Lisa and I went on a surprise trip with travel concept srprs.me that sends you to destination unknown, and it was exciting, refreshing and weirdly relaxing!
Since I travel so much, I’m always very well prepared for my next journey: I have all my booking documents printed out, I have packed an entire travel wardrobe matching my destination and I almost know the way to the hotel by heart before we even arrive. Last weekend I however made a trip TOTALLY out of my comfort zone: I knew… absolutely nothing!
Let me first quickly explain you the mission of this highly unusual travel concept called srprs.me. They claim that the best way to experience a destination, is to let it happen spontaneously: saying yes to an unknown adventure without any planning and any prejudices! The concept is simple: they choose your destination and hotel, which they reveal to you… at the airport. HOW cool is this!?
When the srprs.me team asked me to experience their surprise concept at first hand, I was tremendously intrigued and didn’t have to think long before signing up! Here’s my personal experience from the trip I did with my friend Lisa!
First of all, an important notice is that you can choose the degree of surprise and the kind of holiday you want to do. You can opt for trips with at least some control (you get to see the destination options), trips with only the continent set (yup, they’re not limited to Europe), trips with unknown travel partners (whaaaat), trips by car or train (because equally fun and environmental-friendly) and of course the ultimate surprise trips.
I personally opted for the last category, as I’ve already visited quite some cities in Europe and wanted to be completely surprised this time! Now, you are of course in some control, as they are spending your money, so there are a few things that you can decide on yourself:
- your budget
- your travel dates
- your travel partner(s)
- the places you DON’T want to go
Also, there’s a few pieces of information you do get to know in advance:
- your hour & place of departure
- the weather forecast
That’s it! We could find the latter about a week before our departure on a personalised webpage entirely dedicated to our trip, and this was the only information we received to prepare ourselves for the mini getaway. Quite difficult, especially if you’re a perfectionist packer!
I managed to keep my curiosity under control, but Lisa later admitted she did check out some cities’ weather forecasts — the little cheater. Our destination remained a secret though, as both of us had not for a single moment considered the city that was eventually chosen for us!
We arrived at Brussels Airport on Friday at 8AM with a suitcase packed with warm sweaters, an umbrella and… a bikini, because you never know, right? Because of the weird, cold weather we were thinking of Helsinki, Warschau or maybe Edinburgh as possible destinations, and things got VERY nerve-wrecking once we stood in front of the big departure billboard peering at all the different flights. At that point we could finally open the envelope with a scratch card that we received a few weeks before!
The scratch card exposed a code that we had to fill in on the srprs.me website (yes, what a quest), and after a long 5… 4… 3… 2… 1… our destination was finally revealed! We were headed to Zürich, Switserland! Here’s what my very honest excitement looked like 🙂
Yay! Off to collect our boarding passes (srprs.me had already done the check-in, very convenient) and to Zürich we went! We honestly had no idea what the city would be like, as we only could think of banks, chocolate and mountains. And watches, mabye. Time to change this rather dull & vague image!
Srprs.me of course promotes living the spontaneous life, but I did quickly ask my Instagram followers for their best tips so that we didn’t have to worry about getting lost on our first day. I got some real good recommendations that I’ll share with you guys in another blogpost!
After a short 55min flight we arrived at Zürich airport and used the public transport guide we found in our updated srprs.me webpage. Other new and crucial information we discovered there? Our hotel! Srprs.me only works with reputable hotels and Bnb’s, so we were pretty confident they had managed to find us a good place to stay in Zürich.
We followed the walking directions from the metro station and stepped into Motel One, a budget boutique hotel! Designer looks, but affordable prices — just how I like it! The check-in went super smooth again and within minutes we were relaxing in our room. The entire process went as easy and laid-back as my usual journeys, with the extra thrill and without the hassle of all the preparations and research. Ah-ma-zing.
We had 3 days to discover this city we would never have picked as a city trip destination and we were SO ready. The one thing I can tell you already, is that we were beyond surprised by its beauty, class and myriad of interesting art things to visit! A Zürich city trip guide is coming up very soon, so stay tuned!
For now, what do you think of the srprs.me concept? Up for a little surprise trip yourself?
Written in collaboration with srprs.me / flights & hotel gifted to review