I went on Wizz Air's mystery trip to a destination unknown until the plane landed - would I do it again?

A whole lot of nerves, a whole lot of excitement, and a whole lot of ‘Where the hell am I going?!’. On Thursday, March 7 I arrived at Gatwick Airport ready for Wizz Air’s mystery trip of a lifetime where I had no idea which destination I was heading for.

The only information I was given beforehand was that it would be 18 to 20 degrees and I would need to pack some swimwear and hiking gear. Packing was a nightmare. Could there be a chance of rain? Could it be warmer or colder than that?

Before I arrived at the airport thoughts were swirling around of where I could be going. The trip lasted until Sunday evening so I thought surely it must be a two hour flight max, with me thinking it could potentially be Portugal or maybe even Greece - but who knows? It could be anywhere. 

I have never done anything like this before, I have never done a Wowcher mystery holiday or had a trip booked for me where I don’t know where I am going. I always plan, know what to pack and know where I am going. But if trips and opportunities like this come around again I would 100% go. 

I was joined by 33 other lucky winners and their chosen guests, who had won Wizz Air’s ‘Let’s Get Lost’ trip which had been posted as a competition on the airline's Instagram page. Over 5,000 people entered to win this year's mystery holiday trip - the airline ran the campaign before with previous winners going to the likes of Abu Dhabi and Vienna. 

I was really confused as to how it would all work - surely we would look at the flight board and know where we were going? Surely it would be on the boarding pass? How wrong I was. Everything was very much kept a secret. The destination on the departure flight board read ‘Unknown foreign’ as it did the boarding pass. The only giveaway was that the flight would be landing at the destination at 9pm.

From this information we were all trying to guess. As we all chatted and passed each other on the plane there started to be rumours of perhaps Croatia, or Turkey, but none of us really knew. 

Boarding the plane and having no idea where I would be heading was so thrilling and hilarious at the same time. During the flight I was eagerly looking out of the window, trying to guess where we were, which became a little difficult when the sun set and it was pitch black outside. The cabin crew informed us that the plane was beginning to descend and we were all craning our necks to look outside the window.

All I could see were so many bright lights and what looked like a bustling city. I was so excited. The plane landed and it went silent as it was announced: “Ladies and gentlemen, we would like to welcome you to Antalya, Turkey”. The plane erupted with cheers, claps and laughter. 

But the excitement didn’t stop there as now we were very eager to find out the itinerary of the trip. What would we be getting up to? What did they have in store for us?

As we disembarked the plane we were greeted in a private lounge in Antalya Airport with drinks, food, and live violinists. As it is Wizz Air’s campaign trip there were lots of camera crew and pictures of people’s reactions of where we had landed. It was all a lot of fun.

We were handed the itinerary for the next few days and it looked surreal. Wild water rafting, jeep safari, dinner at a Nemo restaurant, boat ride to see a waterfall - it was a lot more than I was expecting, and I really couldn’t wait for it. 

We stayed at the Maxx Royal Belek Golf & Spa five-star hotel in Belek, which was a stunning and grand hotel that was just fabulous to stay in for the trip. The hotel had so many gorgeous pools, one of which was an outside heated pool that we enjoyed on the last day. It had a chocolatier where you could have free chocolates and amazing restaurants with pretty much any food that you could wish for. The trip was an all-expenses paid holiday so we could all enjoy what the hotel had to offer. 

On the first full day we had the rafting, Tazi Canyon and jeep safari experience. I was pretty nervous about the rafting but I am so glad I did it and experienced it. We were all put in boats, with a guide, in our pretty hideous wetsuits, helmets, and oars, and rafted through the river which had the beautiful scenery of the Taurus Mountains around us. Once our boat got over the first current we were loving it, and got very competitive to beat the others. We got a little wet to say the least but it was so much fun.