As the price of abroad holidays are rising rapidly many travellers are resorting to more-budget friendly options, whether it's avoiding luggage costs or checking into a hostel there's no doubt it's becoming a popular route for many.
Deals site Wowcher has gained huge attention thanks to its 'Mystery Holiday deal' offering travellers return flights and a two-night hotel stay for just £99 each, the catch is that you don't know where you're off to until after you book.
Curious about the deal my boyfriend and I decided to test it out for ourselves, and although our surprise destination was beautiful we were left with costs exceeding £99 each and a hotel room we didn't even sleep in.
READ MORE: 'I avoided Ryanair's luggage costs and still managed to overpack with this under-the-seat bag'
Holidays to more than 61 destinations including European hotspots like Paris, Lisbon and Copenhagen or 'once-in-a-lifetime' trips to Dubai, Barbados and even New York, are included in the deal.
Looking at the list it's almost unimaginable to think you could go on holiday to any of the destinations for under £100 each. We took off on the two-day trip to see just how much it would cost the average couple.
What happens after you buy the £99 Wowcher deal?
Wowcher runs off a huge element of surprise, as shoppers who buy the £99 deal don't know where they are off to until a couple of days before the trip. The holiday can be bought online at Wowcher where each booker can enter their desired holiday dates, number of travellers and UK departure airport.
I put in three different weekend options (in order of preference) as well as possible flights from Manchester Airport (which we didn't end up flying from). At the time of booking it was clear that anyone looking to take off from an airport outside of London would have to pay an additional £50 per person taking the price to £149 each.
Once bought, you will be emailed a voucher code (from Wowcher) along with the details of where to claim it. My code came to my inbox within an hour of buying the deal along with all the details of how to claim with partnered travel site, Travelodeal. After this, I went on their site (through the email link) and booked our mystery holiday.
After this, it was all fingers crossed for a good destination and more than 10 days later we got the call to say where we were off to - Lake Garda in Italy.
Avoiding the extra costs...almost
I have to be honest, answering an unknown number from a call centre and giving personal details felt a bit strange but I had been reassured countless times it was normal, and within half an hour I had our boarding passes with Ryanair and the name of the hotel, which would come to be the cause of the biggest expense we faced.
Once we were given our destination, we got into the details (departure airport, passport details etc) and it was here, that the push to upgrade really started. I tried my best to resist but I did fall for an extra £30 per person for different flight times.
The original flights we were given from London Stansted (with Ryanair) landed late into Milan Bergamo (around 8pm) and returned super early two nights later (around 7am) so it would have only given us one full day to explore.
The upgraded flights left on a Thursday at 8am and landed back in Stansted at 5pm on Saturday giving us much more time and taking our spending so far to £129 each, but it didn't stop there.
During our call, the adviser repeatedly said 'are you sure you don't want to upgrade the hotel package as it's a little far out' and as I wanted to stick as close to the £99 price as possible I declined (and wish I hadn't).
A tip for anyone looking to book is to bear in mind the transport upgrades they offer won't be the only options available. We declined Wowcher's airport transfer from Milan Bergamo down to Lake Garda (starting at €80) and booked a 1hr 45 minute train (at €15 each).
We checked out of our hotel after an hour of arriving
To put it simply our hotel was so far from Lake Garda that it would have cost us £160 (minimum) in travel costs to get to and from during our trip. On the call to the advisor I had seen on Google maps, it was around a 14-18 minute drive away which assuming there would be reliable public transport I thought was more than okay.
It wasn't, as we were visiting Lake Garda during the 'off-season' there were no bus routes to Affi or train routes on the line we had travelled down from Milan from.
Our nearest biggest Lake Garda side town was Pescheira - from here we were quoted €40 to €45 EACH WAY in a taxi to and from our hotel. This wouldn't have been a problem if our hotel was near a few restaurants, parks, shops etc but to make it worse we were on the side of a motorway toll road, next to a service station.
Once we had checked in we sat in the room adding up the cost and figured out we would spend at least €160 over the two days in taxi fares (on top of the €80 price it cost us to realise our mistake and go back and forth the first night).
To us, it was a ridiculous amount to spend just on travel to and from and I was annoyed the location was so far from our 'surprise destination'. So, we checked out after an hour and booked a city centre hotel in Pescheira for €85 for the two nights (just over half of the taxi cost).
Our itinerary for Lake Garda
It goes without saying that I can't fault the location whatsoever and even though there was a lot of travelling from where we landed to our hotel it meant we could see more of the area, and overall this was a huge positive to our Wowcher trip.
After landing in Bergamo we took a €20 taxi to Bergamo's centre or 'centro' and spent most of the morning/afternoon exploring, climbing to the top of the city's 'Citta Alta' and having lunch (with a boyfriend determined to try as much local focaccia as possible).
After this, we got the train from Bergamo's central station down to Pescheira (one of the biggest Lake Garda towns) which took an hour and 45 minutes. It's a harbour town with small intertwining streets, local gelaterias and a ferry hub to get to all the towns dotted around Lake Garda.
On day two (after the hotel debacle) we made the most of seeing what the other towns had to offer and visited nearby Sirmione. Apart from the natural beauty of the lake, the main attraction here is Scaliger Castle, and all visitors enter the town through its old moat gates.
The town sits on a peninsula out of Lake Garda so it's a popular place to take smaller boat tours. If you're in this area for a while then Garda, the capital of the region is an hour's ferry ride away.
The hidden costs no one tells you about
Of course, the Wowcher trip can be as budget-friendly or 'high-end' as you want it to be. We were on a mission to stick to its £99 motto as much as possible and tallying up everything but the money we spent on sightseeing and food, we spent around £230 each.
A breakdown: £99 Wowcher, £30 flight upgrade, £30 petrol to Stansted Airport, £15 train ticket, £20 taxi to Bergamo station, £40 taxi to the first hotel.
- Pay extra if you fly outside of London airports
- Can pay more to be given 'better' flight times (to extend the amount of time you have at the destination)
- Included hotels are not central - have to upgrade
- Price does not include any extra luggage on flights - have to book an additional cabin or hold bag
- Price does not include transport to and from airports
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