mystery tour

English

Noun

mystery tour (plural mystery tours)

1. (British) A short-duration outing by coach to a destination that is not revealed in advance
   • 1960 October, J. N. Faulkner, “The purgatory period of B.R. Modernisation”, in Trains Illustrated, page 584:

     Each week an inconspicuous paragraph in the daily press carries a warning to travellers on the London Midland Region of the delays and diversions to be expected on account of the weekend's engineering works. In fact, Sunday travel on the West Coast route has now become a kind of mystery tour which can prolong the London-Glasgow journey to twelve hours or more.

   • 1999, Vernon Bogdanor, Devolution in the United Kingdom:

     I recall, Anderson went on, the fine story of a Welsh mystery tour by bus from Cwmrhydyceirw in my constituency.

References

• “mystery tour”, in Lexico, Dictionary.com; Oxford University Press, 2019–2022.