Here’s a huge list of experience gift ideas! Experience gifts can be fun to both give and receive, allowing you to share your love and appreciation for someone without buying material objects. One survey found that going into the holiday season, 92% of people hope to receive an experience to share with a loved one!
I’ve broken up the lists below by ideas for grownups and those for kids. Keep in mind that pretty much anything that costs money can be an experience gift – see below how I turned “grocery shopping” into a gift for my mom! (She loved it, I promise).
Why give experience gifts
There are a ton of good reasons to give experiences rather than objects as gifts:
- You might be boycotting major retailers like Amazon, Target, and Walmart, and looking for alternatives
- You may realize that experiences are the way to create memories and meaning with your gifts
- You and your recipient may want less clutter! (I know I sure do, whew.)
- You can reduce your environmental impact by purchasing fewer objects (in most cases…international flights and the like may be an exception.)
- Depending on the gift and how you frame it, it can be an opportunity for you to spend time with the people you love.
- You help your friends and family feel seen by giving them a gift to do exactly what they enjoy
- Depending on how you purchase and gift them, it can be very easy with no shipping wait time aka great for last-minute gifters 🙂
Budget for experience gifts
Honestly, the main downside to experience gifts is the cost. To give a good experience, it’s probably going to run you at least $50, with some much more than that, although there are exceptions. So, make sure you have a gift list and budget in place before you begin your holiday shopping. You can make a copy of this Notion template I created and use it to map out everyone you’ll be gifting to this year; what your budget for each person is; your gift ideas; who will be purchasing (you or your partner); and the status of the gift. Since I started shopping this way, I’ve found it much less stressful as well as easier to keep my eye on the holistic budget!
How to gift an experience
When considering how to gift an experience, first comes the format: what are you actually giving? Many of the ideas below could be gifted in the form of individual tickets, a gift card to the establishment, or an “IOU” where you make a date to take them out. Just make sure you follow through!
Then you need to wrap it to actually give the gift. You can go simple, with a gift card or print out in a nice envelope. You can put that envelope in a box or bag to up the drama. For my gift to my mom, I created a map of grocery stores we could visit in Canva and printed that. You could print a relevant picture and put it on nice scrapbooking paper. You could even put that in a frame. Or make it a scavenger hunt with clues around the house. Or, write up info or print a picture of the experience and then cut it into puzzle pieces – there are some tools online to help you put the puzzle lines on a picture.
I see many suggestions online to wrap the gift certificate/tickets/whatever up with a representative object, such as a set of measuring spoons for a cooking class, but I find that defeats the purpose of “not gifting an object”, unless it’s something they’ll truly need to enjoy the experience.
Experience gift ideas for adults
Okay, let’s get into the ideas!
- A vacation – we’ll get this one out of the way. Of course the ultimate experience is an entire vacation! I’m guessing this is out of scope and price range in most cases. But if this is you, a couple tips: I wouldn’t actually book anything until you talk to your recipient and make sure they want it and give them a chance to give input about dates, length of trip, etc. But I would do research in advance about dates, flights, hotels, and things to do, so you can take rapid action once they say yes to the trip and they don’t feel the burden of planning.
- National park annual pass – one of my favorites to receive. Or another park/park system near your gift recipient.
- Pay for a certification or classes that you know they want to get already
- Concert tickets
- Cooking class – one-off or a regular class
- Foreign language lessons – for example, a gift card to Italki for 1-on-1 online lessons.
- Jewelry making class
- Sculpting class
- Painting class
- Woodworking class
- Glassblowing class
- Floral arrangement class
- Dance class
- Photography class
- Yoga or pilates class or membership
- Paint-and-sip event
- Restaurant
- Axe throwing
- Wine, beer, or spirits tasting
- Cheese making class
- Foraging class or foraging with a group if you can find someone to help you forage for plants and mushrooms
- Hot air balloon ride
- Indoor skydiving
- Racetrack driving experience
- Theater tickets
- Subscription to game or experience app – for example, the New York Times games app or Duolingo
- Escape room – one of my favorites!!
- High tea
- Massage
- Manicure/pedicure or other spa experience
- Rock climbing
- Float tank
- Rage room – these seem to have popped up recently and would be great for the right person
- Cleaning service – yes please!
- A gym membership or session(s) with a personal trainer
- A photoshoot/ session with a photographer – bonus, next gifting occasion you can give them prints of the photos
- A planned day trip to a nearby town
- As a spin on this, plan a day with your gift recipient. My mom loves exploring new grocery stores, so I gifted her an afternoon of the two of us shopping together, with a map of 5 specialty grocery stores for us to check out, and an envelope of cash to spend at each one. She loved it!
- Tickets to an event like a Renaissance Festival
- Museum tickets or membership
- Audiobook or podcast subscription – I like Libro.fm – check out my longer review.
- Kayak or canoe rental
- Boat tour, dinner cruise, etc. – see if City Experiences offers any boat tours in your city!
- A donation in their name to a cause they support
Experience gift ideas for kids
- Take them out to lunch or dinner
- Movie theater – honestly, a novelty for many in the streaming age!
- Ice skating
- Laser tag
- Arcade/fun zone
- Go karting
- Indoor rock climbing
- Membership to a nearby children’s museum, zoo, aquarium, park, science center, etc. – my parents have gifted several different year-long memberships to local attractions to my family over the years and it’s always been great to have an option for nearby fun we don’t have to pay for. Single-use tickets are also great!
- Concert tickets or tickets to a musical or an “on ice” show
- Event tickets – for example, BrickCon or ComicCon
- Escape room
- Trampoline park
- Indoor water park
- Bowling
- Mini golf
- Sporting events of all kinds
- Amusement park tickets or membership
- Lego Discovery Center or similar tickets
- Kids’ cooking class – an investment in the future, too!
- Bookstore shopping spree — bring them to a bookstore and let them get anything they want, or any 5 books etc. This one doesn’t exactly fit in with “no stuff”, but I also feel like books get a pass. (You’d get it if you’ve ever been to my house.) If you bring them to the store and let them run free, they’ll have a blast and make a core memory, too.
- Extracurricular class or contribution to a class like dance, gymnastics, soccer, swim, etc. Make sure you have both kids’ and parents’ input for anything ongoing…and perhaps don’t book anything in advance (but DO make it happen!)
- Behind the scenes tour, for example, at a stadium, factory, etc.
- Add-ons for a vacation – my next-door neighbors recently went on a whole family cruise. The previous Christmas, their grandparents and aunts had gifted excursion days for the teens to enjoy on the cruise.
- Summer camp contribution – this is a great one for grandparents to gift to grandkids – help pay for a summer camp, preferably picked out by the kid or something they’ll be really excited about.
Honestly, the possibilities are endless. Anything you can DO can be an experience gift!
What experience gifts are you excited to give?
