What experience gifts have you been bought or bought for someone that have gone down well?

[Deminism]

I am looking for experience gifts for dh for a significant birthday - possibly a few experiences depending on price. My possibles list so far are:

Driving a bus
Flight simulator
Knife skills (cooking)

Ones I have ruled out are:

Clay pigeon shooting (done before)
Flying lesson in real plane (he doesn't fancy it)
Hot air balloon (He also doesn't fancy)
Anything adrenalin focussed e.g. bungee, parachuting

Any ideas very very welcome

x

I bought DH a knife skills course and he absolutely loved it. At bertinet in Bath. I’ve also bought him various river Cottage courses which have always been good.

I’d like to get him otter keeper for a day next.

Op, it wasn’t terrifying it was amazing. The Vulcan is now retired from service, it was at an air show, saw us and circled us with its army regalia ❤️ Mine and the Captains jaws dropped. I’m from a flying background so it was an exciting experience.

Cooking classes of various kinds
Theatre tickets
Dinner vouchers

I would LOVE to do a knife skill onw

I would also like a knife skills one. Might make me chop onions quicker and have less tears!
I have brought Fil and his wife a river cottage 4 course meal one for Christmas. They are bloody impossible to buy for so hopefully they like it

Dumper truck racing at Diggerland. DP had a great time.

Caution!!!!!

I have just received my 4th gift experience and yet again, it's more hassle than it's worth. Cinema tickets with dinner for two. You think it would be hard to go wrong however I live in a rural town and the nearest place I can use it is 50 miles away so we'd also need to get a baby sitter. If I go out for a meal and a movie it is local, why the feck would I want to travel over 50 miles to have dinner in Zizzis when I could walk to my local cinema and have a pre theatre without any hassle whatsoever.

I absolutely loathe gift experiences. You are basically telling someone how to spend their time. Every one I've received has been hopeless. It makes me sad to think that they have been given with the best of intentions but the giver is just wasting their money. So the dark sky experience (again fecking miles away where it rains a lot so getting a clear night on a weekend that suits us = impossible), boat cruise had already done twice and no inclination to do it another time, jewellery making = no, just no. It can only happen on a Sunday so I don't want to give up half a day of my time to make an arse of making something I don't want.

If you really want to give them an experience - just ask them what they'd like and book it direct because more often than not, the loopholes and caveats make it bloody impossible to take part!

A friend bought my DS a driving experience day at a racing track for his birthday this year and he loved it - he's only 11 but has had several junior driving lessons already (he's a bit obsessed) so he was able to drive two of his favourite supercars and did two high-speed laps as a passenger in an Ariel Atom with a racing driver. He didn't stop grinning for days.