Review: Wowcher £99 Mystery Holiday

When: October 2023

Where: Krakow, Poland

How long: 3 days, 2 nights

Cost: £99 (+ £46 to change flights)

Booking:

After booking through the Wowcher website we were redirected to the Travelodeal website, which is the company that actually manages the mystery holidays and who decides where you’re going and does all the admin etc. We were given a code to enter and that entered us into the lottery for our mystery holiday. This was in January.

The lottery was pulled in March, and I was called by a guy called Patrick and told we were going to Krakow, Poland in October. I’d seen on some videos and reviews online that you got to choose between four different locations (presumably so you could pick somewhere else if you’d already been there) but this wasn’t the case for us and I was told if we didn’t like the place we’d been assigned, or couldn’t make those dates, then we’d have to pay another £99 to put our names back into the draw. I told Patrick that I’d have to quickly check with Nina, who I was going with, that those dates worked for her and I’d call back in five minutes.

When I called back, I was then told by Patrick that we were actually going to Portugal in November. I told him I was confused because he’d just told me it was Poland in October and he straight up lied to me and said he’d never said that and that I was getting confused between Poland and Portugal. I wasn’t, but I was rolling with it. I told him I’d have to speak to my friend again because these dates were different to the ones he’d previously told me.

I call back, he says, ‘ah yes, your trip to Poland in October.’ At this point I'm bamboozled by the whole thing, explain that he’d said Poland, then Portugal, and was now back to Poland again. He again denied he’d ever said Portugal, and got a bit shirty with me, as if I was making it all up. Okay, Patrick. It was weird, but Poland looked more fun than the shitty part of Portugal he was sending us to, so I quickly agreed.

The flights that were included were a bit rubbish, we flew at 6am on the Tuesday (from everyone’s least favourite airport: Stansted) but flew home at like 10am on the Thursday, meaning we lost the entire final day. Patrick told me we could change the return flight to an afternoon one for £46 each which didn’t seem too much so we agreed. At the time I checked online to see if I could find a return flight any cheaper than doing it through Travelodeal and couldn’t find anything, so we stuck with doing it through them. The whole booking process was a bit odd, especially with the flip-flopping between Poland and Portugal. I can’t say it instilled much confidence, but as I kept reminding myself, it was only £99. I was reassured that they immediately sent over the flight details, which was all done through Ryanair, so it was reassuring to know that even if Travelodeal were a bit useless we had the flights sorted.

The Accommodation:

If you didn’t know this already, the star rating for a hotel is based on what facilities they have. So a

Nina showcasing the "beds"

hotel could have three stars but also be the worst place you’ve ever stayed in your life. Exhibit A: The Daisy Hotel in Krakow. I made the mistake of looking up the reviews beforehand, it currently sits at a 2.9 star rating on Google reviews, and I think that might be generous. Mentally I’d prepared myself, and we’d also said that if it was really awful we’d find somewhere else to stay in the city. It was a good 25 minute Uber ride to get from the centre to the hotel itself. We were greeted by quite possibly the least friendly receptionist on the continent, and shown to our room (unlucky 13). How to describe the room? Half the lights didn’t work; the beds were so close together that I could have reached over to stroke Nina’s hair in the night (not that I would, because that would be insanely weird); the bathroom inexplicably smelt of hamster cages; the shower flooded; and the beds were unbelievably uncomfortable. It was however deemed clean enough, and so we stayed. Breakfast was not included, and neither was use of the hotel’s swimming pool or ice rink (that’s how it got the three stars). It was quite possibly the strangest place I’ve ever stayed, but it somehow became the glue that held the holiday together. We joked that when we went home we’d sleep on the floor with a piece of cardboard over us to recreate the beds at the Daisy. We discussed how much we’d have to be paid to risk swimming in the pool (a lot), and kept our eyes peeled for other guests, of which we saw none.

Would I stay there again? Absolutely not. Did it end up being the funniest part of the whole holiday? Yes.

The extra costs:

As previously mentioned, we paid an extra £46 to change our flight time home. Because the hotel was so far out of the centre of Krakow we did have to Uber there and back every time we wanted to do something, and that cost just over £50 for the six rides we took over the three days. It cost extra to sit next to each other on the plane, so we didn’t, and the only bag included in the flight cost was one personal item, so we took a rucksack each so we packed light and it worked out fine.

Oh Daisy Hotel, how we'll miss you

In terms of the costs we wouldn’t have had to pay if we hadn’t done it through Wowcher/Travelodeal, I reckon that we paid around £100 extra, so really it was a £199 holiday, and for that money I think I could have found us something considerably better. Hotel prices in Krakow are already low, and we were mid-week and out of season, so I think for £200 I could have got us flights and a hotel in somewhere nicer.

Would I recommend a mystery holiday?

It’s hard to say, whilst we did have a really fun time, I think we were lucky getting a city-based trip because there was tonnes to do and we didn’t spend much time at the hotel at all. If we’d been sent to the place in Portugal I think we’d have been miserable, so it’s a real gamble as to where you get sent. I know they promise you might get sent to Vegas or Dubai or somewhere equally glamourous, but the chances of that actually happening are minute. In order for them to make any money at all they’re going to send you to somewhere cheap and off-season.

The mystery element was quite fun, but you do find out where you’re going about 6 months before you go, so it’s not a mystery for very long… It felt fun to do something impulsive though, and at the end of the day it was only £99 (sort of). It was a fun story to tell everyone, and overall we did have fun. Would I do it again? Probably not. Would I recommend it? If you’ve got £99 burning a hole in your pocket and you're happy potentially staying in the worst hotel you’ve ever been to then why not.

FAQs:

Is a £99 mystery holiday actually only £99? The upfront cost was only £99, but we ended up paying more to change our flights and on Ubers to get to and from our hotel. You do of course also have to pay for all your food, drinks, activities etc when you're out there.

What's included in the £99 mystery holiday? The flights (personal item only, no hand luggage) and hotel room are included, everything else is extra.

Do you arrive at the airport for a mystery holiday not knowing where you're going? There are some companies that keep it secret right up until the airport, but the Wowcher one you're told months in advance.

Can you do a mystery holiday on your own? Whilst I'm sure you can, the £99 price tag is based on two people sharing, so it would be more expensive to do it solo.