Great Pacific Travels- Cairns Escape, Cairns

The guys at Solia are great and very courteous to travellers, happy to recommend it to anyone

The mystery getaway reads - pay $499 for 4 nights & get a great mystery holiday. It’s misleading as it doesn’t mention that more payments are required subject to destination/flights However the service is prompt.

I purchased 4 vouchers for 2 trips as presents for Christmas. Both were to Melbourne. The pros: process relatively simple, accommodation was in the city or just on the outskirts which was fine because public transport is amazing in Melbourne. The cons: everything cost more - ended up costing nearly double the advertised price, they only allow the cheapest of cheap Jetstar flights and cheapest rooms. Paid extra to depart from Brisbane (that's fine it's in the fine print) paid extra to have flights that would connect with other flights in Brisbane (not at 8pm at night), paid extra for dates I wanted (but all dates seemed to cost more). 1st trip we flew into Avalon airport which is much further out of the city than Tullamarine. My flight details (with contact details) were sent to another purchaser, who rang me to advise they'd received them. The add said the first 100 sold received additional extras, was confirmed on the phone that both my purchases qualified and that a week prior to departure another draw would take place to determine what those extras would be. This never happened even though I followed up on both. Would I do this again - probably not, the unknown expenses come in after you have already purchased your trip so you have to pay extra or forfeit your money. Better to just plan and book your own unless you go in knowing that it will probably cost you double the initial outlay.

I was so disappointed in this, I was expecting "Mystery Getaway: Hawaii, New York, Dubai, Bali & More" Like advertised I was expecting to at least be sent overseas. Flights were booked for 6am the day we left to have to pay for our luggage to beable to be put on the plane, We landed and had to organise transport to be able to get to the accommodation which we arrived by 9.30am, not being able to check into 2pm. The accommodation wasn't the cleanest having hair in shower, alot of dust through out, and wardrobe I couldn't even hang my clothes. After having a very stress full few years, thought a Mystery Getaway would be great, but having to spend hundreds of dollars, which wasn't really ideal on top of the tickets just to get our luggage able to travel to and from and to hire a car to be able to get to and from accommodation and airport. The amount of money the tickets, and extras cost us, my husband and self could of booked an overseas holiday to Bali for 2 weeks or more.

I would never buy a 'mystery' voucher again. To be advised when the consultant called that there were only 2 options Sydney or Melbourne. Even though the apparent list of possible locations was a lot longer. I was then charged extra money to be able to be booked into a suitable hotel that wasn't in the middle of nowhere. When the flights were booked they were both early morning (they were the cheapest listed within webjet) when I asked if we could have a return flight at a reasonable time that didn't require us checking out at 4am and therefore might possible enjoy the 2 nights accommodation this once again came at another cost. After all was booked I explored myself at the cost of the flights booked and the hotel and found it would have been cheaper if I had of booked myself, there would have been a breakfast upgrade. Further to this when I finally received the information after chasing it up the flight was only with carry on only - no baggage. I questioned the consultant why this was the case to be told that she told me this on the initial booking which was not true. However once again advised I could pay more to have this changed.