When it comes to planning your next vacation, are you willing to gamble? How would you feel about purchasing flight tickets to a destination unknown? 

If you find yourself intrigued by such a proposition, log on to the Web site of Germanwings.com, and choose from the top menu the “booking” tab, followed by the option titled “blind booking.” The next screen will offer you different choices in terms of destination, from “party” to “culture” to “metropolis western Europe" to “sun and beach.” Choose one of these groupings, and select dates for travel. As of this writing, one-way tickets were being offered for 49.99 euros for the “sun and beach” locations and 19.99 euros for the other groups, with departures from Berlin, Stuttgart or Cologne/Bonn. The site allows you to book up to nine passengers at a time and up to 45 days in advance.

If you don’t like the sound of some of the cities within your selected group, you have the option to exclude up to nine of the possible destinations for a surcharge of 2.50 euros per direction and passenger.

When you’ve reached this point, you must put in your credit card details and actually go through with the booking before you will learn what your destination will be.

How can you up the odds of landing in a city that’s towards the top of your “must see” list? Check the timetable for various flights, and take note of the days of the week on which certain departures are offered. If there’s no flight to your top-choice destination on Wednesdays, for example, you’ll know better than to select a Wednesday departure.

If you decide to give this offer a try, leave a note as to how it worked out, any pitfalls you encountered and where you’ll be heading. Good luck!