Adventure March 12 2020

What is an experience gift?

What is an experience gift?

Lots of people may not be familiar with the term experiencing gifting. And that’s understandable given that experience gifting is a relatively new thing. For several years, people have been able to buy gifts such as hampers, flowers, restaurant vouchers and adrenaline or theme park adventures from online gifting sites. However, in these cases, only the restaurant and adventure vouchers qualify as experience gifts. And on most gifting sites, experiences form just a part of the generic gift list.  

Experience gifting is when you give someone a gift that is a life experience or adventure rather than a material item. It is a ‘doing’ gift. More and more, people are turning away from mindless consumerism and opting instead for experiences that will enrich their gift recipients, inspire them and teach them. Ultimately, experience gifts leave your gift recipient with wonderful memories that they can look back on.

The term experience gifting is used to describe the act of buying online gifts that are focused purely on experience, adventure and activity tours. Gifting Owl is the largest gifting site in the world exclusively dedicated to experience gifts and gifting. Gifting Owl offers more than 12,000 experience gifts across 115 countries. 

Experience gifts have become a popular option for birthday presents or any special occasion. Common experience gifts include skydiving, hot air ballooning, v8 car racing, cooking classes and massages. 

Experience gifts:

  • 1. Unlock pathways to amazing adventures
  • 2. Enrich the mind body and soul
  • 3. Inspire others to follow their dreams
  • 4. Teach others about different cultures
  • 5. Allow others to be challenged and to surprise themselves 
  • 6. Create happy family connections 
  • 7. Leave others with lifelong happy memories
  • 8. Send a message of love to those far from home
  • 9. Spoil yourself too

1. Unlock pathways to amazing adventures 

Experience gifts can be life-changing. Each day in millions of different ways, we are experiencing life. However, the routines of daily life can keep us locked in and locked down to a humdrum of ‘have to’s - I have to do this, I must do that. Experience gifts are a chance for your gift recipient to break out and do something that they want to do. The kind of adventure or activity that makes them feel alive and energised. After all, a life isolated from adventures is a life only half lived!  

The brilliant part of sending your loved ones and friends experience gifts is that you can introduce them to new adventures that are close to home. In many cases, your gift recipient won’t even have to leave their own city. They can be climbing mountains, fishing in wild streams, cuddling up to furry friends, skydiving from planes, drifting on the wind in a hot air balloon, dining on home-cooked hospitality or learning new tricks of the trade. There are myriad adventures to be discovered and explored. 

2. Enrich the mind, body and soul

Experiences that enrich the mind, body and soul are often talked about as being indulgent. However, the word indulgent tends to imply there is something a bit excessive or superficial about these experiences. Not so! Mind, body and soul experiences have a deep and enriching effect. They can clear the mind of the endless self-chatter, cleanse, release stress, relax the body and reinvigorate the spirit. For all of these reasons, they are by nature therapeutic. Mind, body and soul experiences play a huge role in maintaining inner health, wellbeing and beauty. 

Cloistered in sanctuary-style surroundings and under the expert hands of a therapist, the gift recipient can give in to their senses, the calming aromas and lull of soft music that fills the air. 

There are many different types of health and beauty experiences. Massage is perhaps the most common and also the most varied. If you are unsure of what might be the preferred method of massage for your gift recipient, you can opt for Swedish and Thai forms. Alternatively, you can choose a technique that targets specific areas of the body such as abdominal massage and lymphatic drainage. The benefits of massage are well documented and can leave your gift recipient feeling fully revitalised. Gift packages also include beauty treatments such as body scrubs, facials and spas. In some cases, organic food and fragrant herbal teas are included. Health and beauty experiences are available in most countries listed with Gifting Owl.  

3. Inspire others to follow their dreams

Do have a person in your life that is constantly talking about doing something that they think is out of their reach. You hear them saying, ‘I would love to do that’ or ‘I would do that if I had the money’. Experience gifting can make those dreams come true. When those words are heard, you can head straight to giftingowl.com, type in the name of the activity, for example, swimming with sharks, click to book and pay and send it directly to your gift recipient’s inbox or social media page. Voila!

The next thing you know, you’ll be sending experience gifts to all your friends and family. Better still, once they get a taste of adventure, they will be inspired to do more, see more, experience more. There will be no limit to their desire to seek out the interesting, the challenging and the different. That’s how it works. Once you realise how big and fascinating the world is and how wonderful and fun it is to explore, you can find millions of reasons to keep going.  

There are iconic adventures like visiting Machu Picchu, or the Fairy chimneys of Antalya. Riding horseback through the Grand Canyon or climbing the Eiffel Tower. And then there are the less famous but mind-blowing experiences such as swimming with a giant-winged manta ray, sampling the chocolate delights of one of the world’s most famous chocolatiers, watching the night sky come alive with the northern lights from a coastal village in Iceland or any number of the thousands of awe-inspiring activities on offer.      

4. Teach others about different cultures

Experience gifting can introduce your gift recipients to new people, countries, cultures and cuisines. Experience gifts are an exciting and highly engaging way to learn because they put your gift recipient right in the heart of the action. Some of Gifting Owl’s most popular gifts are home hosted dining experiences or cooking classes. Food is intrinsic to any culture. No matter where you travel, the local cuisine of a place has evolved over eons and is tied to the natural environment - what lives, grows and thrives there. 

There are many people worldwide, who like to share their food and culture with friendly strangers. They are proud of their culture and happily welcome travellers into their homes to host them on a trip to the local market and then involve in the preparation, cooking and sharing of the household’s favourite dishes. During this time, the gift recipient has the chance to learn about the culture, pick up new cooking techniques and make new friends, along with the reward of a delicious meal. 

     

Cooking classes also make a popular gift. Cooking is a much-loved pass time for foodies and anyone who likes to dabble in the kitchen for that matter. Whether its a savoury dish or sweet, flavoursome food is always the result and the knowledge shared will become part of your gift recipient’s regular kitchen repertoire long after the experience has been had.

5. Allows others to be challenged and to surprise themselves 

Lots of people hold back from experiencing the best adventures in life for reasons often only known to those closest to them. This provides you with the perfect opportunity to surprise friends or loved ones with a little nudge in the right direction - a gift that might at first be challenging but that they are likely to thank you for in the end. The great thing about experience gifting is the sheer elation your gift recipients feel when they have broken through their hoodoo. It’s a huge realisation, instantly followed by heaps of fist pumping and laughter as they jump for joy in a ‘WOW, I did it!!!!!!!’ moment they’ll never forget.   

Gifting Owl is full of both soft adventures and adrenaline experiences, so we can offer something to challenge every age group and people of all abilities. 

Stepping back from our own adventurous hearts, Gifting Owl understands that not everyone is so easily persuaded to take up a challenge. But fear not, you are safe to test the water or plant the seed. If your gift recipient is quite content to continue on in their comfort zone, no problem. All Gifting Owl gifts are fully exchangeable or upgradable with other Gifting Owl products on our site. Gifts are also valid for three years. 

6. Create happy family connections 

We can get lost in our busy lives and unintentionally lose sight of the most important people to us - our partners, kids and parents. Family is all-important and doing adventures and activities together is the perfect way to reconnect or stay connected with those we love the most. When you gift the family, you give yourself the greatest gift of all. We have experience gifts for all those families who are ready to play together and stay together.  

7. Leave others with lifelong happy memories

Whenever you give an experience gift you are gifting your recipient with lifelong happy memories. High-quality experiences are always the stories we recount time and time again. They become the legendary moments over the years that we keep close to our hearts and that spring to mind at the smallest of prompts. 

One of the tangible ways to hold onto memories is through photographs. Gifting Owl offers photographic tours for families, couples and individuals in almost every one of the 115 countries listed. These tours place you front and centre of the lens with jaw-dropping backdrops. Or for the budding photographer, put them behind the camera to learn more about their craft while doing a photo shoot of some of the most iconic places in the world.  

Every Gifting Owl experience gift offers the potential for life-long happy memories. Rewards that can’t be held by hand but are always at hand. As you browse through our pages let your imagination go wild! You can afford to and when you find that special something for that special someone, treat yourself to that experience too!  

8. Send a message of love to those far from home

Friends and family are often travelling these days and it can be hard to find a gift for that special occasion that is both easy to send and guaranteed to arrive on time. Gifting Owl experience gifts are an incredibly convenient alternative to any other method of gifting your loved ones while they are on the road. You can select, book, pay and forward your gift directly to your gift recipient all in one go. It’s that easy.  

But it’s not just convenience that counts when it comes to your gift selection. You want to be sure that what you are giving is a fabulous and fulfilling adventure. We have thousands of fantastic experiences but sometimes it’s hard to be sure your gift recipient will love your gift choice as much as you do. Or, they are not free at the time and day you have pre booked. What if their itinerary suddenly changes? The flexibility offered through Gifting Owl guarantees deals that can account for all of those uncertainties. Your loved one can exchange their gift, change booking times, save it for a rainy day or a different country within the three-year redemption period. If you’re still unsure, you can always buy a gift voucher for a monetary value and let your gift recipient search and find a Gifting Owl experience that really gets them excited.   

9. Spoil yourself too

Don’t forget to gift yourself. Experience gifts aren’t limited to your gift recipient. In fact, every experience is better shared with the ones you love. So, for all those occasions - birthdays, engagements, weddingsanniversaries, Valentines Day, Mother’s Day, Father’s Day, retirements and happy travels, when you’re thinking of one gift, think again and buy your own ticket to adventure. It’s not just twice the fun, it’s twice the adventure experienced together and twice the memories to share.

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