Every once in a while, I decide to shake things up a little and throw a few twists and turns into this otherwise ordinary life! I’m a sucker for a good surprise and a good trip! Let’s just hope The Hubs is as excited as I am about this Groupon Mystery Vacation I just booked! (Spoiler alert: he probably won’t be!) After a few years of very involved and hectic summer vacations that involved hours and hours of thinking out logistics and planning, I decided I wanted something easy and last minute. Upon seeing a Facebook friend’s post about her upcoming Groupon Mystery Vacation, I decided to give it a shot, too.
I hope you enjoy this honest Groupon Mystery Vacation review with our photos and our thoughts on the travel itself.
A Groupon MysteryVacation is not for everyone. The mystery is the whole point of it.
The Premise of a Groupon Mystery Vacation
Once you sign up, your name goes into a “draw” of 2,000 vouchers. According to Weekend Breakers, the company that runs this travel program, there are only 8 gold vouchers, 12 silver, and 1,282 bronze vouchers.
Gold Tier
The gold tier is what most people likely want – a 7 day international trip to places like Barcelona and Madrid or London and Paris. There are nine gold tier destinations listed on the Groupon information.
Silver Tier
The silver tier also includes some international travel, but the trips are four-nights rather than seven. There are six silver tier destinations listed on the Groupon information.
Bronze Tier
The bronze tier is the one most people will get – if you follow the number game above. These trips are 2-night trips to a domestic location. There are 34 bronze tier destinations listed. Destinations include places like San Francisco and Seattle.
We get no say in the destination – which is a huge part of the appeal.
The destination – and entire experience – could be horrible or it could be great. But an adventure is an adventure! I just hoped it wouldn’t be somewhere close to us (like Dallas or Memphis since both are on the destinations list ) or to any other place we have already been. But I knew we would make the most of wherever we were sent!
Signing Up for a Groupon Mystery Vacation
On the application form, I had to submit three preferred airports (which were Denver, Dallas, Houston) and two preferred dates of travel. (In the screenshot below, you see I had Dallas first and then Denver. I wound up switching those before submitting the form.)
Additionally, I had to enter the names and birthdates of all the travelers. Payment was through the typical online payment methods – like Apple Pay or PayPal. It was a pretty simple process.
The Groupon Mystery Vacation Reveal
Once I signed up, the mystery and the wait was the best part! Upon sign up, the Weekend Breakers company tells you to expect a phone call within 72 hours for your surprise destination reveal! But I actually received my phone call in 24 hours of submitting my form.
As I suspected would be the case, my name was drawn for the bronze tier – which is the 2-night domestic location.
On the phone, the customer service man asked me which airport I wanted from the three preferred ones listed in my form. I said Denver.
He rattled off some rules to me and told me I would not be able to change my destination once the draw was complete. He put me on a 5-7 minute hold to “draw” my destination. He came back and told me my name had been drawn for Las Vegas. He put me on another short hold to check dates. Then, he said neither of the two preferred dates were available for going to Las Vegas from Denver.
He offered August 10-12 – which happens to be our first week of school so that was a no. Other dates he offered did not work either. Then, he asked if I wanted to look at the Dallas airport. He looked and said nothing worked there either for Las Vegas on my preferred June/July dates. So he asked if I wanted him to pull a new destination so we might have more options with dates. He actually pulled two – Ft. Lauderdale and Atlanta, and he asked me which one I wanted (which surprised me). I chose Ft. Lauderdale and got my preferred dates.
I asked if I could extend the trip and cover the additional nights of accommodations on my own so we could drive to the Florida Keys and spend a few days there. He agreed and we added on three more nights. There was an extra fee for moving the airport return date.
(We bookended our trip with a few days in Dallas on the front end and a few days in Miami and the Florida Keys on the backend. And I paid for and planned all of those pieces separately.)
The girls were excited to open up the official Groupon Mystery Vacation email with the destination reveal. Although I had taken the phone call the previous night, I had kept is a surprise from them.
My Initial Thoughts on the Groupon Mystery Vacation Process (Before the Trip)
- I think this mystery vacation might be best for weekend getaways, ladies trips, or other trips you expect to be brief. The idea of packing up the whole family and dealing with airport chaos all for two nights somewhere is a lot – unless it’s a getaway that is meant to be short.
- In the end, I’m not sure the pricing is that much of a deal since I extended and paid the extra fees. But I also don’t think it is really costing us any more than any other week-long trip would in summer. And I do think the regular two-night trip deal was pretty budget-friendly before I made the changes. The big thing though…it has saved me a lot of stress and hours of time of going down the rabbit hole of researching and going back and forth on where to go/where to stay, etc. (The last two summer vacations were exhausting with all the logistical planning. I wanted something EASY this year.) Plus, the mystery of it all really was exciting! Our girls got really into trying to guess where we would wind up.
- I was skeptical about the accommodations – even after looking up the hotel online. I’m particular about lodging. The man said all of the lodging they match clients with have to be 3-stars or above and have to a 3.5/5 rating on Tripadvisor and an 7/10 or above on Booking.com. The hotels are supposed to be within a 5-mile radius of the primary attractions region of each city. We don’t get to know the name of the hotel until 14 days before departure so I can’t research it yet.
- Checked luggage and even carry on luggage are separate airline fees. The hotel will also have taxes and fees that have not yet been paid for. Meals are not included unless your hotel happens to provide breakfast – which ours does.
- In hindsight, I’m glad we wound up with the Dallas airport. Otherwise, I would have been paying for flights to Denver from Little Rock. (Little Rock does not have an international airport which is why we had to fly out of a different city.) And then we wouldn’t have had the flexibility to add extra vacation days to the front end (without a fee) like we are doing with Dallas since we can just drive there.
Is the Groupon Mystery Vacation a Scam?
Many people online and on TikTok have questioned whether the Groupon Mystery Vacation is a scam. At present time, I do not think it is a scam. I do think you might be able to get out cheaper planning your trip yourself in some cases. But in other cases, no. And, as I already said – the elimination of all the stressful planning made it worth it for me.
The friend I mentioned above just had her trip reveal a few days ago, and she lucked out with a nice Silver Tier destination! She wound up having an amazing time. It was just her and one friend.
Our Groupon Mystery Trip Flight
Our flight was booked through Frontier Airlines from Dallas to Fort Lauderdale and back. The initial flight which was part of the Groupon deal seemed like a steal. However, once I had to pay the additional fee to move our flight ($800) and another $632 for two checked bags and two rolling carry on bags for both legs of the trip. Yes, the carry ons cost the same as checked bags on Frontier!
In total, when all was said and done, I paid $1,899.84 just to Frontier for our four roundtrip flights. That added up quickly, right?!
Well, the Groupon part of our trip turned out okay. The hotel was the Ocean Beach Club in Fort Lauderdale. It reminded me of a motel from the 1980s that has been bought by new owners and spruced up to now be called a hotel. There were some odd things about it.
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