Travelmaxxing, the new travel trend coming to a European town this summergettyIt seems that everyone is maxxing something right now—the Gen Z practice of optimizing a specific aspect of our lives, often to an extreme degree. Well, after sleepmaxxing and looksmaxxing, now comes travelmaxxing—the art of doing everything possible while traveling.In practical terms, this is as far away from sitting by the pool with the latest book as you can get. Think yoga at sunrise after a two-hour trek, traveling 5 countries in 21 days, wringing everything out of a trip that you possibly can before heading home.According to Booking.com data reported by the U.K.’s The Times, searches for international flights departing and returning the same day are up 62% compared to 2025. These are ‘extreme day trips’ by anyone’s standards.Travelmaxxing might be about maximizing our insatiable travel appetitesEuropean travel sentiment is very high despite tighter budgets—in April 2026, the European Travel Commission's European Travel Sentiment report found that 82% of Europeans were planning to travel this summer, with much shorter stays.This has been borne out by more recent data from the European Travel Commission’s Monitoring Sentiment for Intra-European Travel, which shows that Europe is having a busy summer despite the European heatwave, the World Cup and a war-induced jet fuel crisis.Most Europeans plan to holiday within Europe, and Southern and Mediterranean Europe continues to be the preferred destination—with Spain (14%), Italy (12%), France (8%) and Greece (7%) leading the pack.Likewise, TripIt data shows that international travel remains resilient, with international flight bookings in June, July and August up 23.5% compared to 2025.Travelmaxxing might be about maximizing the moneyThere might be a practical reason, however, for travelmaxxing. With tighter budgets and less money to spend, going on holiday is becoming more expensive every year.In 2025, Which? reported that vacations were up to 11.5% more expensive, and Bloomberg reported that the average Spring Break trip now costs more than $8,000—double what you would have paid in 2019.In 2026, the U.S. Travel Association’s Travel Price Index said travel prices rose 9.8% year over year in May 2026, with airfares up 26.7% and hotel prices up 5.1%.TravelMaxxing In Europe, By BusNew research from FlixBus reveals the best four-city routes for travelers looking to see more of Europe whilst still keeping costs down—that’s to say, the routes where you can see the most for less.More specifically, Flixbus analyzed European destinations by accommodation costs and quality, the cost of a night out, and the density of sights, nightlife, and UNESCO World Heritage Sites within reach of each city. The company then mapped the four most efficient city combinations, keeping each leg under five hours, and ranking them by nightlife, culture, budget, and accommodation.Many of the top five head into Eastern Europe outside of the Eurozone for at least some of the trip:Berlin to Prague to Vienna to Budapest—ranks as Europe’s best overall tripmaxxing route, scoring 28.8 out of 40 thanks to its strong balance of nightlife, culture, affordability and accommodation.Berlin to Prague to Bratislava to Budapest—ranks second overall, combining a strong nightlife score of 8.7 with an above-average budget score of 8.0.Berlin to Prague to Wrocław to Kraków—the best option for budget-conscious travelers, achieving the highest budget score of 8.6 while also recording the shortest total journey time among the top five, at 11.7 hours.Amsterdam to Dortmund to Berlin to Prague—the best route for culture, recording the highest culture score among the top five at 6.8.Berlin appears in all five of the highest-ranking routes because it’s a key hub for affordable and efficient multi-city travel across Europe. Sarah Bartlett, PR Lead at FlixBus U.K., explains of its top ten travelmaxxing routes: “We are seeing more travelers looking to make the most of their time away by experiencing multiple destinations in a single journey.”It also chimes with other key travel trends in 2026, notably that travelers are increasingly treating vacations as investments, using the time off to rest deeply (think sleepmaxxing, under a different name) or to build new skills that last long after the return flight.Travelmaxxing reflects a wider shift in how some people think about time off: less lounging, more optimizing. Of course, there is another option that will also save you money. Instead of travelmaxxing, you could just stay in the same place and read a book—conversely, literary travel, or taking a bookcation, is surging in 2026.MORE FROM FORBESForbesWhy Literary Travel Is Surging In 2026By Alex LedsomForbesGear Libraries Are Rewriting The Rules Of Outdoor Travel In EuropeBy Alex LedsomForbesHow Useful Is Your Passport In 2026 For The Best Global Mobility?By Alex Ledsom