A mother of five children frequently leaves them behind to enjoy extreme day trips abroad with her partner, describing the experience as a way to rediscover herself. Oliviyah Stevens, 36, felt depressed as her maternity leave with her one-year-old son Kaius came to an end and craved personal time.
She discovered extreme day trips and took her first solo excursion to Alicante in November 2025, leaving her five children with her partner Kyle, 37. She also travels abroad with Kyle every few months for a “date day”.
Oliviyah also takes her children on adventurous holidays, visiting Italy, Morocco, and Bucharest as a family. In total, she has visited 20 countries and recently added Pescara, Italy, paying just £30 for a return flight.
Finding Liberation in Travel
Oliviyah, a teacher from Walthamstow, said: “It’s amazing. It’s one thing not having the kids for a day and being in my home, but I’m cleaning and it’s not really a break. With this you’re actually having to go out and leaving your house in London, where everything is so expensive. The price of flying to Mallorca is the same as an evening meal.”
She added: “I find it really liberating and I feel like I’ve got myself back and as a mum you can forget that a bit. It’s very tiring doing lots of travel, but having five kids at home I’m tired as well. I prefer to be tired on a plane or on a beach.”
Oliviyah has three children from a previous relationship: Sahara, 14, Imani, 10, and Bear, nine, and two children with Kyle: Kenyah, two, and Kaius, one. She realized quick trips were feasible after a three-day break to Crete with Kyle was cut short due to a cancelled flight. They made the most of their planned childcare by booking a new destination and flew to Morocco and back in 30 hours the same weekend.
From Family Trips to Solo Adventures
She said: “I suddenly got the hunch for it to do more of these quick trips when childcare couldn’t allow us to do long lengths of time. It was my daughter’s 13th birthday and she wanted to go to Morocco and because I was on maternity leave I was able to do that, but because she was at school she was not able to take out more than a day.”
Her first extreme day trip was with her two younger children and partner to Italy for the day. The flight out was at 7am and they returned to London at 11pm. “It was for Kaius and Kenyah’s birthday who are born a year and two days apart to Bergamo. We went to a theme park called Leolandia – it was a lot cheaper than going to Chessington,” she said.
Making the leap to travel alone, Oliviyah left the kids with Kyle for her first solo extreme day trip to Alicante. She said: “I started to get the bite for it and went away by myself in November – it was a Saturday and couldn’t get childcare, so my partner looked after the kids. This trip was amazing, well-needed downtime, and I managed to get through at least 30 pages of my book.”
She took a bus from the airport to the beach, sat for an hour, then went to a café and later walked into the town centre to visit Zara. “I was anxious as the first time travelling I wanted to be at the airport in good time. I scroll through Sky Scanner and look at whatever is available and just book it. I don’t care about anything as long as it’s affordable and the flight times are OK,” she added.
Date Days and Rediscovery
In April 2026, Oliviyah and Kyle flew to Mallorca for the day to celebrate her birthday, with flights costing £62 each, leaving the children with her mother Carole. They even managed a boat ride during their busy day. She said she was “lucky” to have had half-term holidays abroad as a child, but Kyle had not had the same experience.
She said: “I like to go abroad on holiday and Kyle knows that often with the children we can’t go away together, so I go by myself. I did start to realise the holidays would be better if we could both go together. It was great going by myself, but I still wanted to be with him as well. He’s not an avid traveller it’s only since he met me he’s been on all these holidays.”
She added: “I think it’s important as well as new parents to take that time for yourself. We’re a bit older and have had kids – you lose yourself again. We’ve found time to come about for us. It’s important for us to have that date day every so often.”
The couple has also visited Morocco, Luxembourg, and Amsterdam together. In Luxembourg in November 2025, they visited Christmas markets, hired bikes, and got matching tattoos. Sharing her travel tips online, Oliviyah said other women expressed interest in trying extreme day trips after seeing how affordable they were.
“Some people are afraid or sheltered to travel alone and that could be a massive limitation for them. I was in a case where I was so desperate for alone time I took the time I could. I do think it gave me inspiration to travel as well as being mum – there’s so much chaos and obviously going back to work after maternity leave I felt like I’d not discovered myself again. I had that rest away and the chaos was behind me so I could think clear and come back revitalised,” she said.
“I’d lost myself in the midst of five kids. Those breaks away allowed me to reflect, set goals and I found myself.”
Oliviyah's Trips So Far
- 2022: Agadir, Morocco (one-night with Kyle); Amsterdam, Netherlands (one-night with Kyle)
- 2023: Bulgaria (three-night with Kyle); Morocco (one-week with Kyle and Sahara); Portugal (four-night with Sahara); Lanzarote (three-night with Sahara, Imani, Bear, Kenyah)
- 2024: Egypt (one-week with her mum, Kyle, Sahara, Imani, Bear, Kenyah); Lanzarote (three-night with Kyle and Kenyah)
- 2025: Montenegro (three-night with Kyle and Kaius); Morocco (one-night with Sahara, Imani, Bear); Lanzarote (three-night with Sahara and Kenyah); Morocco (three-night solo); Mallorca (three-night with Imani for 10th birthday); Italy (day trip with Kyle, Kenyah, Kaius); Poland (one-night with Kyle, Sahara, Imani, Bear, Kenyah, Kaius); Alicante (first solo day trip); Luxembourg (day trip with Kyle)
- 2026: Romania (day trip with Sahara); Mallorca (day trip with Kyle)
