Gift Experiences in the UK
The British tradition of taking long holidays was the perfect medium for the gift experience craze. Most Britons take a certain amount of time off each year, to blow off steam and keep the regular workday from dragging us down. Not all British holidays are at the sea side. Gift experiences in the UK represent the great and famous British flair for travel and worldly experience.
While Americans are just now catching on to the experience gift phenomenon, and tend to spend their gift time in a major city or recreational area with a couple hundred miles of their home. And yes, there are plenty of domestic UK experience gifts (even entire categories for spots like London, Scotland, etc) but the emphasis in the UK is far more world-minded than that of our American counterparts.
UK Gift Experience Examples
Here in the UK, we luck out vacation-wise in terms of location. The variety of travel spots within a few hours' flight from Heathrow airport means your gift experiences in the UK can take place all over Europe or even North Africa for much cheaper than someone in America.
A favorite gift experience of mine was a weekend spent with my girlfriend in La Champagne, France for wine tasting, fine dining, and relaxation in one of the most famous wine regions in the world. That was two nights stay in a nice hotel, three days touring the wineries and countryside, and one fantastic private lunch in the chef's room at a champagne house. At nearly £1,100 I certainly paid for the experience, but the photos and memories I came back with are totally priceless.
Not all gift experiences in the UK are this over the top -- many of them are small experiences that take place locally for just a handful of hours. The phenomenon known as "orbing" is pretty big in UK experience gifts for some reason. And though I've never understood the appeal of running about like a gerbil in a ball, there must be an audience for this mild-mannered adventure sport. It is simply everywhere. The London experience gift is a thriving category, and you can take advantage of the low price of travel to London before experiencing helicopter flights, cooking classes, racing lessons, and any number of quick getaways.
Having said that, the small scale "domestic" experience gift is just so American -- a true UK gift experience requires a little bit of travel. Don't fancy going all the way to La Champagne? Short-travel gift experiences are the best way to "get away" on a budget -- from castle tours in Scotland to falconry and fishing in Ireland, there are plenty of locations near enough to the UK to be convenient but far enough away for that real holiday feeling.
Whether you want to fish for trout on private stocked rivers here in England or travel to Germany for a private tour of Obberammergau, the UK gift experience is a cost effective way to get out of your head without emptying out your wallet.