We booked a £99 Wowcher Mystery Holiday with no clue where we were going, was it worth it?
Travel Goals Podcast
Producer Luke and his wife test the viral £9/£79 Wowcher mystery holiday deal, which promises a destination reveal only after booking. Their
Key takeaways
- The Wowcher mystery holiday deal typically costs between £79 and £99 per person for flights and two nights.
- Destinations are randomized and can include high-end locations like the Maldives or more accessible European cities like Malaga.
Main topics
- Wowcher mystery holiday testing
- Travel to Malaga and Benalmadena
Notable quotes
Surrender to the travel gods, pack lightly, and manage your expectations heavily.
Conclusion
The mystery holiday is a worthwhile gamble for those seeking adventure
Transcript preview
Speaker 2 (0:13) Welcome to Travel Goals, the podcast that helps you travel better, with deep dives into travel topics and destination inspiration. I'm your host, Portia Jones. Alright, I'm clearly not Portia Jones. I'm producer Luke. And if you'll indulge me, I'd like to host this short episode. For two reasons. Firstly, because Portia's like really busy writing loads of travel articles for different newspapers right now. And secondly, because I'd like to tell you a story. Speaker 2 (0:40) Let's go back in time to the November of 2025. Speaker 2 (0:48) Right, now it's November 2025, and Portia and I are in a hotel room in Madrid. It was actually the Hard Rock Hotel, which is a brilliant hotel, right in the centre of Madrid. Portia had been invited for a stay, and since we'd been considering making a podcast episode in Madrid, as the producer of this show, it made sense for me to tag along. Well, also because Portia likes to take photos at these locations. And if she wants to be in the photo, someone has to hold the camera. So I'm sort of 50 % high-flying podcast producer and 50 % glorified camera stand. Just so you know, before she agreed to let me host this episode of Travel Goals, Portia made me promise that I wouldn't use, quote, too many silly sound effects. So I suppose I better get that out of my system now. Speaker 2 (1:36) So we were in our hotel room in the Hard Rock Cafe in the centre of Madrid, enjoying a lovely bottle of cava that we'd bought in the local supermarket. And my wife announced that she had a, quote, brilliant idea. It always makes me nervous when she says that. Gives me flashbacks to our honeymoon, when I agreed to go to Costa Rica, and she neglected to mention that we were actually going backpacking in Guatemala, Honduras and Nicaragua first. I'd never even been backpacking before. Anyway, so what's the brilliant idea, I nervously asked. Speaker 3 (2:07) £79 Woucher mystery holiday. So Speaker 2 (2:09) it turns out the company Woucher has been offering a fun promotional deal. For £79, they'll offer you a flight to and accommodation in one of their mystery locations. And according to their website, these destinations include the Maldives, New York, Mexico, Dubai, Bali, Disneyland Paris, Japan. Barbados, Thailand, Florida, Dominican Republic, Toronto, Spain, Greece, Portugal, Italy, Cyprus, Egypt and more. The only catch is, you don't know where they're going to send you until you actually buy your ticket. But my thought process was, as long as we book it for February, wherever they send us, it'll be better weather than if we stay in the UK. And so I agreed. Speaker 3 (2:56) So I've got the green light to book our voucher deal, effectively gambling our annual leave on a mystery holiday. So all that's left to do now is to find out where we're going. Obviously, going to Dubai or the Maldives is frankly casino level odds, but I'm feeling really optimistic. Here we go. Come on, Dubai. Come on, the Maldives. Come on, Vegas. Speaker 3 (3:22) Costa del Sol. I've Speaker 2 (3:24) forgotten where that is. Where is it exactly? Speaker 3 (3:26) It's in Spain, darling. You might well be wondering, how exactly does this deal work? And how can I sign my loved ones up to a mystery holiday? Here's what you need to know. The popular Woucher mystery holiday deal promises return flights and two nights in a hotel somewhere abroad for £99 per person. Or sometimes it's on offer for £79. In the glossy bit of the sales pitch, though. This somewhere could be Dubai, New York, the Maldives, Las Vegas and Mexico, alongside European destinations such as Paris, Monaco, Sicily, Lake Como and Spain. As the Woucher website puts it, your destination is allocated via a randomised draw and depends on availability. It's super important to consider that a tiny number of the holidays will be the big-hitting, long-haul, brag-on-Instagram-type trips. The vast majority are going to be European weekend breaks, which is perfectly nice. Europe has culture, pastries and very decent wine. You simply have to make peace with the fact you may end up posting sunset shots from Barbados or you might end up in an adequate three-star hotel in a European city. You have to decide if it's worth the risk. If you're willing to take a punt, here's what to do. First, find the mystery holiday deal on Woucher. I'll pop the link in the episode description. Choose your travel window. Then buy at least two vouchers because the price is usually based on two people sharing. Then pay Voucher your hard-earned cash. Check your email for the voucher codes and redemption link. Then on the Voucher website, enter your codes, passenger details, preferred dates, etc. What airport you're flying from and then Voucher will reveal your destination. Once your destination has been revealed, The travel provider will contact you by phone or email and may well offer upgrades or extras you can purchase. Then confirm your final flights and holiday details and get ready to jet off. Terms Speaker 2 (5:25) and Speaker 3 (5:25) conditions apply. See the WACHA website for full details. The Travel Goals podcast is not responsible for holiday disappointment. Speaker 2 (5:34) Having thought it through, we decided to fly from Bristol. As we live in Wales, we were able to get there on the train in under an hour and for less than £20 each. Also, because our flight was actually at 11 o'clock in the morning, we decided to go to Bristol the night before, as we found a great deal for a hotel, £80 for a night in the Bristol Moxie, which is within walking distance of one of the stations from which you can get a shuttle bus directly to the airport for just £9 each. Speaker 2 (6:12) Alright, we've landed. We're in Malaga. Just getting off the plane right now. Speaker 1 (6:17) Quite Speaker 2 (6:18) noisy. It's a bit cloudy, but it's a lot warmer than Britain. I'm looking forward to this. I have already managed to lose my wife, though. I don't know where she is. She was a light two rows behind me, but she hasn't come out of the plane yet. I'm not sure why. Okay, she's just coming down the ramp on the plane now, waving at me, wearing sunglasses, looking very cheery. Speaker 2 (6:47) Yeah, I think she's looking forward to a glass of cava. So we landed in Malaga airport and took a 20 minute Uber ride to our accommodation, which was in Benalmedina on the south coast of Spain. Transport links in the area seemed very solid. As well as plenty of available Ubers, there was also frequent buses and trains to and from Malaga. We were tempted to try and get a train, but as we'd never taken this particular journey before, working out how to get a train would involve some brain work. The day was getting on and we were getting hungry and thirsty. So we paid a few extra euros for an Uber driver to take us straight to the front door. Speaker 1 (7:30) Okay, Speaker 2 (7:33) so we've just arrived at the hotel. Looks like a high-rise apartment block. And I could definitely detect the scent of British-style burger and chips, which I'm sort of enjoying. It reminds me of being in a British holiday park in the 80s. I'm guessing that smell's coming from the Irish pub next door, which is called Rocky O'Reilly's, an establishment I've no doubt that later in the week we shall frequent. Checking into the hotel was nice and easy. In less than 10 minutes, we had our room key and we were in the elevator on our way to see our little apartment. Speaker 2 (8:11) So, what's the plan? Speaker 3 (8:13) Dump our bags, freshen up, find some tapas and wine. Speaker 1 (8:16) Sounds good. Speaker 2 (8:19) The corridors of this hotel are pretty much what I expected them to be. Speaker 2 (8:24) There's a carpet that looks like it's been laid in the 1980s and it's not been replaced since. But as long