I tried Wowcher’s £99 Mystery Christmas Market

WE’VE all seen the £99 Wowcher mystery holiday deals – with return flights and a hotel to a surprise destination – but is the gamble worth the money?

CYANN FIELDING finds out by putting the Mystery Christmas Market Trip for £99 to the test . . . 

IT could be a trip to Lapland or New York, but I was not kidding myself, it was more likely to be Europe.

Wowcher’s Christmas Market Trip costs £99 per person and you have to book for a minimum of two.

Your mystery holiday is then revealed and a travel agent contacts you within 72 hours to discuss your trip.

My destination was Tallinn, the capital of Estonia. Having never been before, I was excited to hear back from my Wowcher agent.

READ MORE ON CHRISTMAS MARKETS

SNOW JOY

Warning over 6 banned Christmas market gifts that could land you with £5,000 fine

LAST STRAW

Outrageous price for a pot of strawberries at UK Xmas market is slammed by mum

But when I got the call, I discovered a major catch.

The flight out from London would be late afternoon on November 25, returning very early on November 27 — giving me just a day in the city.

And to make matters worse, the hotel was two miles from the city centre.

But it was OK, the agent told me, because I could upgrade.

This was my “Ah-ha” moment — Wowcher had revealed themselves.

In order to get decent flights and a hotel close to your destination, you need to upgrade, and this came at an additional £43 per person.

Let’s say you were happy with the flights, but wanted a closer hotel, well you can’t just upgrade one element, you have to do both.

This is where the deal clearly makes its money. Keen to make the most of my holiday, I upgraded.

So now the two-night break was coming in at £142 per person, that’s £284 in total.

Flights were with Wizz Air, but when checking in you need to go through the travel agent check-in section, which took me a while to figure out.

Wowcher does a good job of sending you all your documents well in advance, as well as tips on how to check in for your flight.

The Rixwell Viru Square Hotel in Tallinn was fine, clean with a comfy bed.

Breakfast wasn’t included, which is probably the same for most hotels in the offer.

As this was specifically a Christmas market trip, we went to the market, and while it was small, it really did feel like a fairytale.

Wish come true

Set in the town square, it was nice to see stalls selling handcrafted gifts, and there was glogi — Estonia’s take on mulled wine — for sale.

The market’s Christmas tree steals the show, though.

Tallinn is home to the world’s first publicly displayed festive fir, which appeared in the town square in 1441. Traditionally, young unmarried people danced around it.

And it is believed that if you make a wish under the tree, it will come true.

While the trip was a lot of fun and the price with the upgrade did not seem excessive, when I broke down the costs, it was not the deal it first appeared to be.

When I checked on the day I spoke to the agent, if I had booked return flights myself for the same dates they would have cost £45pp, so £90 in total.

The hotel would have been £93.25 for two of us for two nights. So if I had done it all myself, it would have cost £183.25 for two people — more than

£100 less than I spent on the Wowcher trip.

Ultimately, most of the Wowcher mystery holiday experience is about the surprise, which, admittedly, is fun.

However, I am not sure it’s worth an additional £100.75.
Would I do it again?

Probably not. I think I would rather roll a die across a map and travel to wherever it lands.

That would more than likely be enough to give me the same thrill of the surprise Wowcher reveal. And for probably far less.

Wowcher said: “Our trips have the added reassurance of ATOL protection, rather than the lowest-priced alternative to booking everything separately.

“Flights are chosen from a set selection, and customers on two-night stays are guaranteed 40 hours in resort.

“Travelodeal has acknowledged the flight arrangements for this booking didn’t meet expectations and is offering a refund for any supplements, as well as taking steps to en­sure this does not happen again.”