the eastern Ruhr, the Unna district and the northern surroundings out to Waltrop and Lünen, it is the closest of the four.
The westernmost of the four boarding points, and therefore the one closest to the Dutch border. If you are coming from Oberhausen, Mülheim, Moers or the left bank of the Lower Rhine, this is usually the shortest journey — and the obvious choice for the North Sea and Amsterdam trips anyway.
The middle boarding point in the Ruhr, easily reached from Bochum, Gelsenkirchen, Velbert and southern Essen. If you live between Dortmund and Duisburg and cannot decide: Essen sits roughly in the middle, and the fare is the same at all four points.
The southernmost of the four, and the sensible choice if you are travelling from Neuss, Ratingen, the Mettmann district or up from Cologne. For the southern destinations — Alsace, Switzerland, Neuschwanstein — Düsseldorf is a shorter start for many guests than the Ruhr.
What to plan for.
Day trips leave between the early morning and mid-morning depending on the destination; for more distant ones such as Switzerland or Neuschwanstein, correspondingly earlier. The exact time for your boarding point comes with your booking confirmation.
No suitcase, no check-in. A rucksack with a rain jacket, water and a power bank covers the day. For destinations outside Germany, bring your identity card or passport even though there are no routine border checks.
The stay is measured so that the destination can actually be seen — deliberately timed for dusk on the Christmas departures, and for the middle of the day on summer destinations.
You return the same day, in the evening or at night depending on the destination. If you are working the next morning, factor that in for the more distant trips.
The fare includes return coach travel and compulsory travel insurance, and on most trips a tour escort as well. Entrance fees, boat trips and meals are paid locally; the exact list appears under “What's included” on each tour.
Clubs, company outings, family celebrations: from 20 people we travel on your date and to a destination of your choice. Get in touch and we will quote individually.
What people ask most before booking.
Tell us how many of you there are and which weekend you have in mind — we will suggest the right trip.
