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7 Travel Companies That Plan Mystery Vacations

Meet the newest trend in full-service trip planning: surprise travel. You won't find out where you're going until it's time to go.

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For most people, the joy of traveling isn’t the researching or booking—it’s that moment you step off the airplane in a place you’ve never been. So why not skip the planning and let someone else chart your next adventure for you, including choosing the destination? Besides, who cares where you go when you’ve got expert travel agents finalizing every last detail for you?

Introducing the latest trend in travel: surprise trips to places that won’t be revealed to you until it’s go time.

Jubel , a tech-enabled travel company founded in 2015 in California, offers customized multi-destination getaways and route planning. It can also save you more than 55 percent in travel costs compared with booking a trip yourself, thanks to insider travel deals. Jubel also offers surprise trips .

Fill out its survey with your preferred dates, budget, and travel style, and it’ll send you a trip proposal. You can be completely surprised by the destination or learn the continent or country ahead of time. Once you’ve booked, you’ll get sealed envelopes to open along your journey, plus details on what to pack and when to show up at the airport. International trips start at around $1,000 per person per week.

Pack Up and Go

Want a weekend getaway in the U.S. without any hassle of planning it? Enter Pack Up and Go , founded in 2016 in Pittsburgh. Give the company your dates and budget, and complete a quick survey (sample question: Do you want action, relaxation, or culture?), and it will do the rest for you. Prior to your trip, you’ll get a packing list, flight information, and a weather forecast. Days before you leave, an envelope with your destination and itinerary will arrive in the mail. Open it at the airport. Trips start at $400 per person.

The Vacation Hunt

Whether you have three days or two weeks, the expert travelers at the Vacation Hunt , started in 2017 by a husband and wife in Washington, D.C., will plan a trip for you. Tell the reps what you’re looking for (spas or zoos? bars or museums?) and they’ll start sending you clues as to where you’re going. Packaged trips in the U.S. start at $750 per person; international trips start at $950. They also offer gift certificates if you want to give someone else a surprise trip.

Magical Mystery Tours

With Magical Mystery Tours , you won’t know where you’re going until you show up at the airport. First, enter your preferences: Do you want a foreign trip? Do you dislike the cold or the beach? Would you prefer heading to the desert or someplace tropical? Then input your dates, budget, and who you’re traveling with. The company will take care of the details. Magical Mystery Tours has been booking destination vacations to locations all over the globe since 2009. Cost depends on the length of the trip, whether it’s international or domestic travel, and the kind of accommodations you want. Weekend trips for two start at $1,500.

Surprise Me Trips

Choose between quick road trips from your hometown or far-flung destinations via airplane. You’ll get details about what to bring and where to be just before your departure. For its weekend road trips, tell the company where you want to start, and it will plan a surprise itinerary around your region, including a few nights in different locales and major landmarks and activities to check out along the way. Despite this travel company’s name, it will also arrange trips that don’t come as a surprise, if that’s more your thing. Surprise Me Trips was launched by three well-traveled friends in Texas in 2016. Weekend regional road trips start at $375.

Black Tomato

In 2017, high-end travel company Black Tomato  debuted its  Get Lost service, which creates adventurous tailor-made expeditions to wilderness destinations like Mongolia or the Arctic that are kept entirely a secret from you. Here’s how it works: select a polar, jungle, coastal, desert, or mountain trip—or have Black Tomato choose that, too—and book at least six months in advance to give you time to train and prepare. When you arrive at your location, you’ll be outfitted with all the gear you need, plus a private transfer from the airport to your starting point and a satellite phone for emergencies. Chart your way through a series of mapped-out checkpoints using navigational technology and your own two feet. The journey ends at a luxury retreat. Average Get Lost trips cost around $15,000 per person—but there are shorter, less expensive options, too.

Rustic Pathways

Designed for high school students looking for an exciting summer group trip, student-travel company Rustic Pathways offers a mystery trip to an unknown international destination. Before departure you’ll get a Patagonia duffel bag sent to you that’s filled with clues and a few essentials. Then arrive at the designated airport and spend the next two weeks exploring foreign cities and remote villages with other intrepid students as a guide leads the way. As of press time, there were still a few spots left on an upcoming trip in late June. It costs $5,995, not including airfare.

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The main service we provide here at Magical Mystery Tours is… well… mystery tours! Basically, we take all the research out of travel planning and add some surprise! You give us your desired travel dates, desired travel budget, and fill out a survey giving us as many (or as few) additional parameters as you feel comfortable with (for example: you hate places with sand, loathe camping, adore Montana, etc.)

From that information, we will tailor make a vacation for you, trying to keep in mind as many of your preferences as possible. From there, we will let you know a rough time and date you need to be at your travel hub (airport, bus station, etc.).

We email you a weather report for your destination a week before you leave.  Then, a few days before your departure you will get a packet of information via mail. Try not to open the packet though!  Ideally, you can wait until you’re at the airport and can get the maximum surprise from opening your packet there. Once you actually open the packet when at your travel hub, you will reveal details about your getaway, such as destination name, reservation information, and things to do near where you are staying.

A mystery traveler with a trip packet. (She has no idea where she’ll be going in a few days!)

In a time when most things can be examined and scrutinized through a little bit of internet research, this is an opportunity to insert some genuine surprise into your life!

Please click on the button below to fill out our Destination Questionnaire and submit it to our office. Once we receive your questionnaire, we will follow up with you regarding the next steps to send you on your mystery tour!

Interested, but have more questions?  See our FAQ.

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Beatles Magical Mystery Tour

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Liverpool Day Tour from London by Train including Beatles Story

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Beatles Magical Mystery Tour - All You Need to Know BEFORE You Go (2024)

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Alexandria, VA 22302

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Magical Mystery Tours specializes in mystery trips. Travelers set a few parameters (budget, dates, preferences, etc.) and don't learn their destination until arriving at the airport. …

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We had a great experience with Magical Mystery Tours! I'd never heard of mystery travel until one of my friends took a trip through them, and I was hooked right away. It was the most stress-free way to take a trip. You start by filling out an online questionnaire, which is fun in and of itself. It tells them your budget, how many days you want to be gone, and lots of things about what kind of travel you like. Then they take over from there. All that's left for you to do is pack! Molly was our travel consultant, and she was fantastic. She stayed in touch with us both before and during the trip. Including emailing us 10:30 the night before we were due to fly, to let us know that inclement weather may impact our travel home in case we wanted to change flights. I can't recommend this experience highly enough!

My husband and I just got back from our 3rd mystery vacation in October, and have yet to be disappointed. I only wish we could afford to take more! You do need to mindful and realistic of what your budget limits are, and what they can buy. I've had wonderful experiences, but part of it is being honest with myself about what a smaller budget will buy. 2 of my 3 vacations were on minimal budgets, but I kept an open mind and was realistic of the fact that I probably wasn't going to be flying first class and traveling internationally. This company is amazing, but they aren't miracle workers - no way are you going to be traveling internationally, flying first class, and staying in a five star hotel with a shoe string budget and a week time frame.

I would, and have, recommended Magical Mystery Tours to everyone. There are many reasons why this is a GREAT option, even for extreme planners like myself. The question I seem to get most often is, don't you worry about ending up somewhere dangerous? Somewhere boring? The short answer is, no. There is an extensive survey when you book your vacation detailing likes, dislikes, special preferences, everything down to the last detail. They want to get it right. This isn't some slap dash thing put together at the last minute; they are so good at paying attention to every little detail and if they have any questions, they ask. Also, they have extreme patience when dealing with your questions. I can be a bit of a planner and need to organize everything, so I do ask questions, and they answer every single one in a timely manner. They can work with just about any budget. And you will end up in somewhere that you love without having to put in a lot of effort and stress over every minute detail. Even if you do not book activities through them, they still include information on your location and recommendations for what to do and how to get around. They pick locations that you might not otherwise think of, but end up being grateful you got the chance to experience. Getting ready to go on my 2nd trip with them and will gladly be booking more in the future.

I read about mystery trips in the Wall Street Journal and was intrigued by the idea. I looked up all the agencies the article cited and decided that Magical Mystery Tours fit my criteria the best. I filled out their questionnaire on their website, but then (being me and having traveled a lot) I also talked to Molly Thrasher at MMT and gave her a long list of places I'd already been to, and those I definitely didn't want to visit again. In the end, I decided that a long weekend trip was the best way to go to try this out and see if I liked it. I persuaded my sister to join me - and started a buzz with all my friends and family. There was even a pool going to see if anyone would be able to guess the destination (closest by distance wins!). The destination ended up being Charlottesville, VA. Both my sister and I were really patient (lots of willpower involved) and didn't open up the package until we got to the airport. Molly had got us a hotel room at a great location. And the package she sent us was pretty comprehensive on things to do, places to eat etc. My sister and I had a great time. We did all the history stuff, walking tours, some wine and cider. Had a couple of great meals, enjoyed street music. We had really good luck with the weather. The only thing I'd say we missed out on was organized winery tours - that part of Virginia has a lot of wineries, but to do wine tours you have to book well ahead of time. We had the option of renting a car and doing our own tour, but decided against it. There was a lot to see and do outside of that. All in all, a great experience. I'd recommend this for the adventurous of heart.

Waste of Time and Money As cousins, we had been talking about a trip for several years, and after losing both of our mothers in 2017, we decided it was time. We live in rural areas, but enjoy urban experiences when we travel for vacation. For example: art museums in NY, Paris, San Francisco; historic sites Williamsburg, Freedom Trail, Gettysburg; amusement parks (We LOVE roller coasters!) As we filled out the survey, we looked forward to a trip to Seattle, Portland, Chicago, New Orleans, Charleston, Savannah, Boston, and New England... Although Denver is close to home, and we have visited there many times, it is a city with many things to do. We decided to fly out of Albuquerque, but could have easily flown out of Phoenix. Our flight left at 6am, which required us to get up at 3:45am, not unusual if you are catching connecting flights. We can not express how extremely disappointed we were when we opened up our packet to find out our Magical Mystery Tour was taking us to Park City, and Salt Lake City Utah for a 6-day vacation in October. After an hour and half flight we landed in Salt Lake, picked up the rental car, hit a great breakfast spot a family member recommended, and still got to Park City before 1pm. We were in a town for 3 nights with not much going on. Park City is a great place to ski, and great place for outdoor summer activities. Neither was high on our priority list. In fact snow was a 6 (the lowest rating possible) October is shoulder season some businesses are closed, usually past prime for seasonal color change, and there is always a good chance there will be snow, and we got some. Mostly importantly: Not an urban experience. The Olympic Park Museum or Park City Mining Museum are not equivalent to a good art or historic museum. Then we moved on to Salt Lake City, a city very similar in size to the city (Albuquerque) we flew out of. SLC is close to home, and an easy drive. SLC has a nice mall, and we saw everything in the Utah Museum of Fine Art in an hour and 3 minutes. SLC is a nice laid-back city, but does not have the excitement of an urban vacation. We had amusement parks high on our ratings, but Lagoon is not on par with Six Flags Magic Mountain, King's Island, Cedar Point, Disneyland, Knott's Berry Farm, or California Adventure where they have serious roller coasters. The hotel in Park City (Hyatt Centric) was nice, and it was easy to skip the valet parking to self park. The Keurig coffee maker, and lighted make up mirror didn't work, but the staff was great to replace the Keurig. We didn't bother with the make up mirror. The Kimpton Monaco in Salt Lake was a fun hotel, and we had a couple of dinners there. Valet parking was an extra $24/day with no self-park options. The location was good. Overall, our trip was not what we had indicated in our survey. We realize we may have had too many options for one trip, and our budget may not have been adequate to stay 6 nights, but we would have expected a follow up email/ phone call to focus our priorities for this trip. For example: stay fewer days with more urban activities. We will not be using Magical Mystery Tours, and cannot recommend them.

Magical Mystery Tours planned a trip to Key West for me. Stephanie figured out what I was wanted in my trip and picked locations and hotels that were great for me. Way better than doing all the research on my own.

My husband and I needed a little break from the grind so I started googling random travel destinations. I don't exactly know how but through various (and sundry) mouse clicks I landed on the Magical Mystery Tours website. I WAS HOOKED. I thought about it for days wondering if I could let someone else plan our trip and it was an easy sell to my husband! I filled out the questionnaire and was contacted by Alicia. She never tired of my questions! I was a bit nervous to give up control but the moment we committed, it was freeing! A couple days before we left a big red envelope arrived...it mocked us as it sat on the dining room table waiting to reveal the destination but we didn't peek because the whole point of a mystery trip...is...well...the suspense. At the airport when we opened the envelope I cried! We went to the Azores and Lisbon, Portugal! It was a fantastic trip, the hotel was perfect, the island was beautiful, the food was delicious and the wine was amazing. I loved our experience so much I even had MMT plan a vacation to Turkey for us, it wasn't a surprise but having all the details buttoned up is really nice. I may never go back to planning a vacation myself again. We are planning on doing another Magical Mystery Tour...it was really that much fun!

My boyfriend and I have traveled so much together and we wanted to plan something for our two year anniversary. I was looking for places people don't go and I was having a hard time picking a location for our next trip. Then one day I was in the doctors office and I happened to read a segment about Magical Mystery Tours in the Opera magazine. I snapped a picture to talk it over with my boyfriend. We had talked about it (mostly him saying he doesn't think I would be open minded enough to let someone else plan) and it got put on the back burner. So for my new years resolution I decided to let my planning self go and fill out the survey. It took about a half hour going through each question and second guessing my answers but when I was finished I felt like they had enough information about me to plan a good trip which included my celiac disease. After submitting we were contacted and informed that they had received our answers and the panning would start. I was so anxious to find out the weather so I could attempt to guess where we were going. I even had a Facebook poll so people could guess. We got our packing list and weather report a few weeks before our departure date. The day before we were to leave we got a big red envelope with our destination in it. I talked my boyfriend into letting me open it before we got to the airport. We found out we were going to Belize! I hadn't even had that as an option but I was so excited to learn more about it. I skimmed through the travel book that came along with our awesome itinerary. Our trip was amazing and more than I had expected. Everything from flight to ground transportation to and from the airport was planned. The hotels were awesome and everything that we had put on our survey had been fulfilled. We got to see two different cities and have time to ourselves. I was apprehensive about taking a mystery tour but I honestly want to do one every year now. It was stress free and I didn't have to spend time looking for places to stay and reading reviews. I would suggest this to anyone and everyone. It was fun filling out the survey together and being the planner that I am they mad all my vacation dreams true.

Anyone getting married knows that there is no end to the amount of tireless work that goes into the careful planning and preparation for your big day. You talk to and eventually hire specialists in every field from a cake decorator, to a venue consultant all the way to someone that knows how to put that darn boutanierre on your lapel! Why not outsource the planning of the honeymoon, too? We decided to throw caution to the wind a few months before our wedding and contacted MMT. Many people said, "I'm too much of a control freak. I NEED to know where I am going. What if they send you to Antarctica?? What if you have a terrible time?? It's your ONE Honeymoon!" My best answer to them is, it's not like I hired my little brother (sorry Zackman) to plan the trip. MMT is a group of professionals that does this every day. In order to begin our journey, we filled out their online form, had a phone interview, followed up on a few details and waited until our suggested packing list came in a week before the trip. We had asked for somewhere warm with a fun culture, beaches, outdoor adventures, mutiple destinations and good food and drink. MMT delivered! We opened our itinerary at the airport and found out that we were going to The Azores. Our first reaction...."AWESOME! Now where the heck are the Azores??" A quick Google search and we found out we were heading 2/3 the way across the Atlantic to a tiny chain of 9 Islands owned by Portugal. We had about 2 hours to check in, notify Bank of America about our upcoming trip, get the right data plan from AT&T and change dollars to Euros. We hopped on the flight and landed 4.5 hours later in the floral-scented Azores. To make a long story short, MMT provided an amazing opportunity to stay on 3 different islands (a 3-bedroom house on 1, a swanky hotel on another and a bed/breakfast on the third), climb a volcano, bike down another, heard cows, swim in clear water and eat/drink and be merry (and be married!) We'd do it again!

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Review: Magical Mystery Tours – A Vacation For When You’re Feeling Adventurous

Have you ever seen friends check into an airport on social media claiming they have no idea where they are going? More often than not, it’s someone surprising their BFF or significant other.  But what if both of you wanted to be surprised? The Coworkaholic was super curious about taking a surprise vacation where you have no control in planning. LA based event planner Meghan Smith was kind enough to share her experience from a  “Magical Mystery Tours”  vacation last month:

When the Event Planner is Tired of Planning…

I only had 13 states left to visit when I started this process but, even then, the options were overwhelming. Do we travel north and have an outdoor adventure in Alaska? Do we brave the summer humidity in New Orleans? What about doing something completely off the grid in Kansas or Missouri? That’s when a friend reminded me of a travel company she’d heard about. Magical Mystery Tours has been around since 2009 and they specialize in planning vacations, both domestic and abroad, for travelers who are looking for a surprising adventure or those that just don’t want to deal with the tedium of planning a vacation. I fell into both categories.

Booking with Magical Mystery Tours

The women who run the company have thought of everything. To get started, I filled out a profile on their website which let them know the type of traveler I am and provided examples of places I’d like to visit. For instance, I ranked cities higher than the beach. I prefer locations that are walkable or have great public transportation. I’d rather go somewhere with history and architecture over Michelin rated restaurants and nightclubs. I finished up the profile by providing my estimated budget, available travel dates, and paying a one-time fee ($300) which covers the cost of convenience for having someone else plan your vacation. (Note: for $400, they’ll book your dinners and excursions, rather than just provide recommendations.)

After being matched with Katie from MMT things moved pretty quickly. Within 3 weeks, she had put together a trip for Andrew and I. We locked in a 6 day, 5-night vacation for mid-August. That and the final cost were all we knew about the trip until a week before our departure.  

It’s About The Journey, Not The Destination

It takes a certain type of person to turn over all control. The vacations built by Magical Mystery Tours are best for people that truly live the motto, “It’s about the journey, not the destination.” When you think about it, there really aren’t any “bad” places to go on vacation. It’s all about making the most of wherever you’re sent, even if you’ve already been to that city, there’s always more to see and explore. I leaned into that mindset and sat back to wait for more information.

Just a week before our departure date, we were sent an email with the weather forecast for our destination, the time of our initial flight, and some generic suggestions on what to pack. This is when self-restraint really comes into play. Being that kid who always snooped for Christmas presents, we googled the weather forecast of no less than 20 cities to see if we could find a match. It was ultimately pointless, so with that, we went back to counting down the days to departure.

Unfortunately, the day of our trip arrived and we still had not received our full travel packet. Our rep had assured that it would arrive 2-3 days before departure, but due to some delays with USPS we were still checking the mailbox 6 hours before heading to the airport. I reached out to Katie and she quickly came up with a solution to email the details to a friend who could print it out and keep the surprise by putting everything in an envelope for us. It wasn’t ideal, and we REALLY lucked out that I had a friend with a printer that was available that afternoon. It wasn’t how I had hoped it would happen and certainly not as advertised on the site, but she did pull through with a solution that helped us keep the destination a surprise until we arrived at the airport.

Turning Lemons Into Lemonade

I wish I could say the rest of our trip went perfectly. It didn’t. But also, each of the speed bumps  along the way made it a more memorable vacation. Once at the airport we opened the envel ope to learn that we were headed to Portland, Maine…and also that our first flight had been canceled. So rather than a quick stop in Chicago, we were left with a 10 hour layover in Newark. Luckily we both travel light. Time to turn lemons into lemonade. And so we headed into the city for the day where we enjoyed a picnic in Central Park and visited a handful of other tourist stops, something we’d never have done if everything went as planned.

On the way home we had a similar delay that caused us to miss a connecting flight, this time in Washington DC, where I used to live. Once again, we were able to spend a full day exploring the monuments and visiting museums. I was able to show him some of my old stomping grounds and introduce him to lifelong friends. The delays were so much a part of why I enjoyed the trip that there was never any reason to complain or reach out to Magical Mystery Tours. Though I’m sure if we had, they would have done what they could to help us out.

So, How Was the Trip?

Our time in Portland was amazing. MMT included so many great suggestions for exploring the city and surrounding areas, that there was no way we could hit them all.  Some of the highlights were catching our own dinner with Lucky Catch Lobster . The Portland Lobster Company partners with them to cook up whatever we bring them at a discounted price. Portland has over a dozen microbreweries as well. We took a tour and had tasting at 5 different locations including Alagash , Foundation , Austin Street , Battery Steele , and Definitive Brewing Company . We also took the ferry to Peaks Island where we rode bikes around the perimeter. The Portland Discovery Trolley Tour gave us a great overview and appreciation of the history in Portland and the sunset kayak tour on Casco Bay from Portland Paddle was a beautiful way to end our trip on the last night.

Based on this experience, I would not only 100% book a trip through Magical Mystery Tours again in the future but happily refer them to friends looking for an adventure . The process was simple and straightforward. The representatives were helpful and very responsive. And at the end of the day, it was just FUN! Packing a bag and heading to the airport with no knowledge of your destination is nothing short of exhilarating and I suggest everyone do it at least once.

The post  Review: Magical Mystery Tours – A Vacation For When You’re Feeling Adventurous was first published on Coworkaholic .

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10 Companies That Will Plan a Surprise Vacation for You

Adele Chapin

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What if you got ready for a vacation and showed up at the airport with no idea where your plane was headed? That’s the idea behind a new type of travel agency that will plan surprise vacations for very adventurous travelers. At the airport, you’ll receive a destination and custom itinerary (usually based on a survey or interview to determine your travel style). The idea is that you leave the planning, details, and logistics to someone else, and just pack up and go. Here’s how to take a surprise vacation of a lifetime with the help of these 10 travel companies.

BlackTomato

If you’ve always wanted to test your survival skills, Bear Grylls-style, BlackTomato’s elaborate surprise adventure tours might be the next best thing. Choose between terrains like “Polar, Jungle, Desert, Mountain, and Coastal,” and BlackTomato’s experts will figure out a country to drop you in—with advice on how to train for your expedition beforehand. Then it’s up to you to navigate through a series of checkpoints (with BlackTomato ops teams watching from afar to make sure all is well).

Blind Experiences

Imagine a surprise honeymoon where stressed-out couples didn’t have to plan anything at all. That idea kickstarted the luxury travel agency Blind Experiences , which then expanded into putting together tailored itineraries for families with young kids and multi-generational groups— with more surprises gradually revealed throughout the trip via sealed envelopes 

The surprise trip survey for Jubel begins by narrowing in on a country, continent or destination (beach or mountains?), then asks whether you’re more of a museum or nightlife person (you can pick both, for example). Jubel’s experts go from there to put together a proposal for you that’s just vague enough that your vacation is still a big surprise.

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Magical Mystery Tours

The founders of Magical Mystery Tours started their surprise travel agency back in 2009, and they’ve planned many customized vacations since then. The questionnaire quizzes travelers on everything from whether seasickness is a concern to which places they’ve visited and absolutely loved.

Pack Up & Go

Looking to go on a surprise road trip, a plane or train trip, or even a staycation in your own town? Those are the types of trips that Pack Up & Go specializes in, and travelers have headed off to 125 U.S. cities for a fun and completely unexpected trip with a planned-out itinerary of activities and meals. 

Spontaneous and courageous travelers are the ideal clients for SkipTown , an agency that will plan short surprise trips for you—even if you can only get away for one day. A “daycation” includes one night’s accommodation, one meal reservation, and one activity, all of which will be unexpected.

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With Surprisit , you’ll find out your unique surprise destination a few days before your vacation begins (in case you need a bit of time for some Googling). The agency plans surprise trips in the Caribbean in addition to the U.S. and Canada, as well as a “ Eurotrip ” where you head off to a new European city every three days.

The Vacation Hunt

If you’re a beach person, but you still want a big surprise, The Vacation Hunt will set you up with an all-inclusive resort in the Caribbean, Mexico or Latin America. Other surprise destinations for this travel agency include a trip within Europe or the United States, or you can open it up to any destination in the world. Surprise honeymoons are a speciality for The Vacation Hunt as well. 

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Whisked Away

Leave the real-world behind for a while with Whisked Away , which will plan surprise week-long flying or driving trips. The idea is to make this the easiest vacation ever for honeymooners, solo vacationers, families, girls’ groups, or anyone who wants an out-of-the-ordinary experience. 

Splurge trips, surprise vow renewals, solo adventures: Whym will plan a surprise vacation for all sorts of travelers. At the moment, the travel agency is only sending travelers out in the U.S.—and the surprises keep coming throughout the vacation, with blank spaces in your itinerary that are revealed gradually via “whymsies” text messages.

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TravelAwaits

Our mission is to serve the 50+ traveler who's ready to cross a few items off their bucket list.

What Is Mystery Travel And How Does It Work

• Activities and Interests
• Destinations
• Sightseeing

When it comes to travel, I’m a planner. Half the fun of a trip is figuring out all of the details ahead of time. And yet, there’s undoubtedly something to be said about a surprise vacation where the adventure that awaits isn’t entirely in my control. Mystery travel is among the growing trends for travelers seeking new experiences and willing to put their trip in the hands of someone else, in most cases, without even knowing where they’re headed until they’re at the airport. And I have to admit, the more I look into this novelty, the more intrigued I am by the idea of heading off to parts literally unknown.

What is Mystery Travel?

Just as the name implies, mystery travel means taking a trip you didn’t plan out yourself, and possibly not knowing the destination until it’s time to go. Of course, there’s nothing to stop you from asking a loved one to take your travel budget and plan out a fun getaway without telling you where you’re going or what you’ll be doing when you get there, however those looking for professional assistance with their mystery travel arrangements have the option of booking a mystery travel package where the ins and outs are handled by the experts. There are actually entire travel sites dedicated to creating a mystery travel experience.

How does a Mystery Travel Package work?

The process of booking and experiencing a mystery travel package seems to vary from one site to the other. Some offer U.S. domestic trips only, while most of the others we looked at offer both domestic and international packages. Some will tell you where you’re going after it’s booked if you really want to know, but most prefer to keep that secret from you until much closer to your trip. As for pricing, at least one of the sites we researched has fixed options for regular and luxury packages, while others let you set the budget and they’ll build a trip around that. And from what we’ve seen, all of them emphasize taking your personal travel preferences into account, which is nice for those with specific preferences as it relates to climate, activities and other factors. Your date preferences are obviously also taken into account, so you shouldn’t need to worry about being sent off on vacation at an inconvenient time.

We’ll get into more details about some of the services offered and how they work below.

Where can I book a mystery travel package?

One quick google search for “mystery travel” yields a number of options, so we suggest you do your research and go with the company that seems like the best fit for what you’re looking for. They tend to vary based on the options available, pricing and the level of mystery involved. Here are some of the services we found in our search…

packupgo.com

Pack Up + Go

Pack Up + Go ‘s packages are very specifically set as 3-day weekend trips in the United States. You set the budget, the dates and some travel preferences and they use all of that to book your trip. Then, a week before it’s time to go, they send you information on where you need to go and when in order to get to your destination, as well as the weather forecast for your mystery destination, so you know what to pack and whether or not to bring sunblock and all that. They will also mail you an envelope before your trip, which you’re not supposed to open until it’s time (unless you want to spoil the surprise), which includes how to get to your accommodations, a city guide and a list of recommendations for what to do in your destination.

cluventuretravel.com

Cluventure takes the mystery to the next level by incorporating clues into your trip. They book short and longer trips both domestically and internationally, all depending on what package you get. They book the transportation, lodging and activities, and then provide clues for you to unlock both before and during your trip. Their prices are fixed, depending on which package you want and whether you’re up for spending a bit more for the luxury option. For example, a 3-Day trip to somewhere in the U.S. is $900 per person or $1,200 per person for the luxury option. As for the clues, you have the option to set the level of difficulty on them. This sounds like it would be a good fit for people looking to have the whole trip mapped out for them. It also sounds like a sense of fun would be a plus when it comes to the clues, but if you’re booking a mystery trip, it’s probably safe to assume you have that.

www.jubel.co

Jubel offers trips for both international and domestic destinations based on your budget and preferences. You take their survey, they send you a proposal and then in the days leading up to your trip, they’ll send you a bunch of envelopes, each labeled with the date you should open it, so that each destination within your trip can be a surprise. According to Thrillist , at some point between the survey and actual booking process, you’ll speak with someone at Jubel to work out the specifics on budget, travel dates and specific preferences, after which they’ll send you two proposals to choose from.

magical-mystery-tours.com

Magical Mystery Tour

Magical Mystery Tour has you set the budget, give them some preferences and then they work out all of the details from there. According to their site, the cost of a Mystery trip starts at around $1,500 for two people for a weekend trip (the cost for a solo weekend trip is a minimum of $1,100). And of course, that minimum price goes up the more days you add. A few days before your trip, they’ll send you a packet that contains your itinerary and other details about where you’re headed. They suggest you wait until you get to the airport (or wherever you’re departing from) before opening the envelope. And if you’re concerned about not knowing what to pack, don’t worry. They’ll send you a weather report ahead of your trip, along with any other information about what you might need to bring. So if you really want to be surprised up until you’re headed to the airport, you have that option.

thevacationhunt.com

The Vacation Hunt

The Vacation Hunt offers a selection of fixed prices for both domestic and international destinations. They also have pricing for all-inclusive vacation packages, which include the cost of food and drinks, airport transfers and on-site resort activities and entertainment. It starts when you take their survey, after which you can choose a surprise vacation package. They’ll give you three options to choose from ranging from 3-10 days. Those who want their activities planned out for them can pay an extra fee for a custom surprise itinerary. About 10 days before your trip, they’ll send you packing tips and weather report, along with the tracking number for the surprise vacation envelope they’ll be sending you a week before your flight. That envelope will include the details of your destination, flight and hotel information and whatever activity bookings and dining reservations might be included.

These are just some of the options we found online for mystery vacations. If this is something you’re considering, we advise you to do your research and read the reviews to ensure you find the best option for you.

In addition to mystery travel, Glamping is another rising travel trend. It’s an option for those who want to experience the outdoors while also enjoying some of the luxuries of the modern world. Here’s a list of great glamping locations across the U.S. for a variety of budgets .

Review: Liverpool’s Beatles-themed Magical Mystery Tour

Head down the Beatlemania rabbit hole in search of the origin stories and inspiration points that defined the world’s most famous band in this Magical Mystery Tour review.

The Magical Mystery Tour coach (Photo: Paul Stafford for TravelMag.com)

It’s the middle of a Tuesday afternoon and the cheery yellow and blue Magical Mystery Tour coach we’re on stops outside an unassuming row of terraced houses in southern Liverpool. Everybody piles off and we wander down a cul-de-sac.

It’s eerily quiet, making me increasingly self-conscious that I, and 40 other people, are gathered outside somebody’s home, with its red brickwork and white lace curtains, our camera shutters clicking away. Anywhere else in Britain, the neighbours, or indeed the occupants, would be straight on the phone to the police. But this is Liverpool, and this was the house was where George Harrison was born.

George Harrison’s birthplace (Photo: Paul Stafford for TravelMag.com)

Practically anything touched by a member of the Fab Four is worshipped these days. And while Liverpool contains many cultural riches from various bands that have come from the Merseyside area, only The Beatles can boast their own dedicated daily tour.

George Harrison’s birthplace remains an ordinary, occupied home, but for the regular procession of Beatles fans who come to take photos and pay their respects. But even the faintest whiff of his greatness, knowing he spend time there, transforms an ordinary terrace into something finer than a sultan’s palace. It’s just one of a handful of houses located in suburban, southern neighbourhoods of Liverpool like it.

John Lennon lived here (Photo: Paul Stafford for TravelMag.com)

Back aboard the bus, our tour guide Neil Brannan, a former actor who also works as a DJ at the much vaunted Cavern Club, leads the group on a singalong of Love Me Do as we continue on to the childhood homes of Ringo Starr, John Lennon and Paul McCartney. Each one ratchets up the degree of fervour, despite the fact that for quite a few people aboard the coach, this is not their first time taking this tour.

We stop near Mendips, the home of John Lennon’s Aunt Mimi where he spent much of his childhood. It’s a larger home, with a front garden. Nobody spoils the integrity of the closed gate separating our pavement viewing platform from the private property of a stranger, where a man who passed away 43 years ago once lived. Yet it’s treated like a holy shrine. After all, his music is alive and vital as ever.

Paul McCartney’s childhood home (Photo: Paul Stafford for TravelMag.com)

The final home we visit is at 20 Forthlin Road. Again, we merely stand and admire the post-war brickwork, deep in the knowledge that it protected Paul McCartney from the wind and rain. Here, the atmosphere is particularly reverent. A separate National Trust tour is the only way to get inside. Somehow the knowledge that Paul McCartney composed many of the early Beatles hits in the bathroom (for acoustic, rather than digestive complaint reasons) gives it a hallowed quality.

Back on the bus, the playlist has now moved on to the band’s later material. While My Guitar Gently Weeps plays, as the hopeful, love-struck songs of the early Beatles oeuvre are replaced by songs of a deeper lived experience as global superstars. But while The Beatles by this point had left Liverpool, the city never really left them.

Strawberry Field entrance (Photo: Paul Stafford for TravelMag.com)

This was particularly evident on their double A-side single released in early 1967 that included the songs Strawberry Fields Forever  and Penny Lane . Both titles nod towards places in Liverpool where the band members spent time in their youth. Both sites are visited on this tour next, with the graffiti on the closed red entrance gate to Strawberry Field holding a particular sense of pathos.

By the end of the tour, as the coach heads back into central Liverpool, there’s a contemplative quiet aboard. While the whole exercise of visiting places many of The Beatles themselves have not visited for decades felt a little odd at first, by the end it all seems to make an absurd sort of sense.

Penny Lane might have the world’s most photographed road sign (Photo: Paul Stafford for TravelMag.com)

Sure, a lot has changed here; it’s not the Liverpool where these four boys grew up. But there’s something about how normal all these places are that holds power. They are parks, and church graveyards, schools and simple family homes that are not unlike those in the lived experiences of most people. There’s nothing particularly remarkable or special about any of them that you could point to and say: “this is why they made the music they made”. Then again, the songs written by The Beatles have an uncanny ability to reach out across boundaries and generations and speak to people with a clarity and familiarity that very few have come close to emulating before or since.

Having completed the tour, we disembark outside The Cavern Club, where it all began to take off for The Beatles. When you head downstairs into this hallowed space for live music, fresh from the sightseeing, it’s really only then that you can truly appreciate how remarkable and rare it is that these creative minds were able to come together and make music, for little more than a decade, and still hold so much power over so many people more than half a century later.

Where to Book

Inside the Cavern Club (Photo: Paul Stafford for TravelMag.com)

The Magical Mystery Tour runs between twice and five times a day depending on the time of year and day of the week. The coach departs from the Albert Dock area and tours last around two hours. You can book tickets through Getyourguide.com at £20 per person.

If you’re thinking of visiting Liverpool from London on a day trip, there are tours that can take care of all the planning for you. The best option is this one with Viator.com , which for £192 per person includes round-trip rail tickets, tickets to the Magical Mystery Tour, access to the Beatles Story Exhibition and entry to the Cavern Club.

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Magical Mystery Tour

In 1964 a psychedelic placard heralded the arrival of counterculture guru Ken Kesey and his entourage to America’s cities

Owen Edwards

The moment he saw the signboard in 1992, National Museum of American History curator Bill Yeingst knew that he had uncovered a watershed artifact of the 1960s. In the company of novelist and counterculture guru Ken Kesey (author of 1962's One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest ), Yeingst had turned up an old 3- by 5 ¾-foot wooden panel painted in psychedelic colors. It had announced the arrival of Kesey and his traveling companions, the Merry Pranksters, when their bus rolled into towns and cities across America in the mid-1960s.

Yeingst had made his way to Kesey's Oregon farm in search of an even more numinous '60s talisman, the 1939 International Harvester school bus in which Kesey and the Pranksters journeyed from coast to coast, preaching a gospel of transformation—political as well as social—through sex, drugs and rock 'n' roll. As Kesey, who died in 2001 at 66, once put it, "What we hoped was that we could stop the coming end of the world."

By the time he bought the bus in the spring of 1964 and painted it in Day-Glo colors, Kesey was a well-known author, whose second novel, Sometimes a Great Notion , would be released that summer. He had already gathered around him a group of about a dozen friends and acolytes (including Neal Cassady, who was the model for a main character in Jack Kerouac's On the Road ). In June, Kesey and his entourage embarked on an epic, month-long journey from his home in La Honda, California, to New York City. During that drive, documented in part by journalist Tom Wolfe in his 1968 book The Electric Kool-Aid Acid Test , and on many an odyssey thereafter, the Merry Pranksters performed street theater and took part in group LSD sessions. Outrageously dressed, antic and idealistic, the group offered a living blueprint for the San Francisco hippie culture that would reach its apotheosis in the 1967 Summer of Love and spread quickly across the country. Some have said that Kesey (with a little help from the Beatles) and his bus, christened "Further," invented the '60s.

Yeingst, who had been in touch with the author for a period of months, had high hopes of acquiring the bus when he showed up at Kesey's home in Pleasant Hill, Oregon. Accompanied by a colleague, archivist John Fleckner, he spotted Kesey driving a tractor pulling a hay wagon. The two visitors soon found themselves riding the wagon, tossing out bales for Kesey's cattle. But once they got a look at Further, a crestfallen Yeingst and Fleckner quickly realized that the challenges of restoring the bus, which was in a decrepit condition, as well as transporting, storing and exhibiting it, would amount to a major undertaking.

Always on the hunt for "ordinary things that helped shape American history," Yeingst wasn't prepared to leave empty handed. After they described their quest for an object that would evoke the psychedelic pilgrimages of the '60s, Kesey took them to the loft of a chicken coop and pointed out the Merry Pranksters signboard. Even in the loft's dim light, Yeingst recognized its significance. With its hallucinogenic graphics and double-entendre slogan—"can you pass the Acid Test?"—the sign symbolized the beginning of the Age of Aquarius no less dramatically than the bus itself.

Although Kesey's espousal of the drug culture was ultimately perceived as a threat to law and order and the author was arrested and prosecuted for possession of marijuana, his introduction to hallucinogenic drugs had been entirely innocent. In 1959, while a graduate student in a writing program at Stanford University, Kesey volunteered for a government-funded research project. He was given LSD (which was legal at the time), mescaline and other mind-altering substances and asked to write reports about the various drugs' effects. These controlled but disorienting experiments conducted in a clinical setting, along with Kesey's work as a part-time orderly at a VA hospital, provided the template for Cuckoo's Nest , in which the main character, Randle Patrick McMurphy (played in the 1975 movie version by Jack Nicholson), tries to organize the inmates of a mental ward to resist Nurse Ratched (a stand-in for governmental authority) and is finally silenced with a lobotomy. By the time Kesey was arrested, he had renounced his earlier belief in the power of LSD to bring about positive change. After serving a sentence of six months, he and his wife, Faye, and their three children settled on his Oregon farm where he raised cattle and sheep.

Some wag once wrote that anyone who could remember the '60s probably wasn't there. Those of us who were there, and remember the decade vividly, will disagree. But for generations born later, the significance of a tumultuous time when America changed forever (whether for the better or worse depends on one's point of view) can begin to seem more an unfortunate fashion phenomenon than a profound shifting of social and political tectonic plates. As decades pass, a simple object like the Merry Pranksters panel—literally a sign of the times—rescued from a chicken coop in Oregon, has transformed into history itself.

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Owen Edwards | READ MORE

Owen Edwards is a freelance writer who previously wrote the "Object at Hand" column in Smithsonian magazine.

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Step aboard the colourful Magical Mystery Tour bus for a fun and fascinating 2 hour tour of Beatles Liverpool.

Tours Times

Monday to Thursday 10 am – 2 pm Friday to Sunday 10 am – 2 pm

Monday to Sunday 9:30am – 4 pm

Additional tours operate throughout August and September. Please check here to see available tours on your chosen date.

Step aboard the colourful Magical Mystery Tour bus for a fun and fascinating 2 hour tour of Beatles Liverpool. You’ll see all the places associated with John, Paul, George and Ringo as they grew up, met and formed the band that would take the pop world by storm.

Tours start at the Albert Dock – meet your guide at the Magical Mystery Tour Ticket Office in Anchor Courtyard just a few metres from the bus stop where you will get on board the colourful Magical Mystery Tour coach for an unforgettable 2 hour tour. See the Beatles childhood homes, schools and colleges and get up close to places that inspired some of their most memorable songs – Penny Lane and Strawberry Field  CLICK HERE FOR FULL TOUR ITINERARY . You’ll be kept entertained along the way by one of our professional Beatles Guides and some Fab Four tunes.

Please enquire about arranging an exclusive private 2 or 4 hour tours  for groups in one of the Magical Mystery Tour vehicles.

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Tickets Times & Packages

Adults – £19.95

Child (Age 2 to 16) – £10.00

Family Ticket (2 adults & 2 children (16 and under)) – £50.00

Babies (0 to 2) – Free

Group discount ticket for 10 also available.

Advance booking recommended – BUY TICKETS ONLINE  or call in to the Magical Mystery Tour Ticket Office, Anchor Courtyard, Albert Dock, Liverpool L3 4AS Open daily 9am-4:30pm (subject to change during winter months) , Tel: 0151 703 9100 or email: [email protected] Tickets also available at the Cavern Pub in Mathew Street CLICK HERE FOR MAP

Due to transport regulations every person on board the Magical Mystery Tour requires a ticket (including children and babies). A complimentary ticket can be organised for children under the age of 2 (subject to availability). Please call our ticket office directly if you would like to book for a child  0151 703 9100

Evan Evans package day trips from London by train including Beatles Magical Mystery Tour ticket Golden Tours package day trips to Liverpool from London by train with Beatles Magical Mystery Tour ticket My Bus package day trips & overnight breaks from London to Liverpool by train including the Magical Mystery Tour

Printed translations of the tour are available in English, Portuguese, Russian, Chinese, French, German, Italian, Japanese, Swedish, Indonesian and Spanish and can be purchased at the Ticket Office.

Car parking – Liverpool ONE, Liverpool L1 8LT is just 5 minutes walk from the tour start and finish points.

Toilets – the majority of the tour is through the suburbs of Liverpool.  There are toilets at Britannia Pavilion, Albert Dock before you join the tour or on Mathew Street at the end of the tour.

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• Opening Times
• Buy Tickets
• Cavern Club
• Cavern Live Lounge
• The Cavern Restaurant
• Opening times & prices
• Visitor Reviews
• Resident Bands
• Magical Mystery Tour
• Private Beatles Tours
• Visit Liverpool
• London Beatles Tour
• Play The Cavern
• Hire The Cavern
• Work for the Cavern

Magical Mystery Tour itinerary

The 2-hour Magical Mystery Tour starts at the Albert Dock and finishes at Mathew Street, home of The Cavern Club.

Meet your guide at the Magical Mystery Tour Ticket Office, Anchor Courtyard, Albert Dock, Liverpool L3 4AS

Please arrive onto the Albert Dock to check in 30 minutes before your tour departure time . Coach boarding will begin 10 minutes before departure time. Unfortunately, we cannot offer refunds for missed tours nor can we move passengers to a later tour time without prior notice.

The ticket office is open 7 days a week from 9:30am to 4pm and sells a great range of souvenirs including tour guide maps, T-shirts, keyrings and postcards.  Tel: 0151 703 9100.

The Magical Mystery Tour finishes at  Mathew Street, Liverpool L2 6RE .

Liverpool ONE Car Park, Strand Street, Liverpool L1 8LT is a few minutes walk from the start and finish points.

The tour lasts 2 hours and includes the following locations with stops for photos on the way:

• Childhood home of Ringo Starr
• George Harrison’s Birthplace (passengers get off the bus here)
• Penny Lane (passengers get off the bus here)
• St Peter’s Church Hall (where John and Paul met for the first time)
• Strawberry Field (passengers get off the bus here)
• John Lennon’s childhood home
• Paul McCartney’s childhood home (passengers get off the bus here)
• Former schools and colleges of John, Paul, George and Ringo including the Art College and the Liverpool Institute (now LIPA)
• The world famous Cavern Club, birthplace of the Beatles,

The Magical Mystery Tour is the only Beatles tour that finishes at Mathew Street, home of The Cavern and steeped in Beatles heritage.  Magical Mystery Tour customers can enjoy free entry** into The Cavern Club on the day of their tour.

**Free entry excluded on annual International Beatleweek Festival dates (21st – 27th August 2024). Admission can be purchased in advance for the festival at www.internationalbeatleweek.com (subject to availability)

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Wisconsin Itinerary: Magical Mystery Tour

Circle Wisconsin , Midwestern US Itinerary

Things To Do in the Wisconsin Dells

Keep your group entertained with circus fun, a scenic cruise, rail nostalgia and perhaps some beer tasting.

4 Unique Experience on This Trip

• Circus World Museum
• Palace Theater in the Dells
• Mid-Continent Railway Museum
• Ten Chimneys

Duration:  3 Days Available: Year-round Ideal For: All

Day 1: Circus City, Palace Theater in the Dells and more places to visit in Wisconsin

Day 2: Explore Paul Bunyan’s Cook Shanty and House on the Rock

Start your day off with a lumberjack pancake breakfast at Paul Bunyan’s Cook Shanty in the Dells. Then depart from an authentic 1894 C & NW depot on a train ride through the countryside. The Mid-Continent Railway Museum grounds and building house a lovingly restored steam engine, vintage railroad coaches, freight cars and cabooses. The mystery tour then takes you away to the magical and grandiose world of The House on the Rock with its collection of collections. Plan on spending three hours or a day in this complex of unique rooms and breath-taking gardens; marvel at the streets of yesteryear, infinity room and world’s largest indoor carousel.

Day 3: A Beer-lovers tour, a historic home and more Wisconsin activities

For more travel ideas, download our current issue of Leisure Travel Guide.

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