I visited 7 countries in one year without using PTO – here’s the travel tip that helped me do it

Meet the mom who visited seven countries in one year, spending just $3,180 — and using NO paid vacation.

Claire Howard took 13 extreme day trips – visiting every country within the space of 24 hours – in a bid to tackle her fear of flying.

Now 47, her phobia started when she was just 21.

But the English teacher, from Solihull, England, says the shock therapy worked – and she is no longer afraid of flying.

The mother-of-two took a leap of faith and booked her first day trip from Birmingham Airport to Geneva, Switzerland in January 2024.

Despite waking up the next day in a panic and trying to cancel the trip, Claire went ahead with it and enjoyed it so much that she ended up smashing her target – making 13 trips in 2024.

And she did it all without taking annual leave.

Claire said: “After a late night of moving I just booked one. I decided to go on my own, I just thought ‘if I can do this then I can do anything’.

“When I woke up the next morning in the cold daylight, I panicked and tried to cancel. But there was a $49 cancellation fee and I had only spent $51 on flights, so I decided to go.

“I was really anxious, but also very excited. The feeling when I came back and had done it was amazing, I was so high from it.”

Claire’s fear of flying began in the late 1990s when she was 21 and traveling the world.

Her flight from Perth to Singapore had experienced very bad turbulence, which sparked a lifelong phobia.

She said: “I was young, I was alone and a lot of people on the flight had started taking out prayer beads. It was really scary. That’s what really sparked my fear of flying.

“I flew again, but I was at the point where I had to go to the doctor and get diazepam to get on the plane.

“It starts a few days ago. I start obsessing about getting on the plane and going through all kinds of scenarios.

“When I get on a plane, any kind of sound or vibration will make me freeze. For me it’s the lack of control, you can’t get off.

“Fear is paralyzing. I can’t focus on anything but scanning for any sign of something wrong. I froze in fear.

“I’m fine once I’m there, but the build up to getting back on the plane overshadows all the fun and excitement.”

That all changed two years ago when Claire went into surgery for a preventative hysterectomy after discovering she had the BRCA 1 gene – giving her a high chance of breast and ovarian cancer.

The operation was a moment of realization and caused the mother to reduce her working hours to four days a week.

When tasked with the question of what to do with this day off, Claire decided it was time to tackle her fear of flying.

So she joined a Facebook group — and went from there.

She added: “What I didn’t want to do was spend my day off cooking or cleaning. That’s when I saw the Extreme Day Trips group. I decided that I would use my day off to do 12 trips in 12 months.

“I would force myself to get on a plane once a month. If I was only there for a day, I wouldn’t have time to stress about flights.

“Flying has become much easier, now I’m used to his routine. Now I feel like I know what the noises are and everything is back to normal.”

Now, 13 extreme day trips later, Claire says she has mostly dealt with her fears – as well as making beautiful memories with her two children Henry, 17, and Caelia, 16.

As for a favorite trip, Claire says she really connected with Poland – visiting Warsaw, Bydgoszcz and Poznan.

The mom has also been able to cut costs along the way by packing food for the plane ride and using the trendy app Too Good To Go to get discounted food abroad.

Flights ranged from $33 to $79 round trip, so each trip with activities and food included came to about $220 to $245

Overall, this adds up to about $2,800 to $3,180 for all 13 extreme day trips.

In 2025, Claire plans to go on six more trips – having already booked a flight to Budapest for next week.

She said: “I will not stop. I want her to continue to be a part of my life.”