As a preface, this company is currently under investigation by the Better Business Bureau, the Federal Trade Commission, the Consumer Protection Division of the Illinois Attorney General's office, the Consumer Resource Center of Washington State, and several financial and private institutions. I will update this review accordingly, if that changes. But here's why: The TLDR: A) the company does not responsibly or efficiently apply the money you send them toward your accommodations, B) they engage in deceptive billing practices, C) they ignore clearly specified preferences when booking additional accommodations/excursions, and D) when questioned about any of the aforementioned aspects, they delay response or cease responding altogether. Here is my point-by-point experience with Magical Mystery Tours (MMM) and their deceptive practices. 1. The company did not responsibly apply our money towards hotel/flight accommodations. We booked travel from December 10-19 of 2004 and the company later revealed, under pressure, that they did not book ANYTHING until early December. In the best case scenario, flight and hotel were booked TEN DAYS before our trip began. In no scenario could this have been the cheapest timeframe. (see picture 1, a segment of an email from MMM). 2. During the trip, our preferences were not adhered to. We informed MMM that we were vegan during our preliminary correspondence. They proceeded to book us reservations at several restaurants with no non-meat (and certainly no non-dairy) options on the menu. Despite this, we showed up, trusting MMM had made some sort of arrangement. The restaurants in question said they were informed of no such thing. The same story played out with 3 other excursions we had them schedule that included meals. 3. When we returned and asked for a breakdown of costs, MMM included a Paypal Transaction Fee of over 3% of the total vacation cost. It is explicitly stated in the Paypal User Agreement that merchants may not pass on the merchant fee to the seller. They must have known this, but were counting on me not knowing. Ultimately, they did refund the fee, but only after being pressed--partly why I continued to distrust and investigate the rest of the bill. 4. When we requested original receipts, our request was denied, despite the their advertising otherwise (see picture 2, a screenshot of their website BEFORE we requested original receipts). After requesting this, they promptly changed the wording in an attempt to hide their billing (see picture 3, a screenshot of their website AFTER requesting original receipts). 5. After sending the before/after screenshots of the changes to their website, and applying additional pressure, they sent undated and unverifiable screenshots of receipts, refusing to send anything else. 6. There were several discrepancies in the final total trip cost relating to the percentage taken as an MMM "fee"--which were substantial. After several follow-up emails were sent regarding this, MMM ceased communications. (Note: the amount in dispute was less than $200. Imagine if you were challenging more than that...) The takeaway: Be careful when dealing with MMM. Do not pay a "transaction fee." Do not book unless promised original, dated receipts beforehand. Demand proof that your travel preferences will be adhered to. Double-check the math of your bill afterwards. My advice: Do not book with MMM. There are many other companies offering this service without deceptive practices: Pack up + Go, The Vacation Hunt, Black Tomato, Rustic Pathways Mystery Trips, Blind Experiences, Guess Where Trips, etc... read more

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We had the absolute best surprise trip experience with Katie and MMT! We had done a surprise trip with another travel agency previously, and MMT was above and beyond more exceptional in every way. A few highlights: 1. I appreciate the thoroughness of the survey. Based on the questions, you can tell that MMT puts a lot of thought into the nuances of the experience for their customers. 2. I LOVE the customizability, especially with the budget. We weren't sure what our budget should be. Katie was immediately transparent on the minimum budget MMT would recommend in order to provide the experience we were looking for. We ended up giving a larger budget than MMT's minimum recommendation and were issued a refund of unused funds at the end. 3. Katie was timely and thorough in her responses to all of our questions throughout the process. She was sure to double check every detail before finalizing anything. 4. The excursions planned for us were INCREDIBLE and aligned with our survey exactly. It was the perfect combination of activity and downtime that we requested. I cannot wait to book our next surprise trip with MMT! read more

Perfectly tailored trip, lots of detail and info provided. Although we did everything that was preplanned bc it was perfect, I noticed there were free cancellations with enough time to do so for each activity if there you wanted /needed to which is super nice. Pre-trip package came not only with an awesome individualized trip book but found a travel guide book with it had some helpful info too. This helped us fill the free time we had in our trip schedule nicely. I can't recommend this experience more. We went as a family of four and it went seamlessly. I won't ever forget us opening the trip info as we headed out. Be descriptive in your survey and you're bound to have an amazing adventure. Packing list was light & that unknown was hard for me as a type A but we had everything we needed! 10/10 would do again! It was great to let go a little - trust the process!! read more

We had a great experience with Magical Mystery Tours! I'd never heard of mystery travel until one of my friends took a trip through them, and I was hooked right away. It was the most stress-free way to take a trip. You start by filling out an online questionnaire, which is fun in and of itself. It tells them your budget, how many days you want to be gone, and lots of things about what kind of travel you like. Then they take over from there. All that's left for you to do is pack! Molly was our travel consultant, and she was fantastic. She stayed in touch with us both before and during the trip. Including emailing us 10:30 the night before we were due to fly, to let us know that inclement weather may impact our travel home in case we wanted to change flights. I can't recommend this experience highly enough! read more

My husband and I just got back from our 3rd mystery vacation in October, and have yet to be disappointed. I only wish we could afford to take more! You do need to mindful and realistic of what your budget limits are, and what they can buy. I've had wonderful experiences, but part of it is being honest with myself about what a smaller budget will buy. 2 of my 3 vacations were on minimal budgets, but I kept an open mind and was realistic of the fact that I probably wasn't going to be flying first class and traveling internationally. This company is amazing, but they aren't miracle workers - no way are you going to be traveling internationally, flying first class, and staying in a five star hotel with a shoe string budget and a week time frame. read more

As anyone who has planned a wedding knows, you have a tremendous number of tasks, deadlines, and variables to juggle. For our honeymoon, we knew we wanted to travel to a country we'd never been, and I knew it was possible to use miles and points to pay for some of it. But as the date grew closer, the planning seemed like a daunting challenge with so much else to worry about. That's when Magical Mystery Tours stepped in! We had an extensive conversation about our preferences, budget, etc., and then they went to work on the research. Given that it was our honeymoon, I naturally wanted a bit more involvement than "a mystery" and they were more than happy to accommodate. They presented me with several exciting options to consider, and we settled on a plan. They negotiated with the airlines and ground transportation, and were prompt and professional in discussing any questions or changes. The result? Two wonderful and stress-free weeks in Hong Kong and Thailand! The price was an absolute steal. But most importantly, we entrusted them with an important part of this special time in our lives, and they went above and beyond to deliver! It's clearly a labor of love for the MMT team. They take tremendous pride and joy in their work, and view every new job as an exciting opportunity to learn about a new destination while giving their clients a memorable experience. If you need help turning an idea into an extraordinary trip, I absolutely and unhesitatingly recommend their services. read more

I read about mystery trips in the Wall Street Journal and was intrigued by the idea. I looked up all the agencies the article cited and decided that Magical Mystery Tours fit my criteria the best. I filled out their questionnaire on their website, but then (being me and having traveled a lot) I also talked to Molly Thrasher at MMT and gave her a long list of places I'd already been to, and those I definitely didn't want to visit again. In the end, I decided that a long weekend trip was the best way to go to try this out and see if I liked it. I persuaded my sister to join me - and started a buzz with all my friends and family. There was even a pool going to see if anyone would be able to guess the destination (closest by distance wins!). The destination ended up being Charlottesville, VA. Both my sister and I were really patient (lots of willpower involved) and didn't open up the package until we got to the airport. Molly had got us a hotel room at a great location. And the package she sent us was pretty comprehensive on things to do, places to eat etc. My sister and I had a great time. We did all the history stuff, walking tours, some wine and cider. Had a couple of great meals, enjoyed street music. We had really good luck with the weather. The only thing I'd say we missed out on was organized winery tours - that part of Virginia has a lot of wineries, but to do wine tours you have to book well ahead of time. We had the option of renting a car and doing our own tour, but decided against it. There was a lot to see and do outside of that. All in all, a great experience. I'd recommend this for the adventurous of heart. read more

Waste of Time and Money As cousins, we had been talking about a trip for several years, and after losing both of our mothers in 2017, we decided it was time. We live in rural areas, but enjoy urban experiences when we travel for vacation. For example: art museums in NY, Paris, San Francisco; historic sites Williamsburg, Freedom Trail, Gettysburg; amusement parks (We LOVE roller coasters!) As we filled out the survey, we looked forward to a trip to Seattle, Portland, Chicago, New Orleans, Charleston, Savannah, Boston, and New England... Although Denver is close to home, and we have visited there many times, it is a city with many things to do. We decided to fly out of Albuquerque, but could have easily flown out of Phoenix. Our flight left at 6am, which required us to get up at 3:45am, not unusual if you are catching connecting flights. We can not express how extremely disappointed we were when we opened up our packet to find out our Magical Mystery Tour was taking us to Park City, and Salt Lake City Utah for a 6-day vacation in October. After an hour and half flight we landed in Salt Lake, picked up the rental car, hit a great breakfast spot a family member recommended, and still got to Park City before 1pm. We were in a town for 3 nights with not much going on. Park City is a great place to ski, and great place for outdoor summer activities. Neither was high on our priority list. In fact snow was a 6 (the lowest rating possible) October is shoulder season some businesses are closed, usually past prime for seasonal color change, and there is always a good chance there will be snow, and we got some. Mostly importantly: Not an urban experience. The Olympic Park Museum or Park City Mining Museum are not equivalent to a good art or historic museum. Then we moved on to Salt Lake City, a city very similar in size to the city (Albuquerque) we flew out of. SLC is close to home, and an easy drive. SLC has a nice mall, and we saw everything in the Utah Museum of Fine Art in an hour and 3 minutes. SLC is a nice laid-back city, but does not have the excitement of an urban vacation. We had amusement parks high on our ratings, but Lagoon is not on par with Six Flags Magic Mountain, King's Island, Cedar Point, Disneyland, Knott's Berry Farm, or California Adventure where they have serious roller coasters. The hotel in Park City (Hyatt Centric) was nice, and it was easy to skip the valet parking to self park. The Keurig coffee maker, and lighted make up mirror didn't work, but the staff was great to replace the Keurig. We didn't bother with the make up mirror. The Kimpton Monaco in Salt Lake was a fun hotel, and we had a couple of dinners there. Valet parking was an extra $24/day with no self-park options. The location was good. Overall, our trip was not what we had indicated in our survey. We realize we may have had too many options for one trip, and our budget may not have been adequate to stay 6 nights, but we would have expected a follow up email/ phone call to focus our priorities for this trip. For example: stay fewer days with more urban activities. We will not be using Magical Mystery Tours, and cannot recommend them. read more

Magical Mystery Tours planned a trip to Key West for me. Stephanie figured out what I was wanted in my trip and picked locations and hotels that were great for me. Way better than doing all the research on my own. read more

My husband and I needed a little break from the grind so I started googling random travel destinations. I don't exactly know how but through various (and sundry) mouse clicks I landed on the Magical Mystery Tours website. I WAS HOOKED. I thought about it for days wondering if I could let someone else plan our trip and it was an easy sell to my husband! I filled out the questionnaire and was contacted by Alicia. She never tired of my questions! I was a bit nervous to give up control but the moment we committed, it was freeing! A couple days before we left a big red envelope arrived...it mocked us as it sat on the dining room table waiting to reveal the destination but we didn't peek because the whole point of a mystery trip...is...well...the suspense. At the airport when we opened the envelope I cried! We went to the Azores and Lisbon, Portugal! It was a fantastic trip, the hotel was perfect, the island was beautiful, the food was delicious and the wine was amazing. I loved our experience so much I even had MMT plan a vacation to Turkey for us, it wasn't a surprise but having all the details buttoned up is really nice. I may never go back to planning a vacation myself again. We are planning on doing another Magical Mystery Tour...it was really that much fun! read more

My boyfriend and I have traveled so much together and we wanted to plan something for our two year anniversary. I was looking for places people don't go and I was having a hard time picking a location for our next trip. Then one day I was in the doctors office and I happened to read a segment about Magical Mystery Tours in the Opera magazine. I snapped a picture to talk it over with my boyfriend. We had talked about it (mostly him saying he doesn't think I would be open minded enough to let someone else plan) and it got put on the back burner. So for my new years resolution I decided to let my planning self go and fill out the survey. It took about a half hour going through each question and second guessing my answers but when I was finished I felt like they had enough information about me to plan a good trip which included my celiac disease. After submitting we were contacted and informed that they had received our answers and the panning would start. I was so anxious to find out the weather so I could attempt to guess where we were going. I even had a Facebook poll so people could guess. We got our packing list and weather report a few weeks before our departure date. The day before we were to leave we got a big red envelope with our destination in it. I talked my boyfriend into letting me open it before we got to the airport. We found out we were going to Belize! I hadn't even had that as an option but I was so excited to learn more about it. I skimmed through the travel book that came along with our awesome itinerary. Our trip was amazing and more than I had expected. Everything from flight to ground transportation to and from the airport was planned. The hotels were awesome and everything that we had put on our survey had been fulfilled. We got to see two different cities and have time to ourselves. I was apprehensive about taking a mystery tour but I honestly want to do one every year now. It was stress free and I didn't have to spend time looking for places to stay and reading reviews. I would suggest this to anyone and everyone. It was fun filling out the survey together and being the planner that I am they mad all my vacation dreams true. read more

Anyone getting married knows that there is no end to the amount of tireless work that goes into the careful planning and preparation for your big day. You talk to and eventually hire specialists in every field from a cake decorator, to a venue consultant all the way to someone that knows how to put that darn boutanierre on your lapel! Why not outsource the planning of the honeymoon, too? We decided to throw caution to the wind a few months before our wedding and contacted MMT. Many people said, "I'm too much of a control freak. I NEED to know where I am going. What if they send you to Antarctica?? What if you have a terrible time?? It's your ONE Honeymoon!" My best answer to them is, it's not like I hired my little brother (sorry Zackman) to plan the trip. MMT is a group of professionals that does this every day. In order to begin our journey, we filled out their online form, had a phone interview, followed up on a few details and waited until our suggested packing list came in a week before the trip. We had asked for somewhere warm with a fun culture, beaches, outdoor adventures, mutiple destinations and good food and drink. MMT delivered! We opened our itinerary at the airport and found out that we were going to The Azores. Our first reaction...."AWESOME! Now where the heck are the Azores??" A quick Google search and we found out we were heading 2/3 the way across the Atlantic to a tiny chain of 9 Islands owned by Portugal. We had about 2 hours to check in, notify Bank of America about our upcoming trip, get the right data plan from AT&T and change dollars to Euros. We hopped on the flight and landed 4.5 hours later in the floral-scented Azores. To make a long story short, MMT provided an amazing opportunity to stay on 3 different islands (a 3-bedroom house on 1, a swanky hotel on another and a bed/breakfast on the third), climb a volcano, bike down another, heard cows, swim in clear water and eat/drink and be merry (and be married!) We'd do it again! read more