‘Throw all caution in the wind’

Foodies James and Paul won a srprs.trip to one of the far corners of the world back in 2019. Due to COVID-19 they weren’t able to travel to their surprise destination…up until now!

So where did you go?
James: ‘Toronto! Although we had our expectations we were still in trepidation at Heathrow Airport. So when the app revealed Toronto; we were so happy. We travelled through Canada a couple of years ago, but we didn’t get to experience Toronto.’
Paul: ‘We always wanted to go back there, so it couldn’t have worked out better.’

You had your expectations?
Paul: ‘We had the weather forecast so I couldn’t stop myself. I tried to figure out where we were going. After hours and hours of researching I thought it might be Canada. But China was also a possibility.’
James: ‘That’s the thing with us, I like it to be a complete surprise. I barely look at the weather forecast. He’s like Sherlock Holmes. He has to figure it out in advance.’

Then you arrive in a strange city without a plan, what’s next?
Paul: ‘On our first night we went into a bar and just started speaking to some locals about the best things to do. That was really nice, because it’s not something we would normally do. We are quite introverts.’
James: ‘Normally when we go on holiday we tend to plan something every day. Almost like following a schedule. This time we just started exploring. Taking whatever you can find and doing whatever you happen across. Quite liberating.’

Did you happen across something unexpected?
James: ‘We were walking down by the docks and saw this centre for floatation tanks. We wanted to try for a long time, but always put it off. Now we thought: let’s just go and do it. It was brilliant.’
Paul: ‘Probably one of the best things about the holiday.’
James: ‘Yeah, considering that we were sitting in a tank, in the dark, in warm salt water.’

Was this the best part of the trip?
James: ‘On day four we got in our minds to go to Niagara Falls. We hired a black Mustang at the airport. It was a convertible so we put the roof down. Then realized how incredibly cold it was. And back up it came. We drove for two hours and there it was; Niagara Falls. This amazing natural beauty.’
Paul: ‘It was frozen over.’
James: ‘It wasn’t frozen over.’
Paul: ‘Well, it was mostly frozen over.’
Together: ‘There was a lot of ice!’
James: ‘We did experience a minor mishap. We were looking for a parking space and took a turn thinking it would lead to a car park. But no. It lead to the oneway bridge that connects Canada to the United States. We got stuck. We went to the border control and the guard was really stern: ‘Passports, Identification.’ Unfortunately we didn’t bring any. Like typical British people abroad basically. After about ten minutes of tense negotiations they let us in. We did a little U-turn in their carpark and repeated the process at the Canadian border.’
Paul: ‘The good thing: we ended up visiting two different countries!’

Any advice for new srprs.travellers?
James: ‘Go in completely blank! Make it a total surprise. Also trust the agents. They are experts in what they do. They really are. Going back to when we won this competition, which was two years ago. If they had said: sorry because of COVID we can’t honor the deal. That would have been fine. Because the whole industry is on its bum. But they were in contact the whole time. Sending information, keeping in touch.’
Paul: ‘We can’t underscore enough how happy we are with srprs.me. Five flawlessly organized holidays. There is no doubt that we’re going for a sixth and seventh trip. Perhaps it goes against your instinct to spend money to go somewhere you don’t know if you’re going to like. But just throw all caution in the wind. You won’t be disappointed.’