Has anyone ever done one of those £99 Wowcher or similar mystery holidays?

[rookiemere]

Just musing as I got an email through, now DS is off to uni soon DH and I have a lot more flexibility over holidays and it might be a random, fun experience. Or are they a big old con ? Has anyone done one ?

Yeah they are usually Dublin! I remember complaining and getting it changed to Warsaw (think had to pay a fee) ended up having a brilliant time tho!

Oh I wouldn't be particularly fussed about going to Dublin for sure

I’ve done two. First was to Florence(flight was into Pisa, so had to get a train to hotel). Second was to Wroclaw in December for the Christmas market.
I think we had to pay slightly more to change to better flight times. The hotels were adequate, but not central.
I don’t think we’d do it again through wowcher.
if you have a good look online, I’m pretty sure you could book a destination of your choice for a similar price.
Of Course, if you like the idea of being allocated a random destination, then maybe consider it.

We are in Edinburgh so there isn't really much option to change flights to different times. I just wondered if anyone had got Dubai for 7 nights like they advertise, but I'm suspecting that is few and far between from the experiences here.

Years ago we did holidays booked through Teletext on the tv where you knew the destination and not the actual hotel. We had a good time but only because we were prepared ‘to make the best of it’. One hotel was in the middle of a building site and in another apartment we had a shower which was basically a large bowl with a curtain round it! We were young and just got on with it. Wouldn’t do it now.

Many years ago mil's relative came Up North and they booked a similar trip..... Both set off back down where the relative lived!!. Risky business back then. Def seems more Upmarket now!! Go for it op...

@Rocknrollstar I did a similar thing with a friend where we knew we would be in one of 3 hotels in Ibiza. They put us in a gorgeous hotel with great food, but it was very much a family hotel and as 2 single ladies in our late twenties we must have stuck out like a sore thumb.

My son and his girlfriend just did £99 mystery trip - they ended up in Lisbon for two nights and had a lovely time. Flights were quite late in the day, but that didn't bother them. The hotel was 'meh' according to my son, but it was clean and basic, fairly central, and perfectly ok for a city break.

£99 each for two nights in Lisbon is great!

You'd probably get Dubai in july/august when the temperatures are hideous and people aren't booking so much.

I'd love to give it a go but with 2 small kids the thought of late flights and potentially being away from the main places to see puts me off. Maybe in 15 years... I've had some great teletext holidays though!

The Telegraph has an article about them today: https://www.telegraph.co.uk/travel/travel-truths/mystery-holiday-wowcher-milan/

Archive link: https://archive.is/ZvRxJ

Wow, all for 99 quid. That is great.

I would definitely take a punt, but that stuff in the article about the extra expenses, most of that was obvious! Flights and 2 nights accommodation for 2 in (or near) any European city is a decent price, if you can cope with some equivalent to Travelodge.

I didn't end up actually going as they changed flights to a later time so practically not worth it to venice.wouldnt bother again.

I think they are good for couples but not very practical with DC if late flights etc.

That Telegraph article was very interesting. It makes sense - if we have limited time at a destination we would always look to book central accommodation, but of course out of town is cheaper.

My friend bought one and got 2 nights in lake Garda in February, ridiculous flight times and everything was closed no wonder it was £99

We did this a few years ago as a mother/daughter trip. We got Berlin, the flight times were pants so ended up having to pay to upgrade flights, the hotel miles out so we had to pay to upgrade hotel...My dad then decided he's like to come (no issues with this btw)...he booked as a DIY and his came out £10 cheaper than our deal. We did have a really nice time when we got there though.

I recently joined a group called extreme day trips on FB, they have a Scottish sub group.....they have some people post good flight deals. We're off to Berlin (again) as a Day trip in May, friend of mine doing a day trip to Copenhagen. You can get some fairly decent deals if you are flexible with times, these trips are both well under the £99.

I bought one with a friend. Paid more to have better/weekend dates. They could only offer us Gdańsk (which was fine) but not on any of the dates we wanted and not direct flights. They wanted us to do an 8hr train journey across Poland and fly the day before paying for a hotel at our own expense. Our experience was awful and felt like a big con. So I would say avoid.

A friend also did one and got Milan. Their hotel was way out of the city centre and they had to pay more for something (can't remember what). I think there's a lot of upselling.

Thanks everyone for your experiences.
Pretty sure I shan't give it a go as I don't fancy rubbish flight times, long transfers or out of town bargain basement hotels .
It would be wonderful if someone came along and said they had got an exotic trip out of it though.

My two DDs went on one at the end of March last year. They got the Eix Alcudia hotel in Majorca and it looked lovely. Weather was nice and they had a great time.

I belong to a Wowcher complaint group on Facebook and most of the posts are about the £99 holiday. Ranging from flights arriving late pm and the return early next day, so not a holiday, just a night in a cheap hotel, to flights needing a change in Copenhagen.

There's a Facebook page, wowcher rip offs, or something. The reviews are shocking. Late night flight out, early morning one back, huge costs to change anything.

Lastminute.com used to do brilliant cheap city breaks. Did a load of them in my broke twenties.