Maldives

WHO says you have to fork out a fortune to go on your dream holiday?

For the price of just £79 you could be jetting off to see the big lights in New York city or sunbathe on a beach in Bali with Wowcher.

Throughout the year Wowcher runs its £99 Mystery Holiday sale – where you can bag yourself a trip to over 100 destinations around the world.

The package includes both a hotel stay and return flights.

Now, Wowcher has reduced the cost by £20 so you can get a trip abroad for £79.

It’s not just short-haul trips either, potentially you could be heading to the Maldives, New York or Thailand.

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All you have to do is head to the Wowcher website, and and buy the holiday. Then enter your details and voucher codes into the site.

It’ll instantly reveal where you’re heading off to – so you can get packing straight away.

Trips on offer can be as short as two nights, or as long as seven.

You’re guaranteed to stay somewhere lovely as all accommodation is rated three stars or higher – and you stay in a private room with ensuite.

If you want to take advantage of the offer make sure to do it in the next few days as it closes on December 1, 2025.

The holidays are broken up into three tiers with six Tier 1 packages, 12 packages in Tier 2 and 1,982 in Tier 3 – which are randomly assigned.

Holidays in Tier 1 could be seven nights in places like the Maldives, the Dominican Republic, Bali or St Lucia – or three nights in New York City.

Tier 2 holiday packages include a four night Lisbon and Barcelona break, a three night all-inclusive to Crete and a three night Disneyland Paris holiday with park tickets.

Meanwhile Tier 3 breaks include two nights in destinations like Madeira, Dublin, Monaco, Rome, and Warsaw.

Each package is based on two adults travelling together and destinations are based on your chosen travel dates during redemption.

If you don’t like the destination you’ve been given, you can choose an alternative one for £20pp (depending on availability).

There are a few small catches. For example when it comes to which airport you depart from you only get to select a region, not a specific one.

These range from London, to Scotland, North East, North West, Yorkshire, Midlands, Wales, South West and Northern Ireland.

If you choose to fly from a regional airport outside of London, there’s a £40 per person supplement.

And of course the better holiday destinations are a lot less common with European breaks often the suprise destination.

After you redeem your voucher, you’ll receive an email to confirm your booking details, and you’ll need to reply within 24 hours to lock everything in.

Vouchers are valid for 28 days from the date of purchase, and an admin fee will be added based on your checkout basket total.

For more details and to take advantage of the deal, head to Wowcher.

One woman who spent £99 on ‘insane’ Wowcher Mystery Holiday was left stunned after heading on a three-day trip to Majorca.

For more ways to save hundreds on a holiday, hear from a travel blogger for the best websites, vouchers and discount cards.

Writing on Reddit, one poster lifted the lid on a tropical island they found while travelling. The photographs showed beautiful sandy beaches lined with palm trees, with crystal-clear seas, and barely another soul in sight

Sometimes the only solution to the stresses of everyday life is to jet off to a tropical island. But finding the perfect unspoiled paradise can be a trick, with ever-increasing tourism levels meaning many places can be overcrowded, or have lost some of their local charm.

Writing on Reddit, one poster lifted the lid on a tiny hidden island they had discovered while travelling in South Asia. The photographs showed beautiful sandy beaches lined with palm trees, with crystal-clear seas, and barely another soul in sight.

The Reddit user wrote: “My girlfriend and I were in the area (Sri Lanka) and decided to extend our trip with a new country, so flew to Malé and took a local ferry to an island two atolls away.” They continued: “(We) arrived in a little unspoilt paradise called Dhigurah, which only opened up to non-Muslim foreigners recently (at the time, 2023).”

Dhigurah is an island in the Alifu Dhaalu Atoll, a series of 49 islands in the Maldives. It is 3km long, making it one of the longest islands in the Maldives, and at points just 250 metres wide, according to maldives-magazine.com.

The waters surrounding the island are teeming with docile whale sharks, the website says, as well as stingrays and other marine wildlife. Whale sharks only eat plankton and tiny fish, and pose no danger to humans.

Continuing, the Reddit user said: “We spent our time snorkelling (the water, especially the closer to the shore, is literally teeming with sea life), swimming with whale sharks and stingrays and drinking freshly cut coconut juice on the beach.

“Seems like the local population were clearing the rainforest (which covered 90 per cent of the island at the time of our visit, 2023) at an alarming rate to make room for new hotels, some of which apparently already have appeared on Booking.com.”

Reddit users were amazed by the pictures. One wrote: “Man I wish I could be there now. Looks amazing.”

Another said: “Oh man I’m heading to Sri Lanka in about a month and was considering hopping over. I even booked a ‘just in case hotel on this exact island but cancelled and thought I shouldn’t rush Sri Lanka. Now I’m second guessing!!”

The original poster replied: “It’s indeed best to not rush Sri Lanka, it deserves your full time and attention!

“We were in Sri Lanka for 23 days and five days in the Maldives, so only three full days on this particular island, since the transport to/from the capital city and its only international airport took almost a full day on the local ferry – if you still decide to go opt for the speedboat option!

“The local ferry involves a transfer or two at other local islands and is bound to make you seasick, and takes three times as long as the speedboat.”

The island also has rave reviews on Booking.com, with one visitor writing: “The most beautiful sea I have ever seen in my entire life.”

However, asked if they would return, the Reddit user wrote: “The locals are clearing the islands’ palm tree forest at an alarming rate, already at the time of our visit (see picture 13 for a glimpse into that). So maybe it’s best to not spoil our fond memories of Dhigurah by being confronted with a vastly changed island.”