Two things appeared on my radar last Friday, both of which promise essentially mystery travel.
1. I had a press email from Global Scavenger Hunt, an “annual event” that charges $25,000/team of 2 for a “free” trip around the world. Travellers must apply and interview, and its only a three-week trip. The email starts off by telling me that, “Travel adventures by their nature require new frontiers; new what if’s and new challenges. The Global Scavenger Hunt turns travel on its head in 2017 by taking people on an adventure around the world—without telling them where they will be going!”
Right. It sounds really interesting, but tell me again why I pay $25,000 to take a trip around the world and compete with other people, even if I do get to help build a school in Kenya while doing it? Oh, wait, no. I can take a “half-day” to volunteer on one such project (but I get “numerous chances” to do so.) The email also tells me that the event “brings back the magic of travel and is all about letting travelers be creative, resourceful and enjoy the serendipity of the moment. It is about participants using their savvy and Travel IQ to complete a series of engaging and highly-participatory site-doing scavenges in competition with other great global travelers.”
More details, straight from the email: “The 23-day around the world event is limited to 15 teams of two, and the US$25,000 per team entry fee includes: all international airfare, first class hotels, 40% of meals and special event-sponsored travel gear.”
Are you joking? You want me to shell out $12,500 and you are only providing 40% of my meals? Are we staying in penthouses? Am I flying first-bloody-class to every. single. destination? Because the last time I checked, I could get around the world for a lot less than $500/day. (If you *are* interested in this, please comment and I will email you the contact details.)
2. I stumbled upon a page about a mystery destination travel company. I much prefer the sound of this idea. Essentially, Jubel is a travel agent, but the catch is that they don’t tell you exactly where you are going – or, in fact, what your full itinerary is – until you are already on your way.
This sounds cool. You do get a lot of say in what you end up doing. You have to determine a path – what type of trip you want (say, city getaway, nature, museums, party culture, etc), your budget, the style of rental car you prefer, what hotels you prefer, etc … and you can also set a limit for how much of the trip is a surprise.
There are a few glitches, as one of the guys quoted in the article discovered: they had a free night and planned a big night out, only to open their envelope just before leaving to discover that they were booked on an early-morning flight the next day. So, you get some risks involved when you don’t know what you are doing but overall it sounds like a very interesting and innovative idea.
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I’m sharing these because a sense of mystery/the unknown seems like the new thing in travel… so I had a bit of a google search. Are you surprised to hear that there were a LOT of companies out there doing this?
Don’t have the budget to get out of your own country? Pack Up + Go offer this service within the United States, while even Air New Zealand has jumped on this bandwagon!
Thoughts? Would you take an unknown adventure? What about the around-the-world scavenger hunt? Share your stories in the comments below.