Explore how winter microtrips from London can act as lifestyle medicine, supporting vitamin D levels, mood and mental health through sunny day travel.
Do you feel constantly drained by the lack of sunlight? The rain, the cold and the grey skies over the UK make you feel miserable? Don’t worry, you are not on your own. With days lasting about 8 hours and almost no sun getting through the clouds for months, London can feel like a bleak place to be during Autumn and Winter.
Some Numbers and Facts:
The Problem
Receiving sunlight is actually vital to our health and wellbeing as humans. I have noticed that during the autumn and winter months, I experience higher levels of low mood and depression. Being it cold and rainy outside, some of my usual activities such as running and hiking, get disrupted. However, there is a lot more to my winer blues than I expected.
Once I started travelling, I experienced significant changes in the way I was feeling. I started my extreme day trips for the first time in November 2024. I remember going to Rome and having a gelato, as I was feeling hot while exploring the small streets around Fontana di Trevi. Then, in December 2024, I visited Nice and Monaco, where I kept taking layers off as it was sunny and warm.
In the end of November 2025, I was sunbathing in Larnaca, thinking how good I feel, with my anxiety and depression significantly reduced. For years, I have been aware that if I feel down, a day in the sun can really lift me up and make me feel more positive and charged with energy. There is science behind it and this is what I found during my research:
Vitamin D
Why is it important?
Vitamin D acts less like a vitamin and more like a hormone, influencing multiple systems in your body at once. It matters more than most people expect, especially if you live somewhere with log and dark winters.
Vitamin D is important for bone strength, muscle function, immune system support, hormonal and nervous system regulation, mood regulation, emotional processing, cognitive function and mental health wellbeing.
How do we naturally get Vitamin D?
The primary and most natural source of Vitamin D is sunlight! Your body produces vitamin D when UVB rays from sunlight hit your skin.
Only a few foods contain Vitamin D (such as oily fish and liver) and it’s not in particularly high proportions. If you are like me, you can take supplements, but while they can help maintain the Vitamin D levels in the body, they don’t replicate the light-related benefits. Therefore, to put it simply – we need sunlight to function at our best…
… Because, what happens if the Vitamin D levels are low? Fatigue, frequent illness, muscle aches, low mood and depressive symptoms.
Winter in the UK and Vitamin D?
It turns out it’s not only about the cloudy skies, but also the quality of the sunlight we get during Autumn and Winter:
Between October and March in the UK, sunlight contains very little of the ultraviolet B (UVB) wavelength the skin needs to make vitamin D. (National Institute for Health and Care Excellence, UK)
In addition to this, as you have seen in the fact sheet above, the sun is also too low in the sky, making it even harder to get the exposure we need.
Serotonin
Why is it important?
Serotonin is one of the body’s core regulating chemicals, best known for his role in mood stability. Adequate serotonin signalling is associated with calmer, more balanced moor, while low or dysregulated serotonin activity is linked to depression and anxiety.
Winter in London and serotonin?
Sunlight helps regulate serotonin activity in the brain. Research shows that serotonin activity can be influenced by bright daylight and seasonal changes in daylight, which helps explain seasonal shifts in mood, energy and motivation during the winter months.
Melatonin
Why is it important?
At night, serotonin is converted into melatonin, which is the hormone that signals to your body it’s time to sleep. It rises in the evening as the daylight fades, peaks at night and falls in the morning, when daylight returns. Melatonin production is directly controlled by light exposure through the eyes. It also plays a role in mood and emotional regulation.
Winter in Londin and melatonin?
Darkness stimulates the hormone’s release and this is why you may struggle in the morning if you woke up before daylight. In addition, the short and dim days can cause the brain to have difficulty distinguishing day from night. Furthermore, early sunsets may cause melatonin release earlier than desired.
The circadian rhythms
Personal disclosure: I can’t cope with working nights. This is why you don’t see me catching overnight flights and always aiming to book flights that will allow me to sleep at least until 4am (which is my psychological cut-off point). Circadian rhythms may very well explain this.
What are circadian rhythms?
They are your internal clock. They regulate your energy levels and mood. They are also responsible for your body temperature and hormone release. Circadian rhythms regulate when you feel awake or sleepy.
Sunlight is the primary cue that keeps your circadian rhythm aligned with the external world. The morning light is especially important as it signals the brain that day has started – it suppresses melatonin and promotes alertness and daytime serotonin activity. Daytime light supports serotonin signalling, which turns into melatonin. This is why poor light exposure can affect mood and sleep at the same time.
Winter in London and the Circadian rhythms?
The short daylight hours, the weak sunlight intensity, the cloud cover, and the majority of time spent indoors negatively affects the body’s internal clock. As a result, some may experience sleep disruption, low mood, reduced motivation and reduced focus and creativity.
Why are you SAD?
Seasonal Affective Disorder (SAD) is a form of depression that follows a seasonal pattern, with symptoms usually worsening in autumn and winter and improving in spring and summer. For many people, it involves clinically significant changes in mood, energy, sleep and daily functioning. It is important to note that circadian misalignment is one of the key mechanisms thought to contribute to SAD.
What about lifestyle medicine
Lifestyle medicine is an evidence-based medical approach aimed at preventing, managing and sometimes even reversing disease through changes in daily behaviour and lifestyle. Its core is the idea that our health is based strongly on how we live on a daily basis, so it aims to target the root causes of many modern-day health problems.
Lifestyle medicine treats health through daily behaviours such as healthy nutrition, regular physical activity, good sleep, social connections and stress management.
The solution
Microtrips to sunny places
A microtrip can be a day trip (also known as Extreme Day Trip (category)) where you fly out in the morning and get back home in the evening. It could be a weekend trip. It can also be what I call a “hop trip”. For example, in late November 2025, I travelled from London to Malta for 2 days; then I flew to Athens for a day; and finished my trip with 3 days in Larnaca before I got back to London. All three places have sunny beaches and longer winter days, not to mention the food and the culture I enjoyed while soaking in the sun.
Microtrips can be framed as a behavioural intervention – a structured way to increase daylight exposure, movement, novelty and social connection, all of which sit comfortably inside lifestyle-medicine thinking.
Why microtrips?
– Cost: I have personally done day trips that cost me less than £100. What you need to account for: the plane tickets, your transport to the airport, public transport in your destination (below I will share with you a few places where you can walk from the airport to the beach!); and food. I always buy a postcard and a magnet, which I also put in my budget calculations.
– Fit around your work schedule so you can do them often: Most probably you work full time and you only go away once a year. What if you change this and take a trip this weekend? Or take next Tuesday off (as it’s one of the cheaper days to fly) and hop to southern Spain for a day?
– Europe is small: Flight times in Europe are not long at all and sometimes you can find yourself on the French Riviera in about 2 hours. There are many sunny places you can pick. I have done a day trip to the Canary Islands and I can confirm it is quite easy and straightforward to go all the way to another continent and still be back in your own bed for the night.
– Travel can be cheap: I say this considering I usually fly out of Gatwick (base for EasyJet). If you live closer to Luton (base for WizzAir) or Stansted (base for RyanAir), you can get even cheaper plane tickets! As many people have noticed, it’s actually cheaper to go to Valencia than to get the train to Cornwall. If you are working shifts and get rest days on weekdays, it’s even better as flights are cheaper on Tuesdays, for example.
Benefits:
Sunlight
Travelling south in winter typically increases both day length and light intensity. Getting brighter morning light even just for a few days can be beneficial for your circadian rhythm.
o Vitamin D
As established above, supplements might help you keep the necessary levels of vitamin D in your body, but sunlight provides additional benefits that cannot be replaced. Sunlight triggers natural self-regulated vitamin D production, which means that the body gets exactly the amount of vitamin D it needs. (New England Journal of Medicine)
o Serotonin
Furthermore, sunlight exposure is associated with increased serotonin activity, improved mood regulation and better emotional resilience. A study has found that “the rate of production of serotonin by the brain was directly related to the prevailing duration of bright sunlight […], and rose rapidly with increased luminosity.” (PubMed https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/12480364/)
o Melatonin
Strong daylight helps melatonin do its job properly which results in deeper and more restorative sleep at night.
Bonus benefits no one talks about
Novelty
I don’t know about you, but my brain adores novelty! There is nothing better than a new environment, new challenge, new sights to keep me occupied and happy. My trips give me exactly that!
It’s not only that you will get richer with new experiences, but you will also try new foods and observe a culture that might be vastly different from your own. This is likely to stimulate the release of dopamine – a neurotransmitter involved in motivation, curiosity and learning.
Independence
If you are like me and you travel on your own, this experience can be hugely beneficial for your feeling of independence. There is something inherently empowering in exploring the world on your own terms, at your own pace. You get to see what you want to see. You get to travel the way you want to travel.
Feeling more independent can help you feel more confident and competent.
Physical activity
Many sunny places are best explored by foot. Being physically active has always been associated with being healthy, but did you know that walking can increase endorphins, dopamine and serotonin in your system, leading to reduced symptoms of depression and anxiety, improved emotional resilience and better stress regulation? (Mikkelsen K et al. Exercise and mental health. Frontiers in Psychiatry.)
Distraction in a good way
Breaking your daily routine with a short trip can be a welcomed distraction. I find that often my short trips help me see things from a different perspective, which is very helpful in problem solving and decision making.
Being forced to be present
If you have tried meditation or mindfulness, you are familiar with the phrase: “be present”. Being in a new unknown environment forces you to be present, without even applying any effort. You need to pay attention to your surroundings and there are many new sights grabbing your attention, while you are exploring a new place.
I found that this helps me break unhealthy thinking patterns and enjoy the present moment, rather than overthinking my whole life.
Life Hack: If you are away for a weekend, try digital detox on the beach. I did this in Larnaca and I was surprised how much better I felt overall after only one day. I left my mobile phone in the hotel and went to the beach with a bottle of water and a light snack. I felt so good that I didn’t even take my phone when I went out for a walk later in the day. It felt like a mental reset and I highly recommend it!
Travel as self-care
Sometimes a short break is all you need. And if you feel like you need an excuse to book your next flight to a sunny location – please feel free to quote my findings. The photos I included in this article are from short trips I have done myself. They are from tried and tested locations where you can get your so-needed sunlight and provide yourself with the time and space you need.
I often look at travel as a form of self-care. It’s not an escape, but a journey. I do it my way.
Ideas for your next sunny escape – places you can just walk from the plane to the beach.
