N by Norwegian

What do you pack for a trip to a mystery destination? For the past month, I’ve been pondering this question, wondering whether I need hiking boots or city shoes, a bikini or a winter coat. Now, it’s 7am on a Wednesday morning and I’m standing at check-in at London’s Gatwick Airport with no idea where I’m flying to, desperately hoping I’ve packed appropriately.

This isn’t my only worry. When it comes to travel, worry is something I do well. My nickname at work is “Siri” – after Apple’s virtual assistant – thanks to the incredibly detailed itineraries I make before any trip. I get nervous if I go anywhere without knowing the best places to eat lunch, and the fastest route to get to them.

In many ways I’m the worst person to try out one of the mystery holidays from Srprs.me, a Dutch start-up that specialises in bringing spontaneity back to travel. The firm serves up a range of holidays where the destination is only revealed at the airport. It’s an approach devised in an attempt to curb the modern tendency for over-planning – what the company’s founder, Raymond Klompsma, calls “TripAdvisor syndrome”.

While around 85 per cent of their customers opt for a city break, I’m about to depart on one of their backpacking trips, which involve flying into one undisclosed destination and out of another. Srprs.me have booked accommodation for the first and last nights but in between I’ve got to get myself from point A to point B without any prior planning. I’d be lying if I said I hadn’t had several nightmares involving impossibly far-flung destinations, missed connections, and bikinis in the Arctic.

Now I’m at the airport, clutching the scratch card that will reveal where I’m off to. I do know it won’t be in the tropics – a week before departure my personal Srprs.me webpage revealed a weather forecast of 11°C and rain. This has helped with packing the appropriate gear in my lightweight, practical Fjallraven Travel backpack, if not my nerves.

Scratching the card reveals a unique four-letter code that I put into the webpage, and I discover… I’m going to Helsinki! I’ll then be departing, six days later, from Riga, Latvia – 402 km away.

The last time I was in this part of the world was 11 years ago, when I was travelling with friends and sleeping in a van, so, I’m excited to revisit it. I check in and – in true Siri style – 10 minutes later I’m planning my route over breakfast, deciding to head from Helsinki across the Gulf of Finland to Tallinn, the capital of Estonia, through the town of Pärnu before arriving into Riga. But, this rough plan put together on my phone is as far as I get before being called to board my flight into the unknown.

Srprs.me started four years ago, when Stefan Wobben asked Klompsma, the co-founder of their web development company, to book a trip for him but to not send the details until he arrived at the airport.

“It was an odd thing to ask, but I had fun booking a trip to Marrakech,” says Klompsma. “When he came back, we talked about his experience, and found that because he couldn’t prepare, he had a really open mind about the trip. It was a different way to travel. So, we decided to found Srprs.me.”

As I discover when telling friends and family about my upcoming trip, there are two kinds of people – those who get excited by the idea of a surprise destination, and those who feel a sense of panic at the mere thought of being sent into the unknown.

It’s something Klompsma found too. “Before going live, we did some market research,” he says. “About 50 per cent of people said, ‘Oh wow, this is really awesome.’ The others said, ‘Oh no, I’m never going to do this because I’m a control freak.’” Talking of control freaks, this one has just touched down in Helsinki. I’m definitely feeling apprehensive as I head to the hotel booked by Srprs.me, so I’m pleasantly surprised to find myself at the stylish Hotel Fabian – and I didn’t have to trawl through TripAdvisor to get there.

I head out to explore, starting at the Kamppi Silent Chapel, which is beautiful, but not particularly silent thanks to several toddlers; then to the Herring Festival at the harbour, only to find it’s just a few food stalls.

I fall back on a place I’ve admittedly been before: the historic Yrjönkatu swimming hall. Luckily it’s women’s day, so I spend a leisurely afternoon in the saunas. On my way back to the hotel, I stumble across Latva, a small wine bar serving Finnish tapas, known as sapas – something I hadn’t come across before, despite having meticulously planned my previous trip. Perhaps there are some perks to this mystery trip scenario…

I’m not the only one who thinks so. In their first year, Srprs.me sent close to 700 people on trips, and scored 9.3 for customer satisfaction. Today, the company has grown to 55 employees and booked close to 60,000 travellers on holidays around the world.

Over dinner, I reflect on the rise of the mystery trip. In some format, they’ve been around for decades, and are often perceived as a cheap way to offload last-minute tickets to less desirable or off -season destinations. Recently, however, bespoke surprise holidays are experiencing a boom, buoyed by the idea that not having to plan a holiday is a luxury in itself.

In addition to Srprs.me, there’s Pack Up + Go, a travel agency that organises weekends away in the US, complete with activity and dining suggestions; Blind Experiences, which specialises in mystery honeymoons; and countless others. Perhaps the most extreme is Black Tomato, a London-based luxury travel agency that sends intrepid travellers completely off -grid – think far-northern Iceland or Mongolia – with a satellite phone and a map, for US$33,000 per person.

Rather than the Secret Hotels model, where punters book last-minute inventory for a cut-price, these new operators are focused on building the right package for the individual. Srprs.me, for example, doesn’t partner with tour operators, airlines, or hotels, and travellers can specify up to three destinations they don’t want to visit.

“When we’re booking a trip, we don’t ask a lot of questions or look at your Facebook,” says Klompsma. “We believe that every city is great if you have an open mindset.”

This year alone, Srprs.me will have booked close to 40,000 travellers. Over 20 per cent are return customers, and Klompsma estimates that around 65 per cent of sales come from word-of-mouth. As a result, the company is growing quickly. They recently launched into the UK and have plans to launch in Germany in March next year, adding two new countries every year going forward.

Out on the road, I’m starting to see the appeal. On my second day of travel, I head to Helsinki’s cruise terminal and board a ferry to Tallinn, which is actually more of a cruise ship with restaurants, bars and live music (full of enthusiastic Finns off in search of the cheap booze and partying in Tallinn, apparently). During the crossing I book a hotel. Getting into the spirit of things, I barely check the reviews – which sets the tone for the coming days.

In Tallinn I spend a lot of time walking the city streets – one day, close to 19 km – discovering things I might not have seen if I had stuck to a pre-laid plan. Walking around the two-tiered old town – which lives up to its reputation for pastel-coloured, fairy-tale prettiness – I find A-Gallerii, an inspiring contemporary jewellery gallery, and the Little Red House design store, both filled with the work of local artists. I stumble across restaurants in real life, rather than online. I eat at Rataskaevu 16, Von Krahl Aed, and Farm, all of which I wouldn’t hesitate to recommend or revisit.

There are other unexpected delights too, like the Eastern European bus services. Making my way from Tallinn to Pärnu, I’m weirdly impressed by the in-seat entertainment, reclining seats and free hot drinks, comparable to many short-haul flights I’ve taken.

Of course, it’s not all smooth sailing. I probably wouldn’t have chosen to visit Pärnu – one of Estonia’s most popular summer resorts – during autumn if I had done more research. While there’s something eerily beautiful about this deserted and windswept stretch of sandy Baltic beach, to say the town is quiet is something of an understatement.

During an attempt to explore, I get stuck in a hail storm that leaves me soaked through and freezing. Luckily, the town has had a reputation as a spa destination since the middle of the 19th century. So, I book an afternoon of saunas, steam rooms and a traditional Estonian massage, involving a hot table and bags of salt and herbs, that leaves me in an almost ridiculous state of relaxation.

In Riga, there’s a similar problem as many attractions and shops are shut on Sundays and Mondays. On my final day, I get up early to go to the city’s food market, only to find that there’s not a lot to see. I’m a bit tired of wandering around the cold city, when my phone slips out of my gloved hand and shatters on the sidewalk.

Pretty fed up with the whole thing by now, and cursing the surprise holiday gods, I decide to splash out and treat myself to a long lunch at 3 Pavāru Restorāns (Three Chefs Restaurant) – one of the leading lights in Riga’s food revolution.

Just then something wonderful happens. As I put the address into Google Maps, through the cracks in the screen I see that I’m standing right outside the restaurant. It seems the gods are on my side after all. Five minutes later I’m sitting at the bar with a glass of wine, and things are looking up. As Srprs.me like to say, “You’ll go wherever you’re meant to go.”

While filling up on ostrich tartar, scallop soup and a selection of local cheeses, I think back over the past week. It’s not all warm fuzzies. In hindsight, a week-long trip is probably more suited to one of the Srprs.me city breaks, as it would give you the time you need to properly explore a single place without planning.

Yet, despite the sometimes lonely, sometimes frustrating week, there’s no denying the allure of the unknown, the satisfaction of discovering something new without the assistance of the internet, and the luxury of being spontaneous.

My Siri side, the control freak, might even have learned how to let go and leave some things to chance in the future. Maybe. srprs.me