To think 'experiences' are a bad gift to give someone?

[Ved]

Bought sometimes for around £30 to £40, but often end up costing the recipient much more to use them. (With travel expenses, and sometimes accommodation, as some of them take 3-4 hours or more to get to in a car, and even longer on a train or a bus?!)

AIBU to think no-one should be buying an 'experience' as a gift for someone, unless they know they want it?

Interesting. A while back we decided we have far too much ‘stuff’ already and we’d do experiences instead. ExDP took me ballooning for a big birthday. Perhaps it’s ok if as people have said, they know the recipient will love it or as we did, choose together.

Someone bought me an experience gift once that had a time limit and I ended up not using it because it just wasn’t convenient.

Spa day is my idea of a nightmare. My brother once got me a voucher for one and I was secretly thinking wow you don't know me at all. I don't like ANY life experience, I know that's unusual but I don't. There's no way I'd go to any gifted "experience" day, I already know I'd hate it.

I don't like them. I have two spa day vouchers, one beauty salon voucher and approx five restaurant vouchers that are in a drawer, unused and quite probably expired by now.

I really dislike spa days. Would probably have used the beauty salon voucher but forgot about it, two restaurants have closed down, the other is very expensive, others I forgot about.

I have a lovely hotel voucher for a very expensive hotel three hundred miles away. I'd have to add the same amount to the voucher to actually have enough to pay for a room. Thats before petrol, eating out and any drinks. I've tried to give it away twice and both times it has been returned to me!

It doesn't feel like a gift but an obligation

100% this. DH got me an experience last xmas which I never used and I know I'll feel bad about it for years to come. He just gave me the voucher. I would have had to do a 3 hour drive there and back (6 hour round trip) and fork out for a hotel overnight. No one I know would have wanted to come with me, so I'd be driving alone and staying over alone.

It doesn't feel like a gift but an obligation

Thats exactly it. I've never been able to verbalise it previously but that is it in a nutshell.

Some friends gifted me a £200 red letter day voucher - to spend on whatever I wanted. I absolutely loved it. Didn’t feel restricted by days of the week or location as I could pick whatever I wanted. Have had some afternoon tea experiences gifted also and can’t ever remember thinking they were a waste of time - even if I did have to pay train fares etc to get to them. They’ve always felt special

I feel like it's a gift for the extroverts?

Been there, done that. Thanks for saving me the bother of posting a similar experience.

Actual balloon flight was awesome, mind you.

I think they're excellent gifts and would love to receive!

Blimey, that's quite bad that your DH got you this! An 'experience' and a six hour round trip and an overnight stay, on your own...?! Why did he not include himself in it? If my DH had done this, I'd have thought he was trying to get me out of the way LOL!

Oh yes, I loved the balloon flight. So peaceful and quiet. We were all in awe. 2000 feet up, not a sound. No birds, flies, bees, wasps, moths, nothing. Just silence......... No-one talking. Lovely sunny July day. Perfect.

I agree with you. If I want an experience, I'd like to choose it. My Mum bought a hotel weekend for my brother and SIL- they are well off and they enjoy activity holidays (climbing/hiking etc.) and luxury holidays like the Maldives. They didn't want a weekend in a spa hotel and didn't go, causing offense.

My husband was bought a cinema voucher which didn't quite cover the cost of 2 tickets at a cinema which we could only get to by taxi (we didn't drive at the time) and would have cost us more than the voucher price. They expired unused.

The same applies to "activities in a box" for kids which they can't do independently. It's another thing on my to-do list. If I have an hour to spend with my daughter, I don't want to spend 15 minutes prepping a space, 15 minutes trying to get her to listen to the instructions whilst she pours paint over a ceramic unicorn, and a further 15 minutes trying to clean up all the mess. And now we have an ugly unicorn moneybox which no-one needs but we can't throw out because it's a precious memory.

There are exceptions, is if someone has specifically asked for that thing, or if you know they'll like it and are covering all the cost of going, or if it's for a child and you as the gift giver are going to take the child to the thing or do the thing with them. Also, a membership card for somewhere you know they go a lot or is close to them is a nice idea.

@FerriswheelsKissesandLilacs

My husband was bought a cinema voucher which didn't quite cover the cost of 2 tickets at a cinema which we could only get to by taxi (we didn't drive at the time) and would have cost us more than the voucher price. They expired unused.

Yeah, someone bought me and DH a trip for 2 to the Odeon Cinema a couple of years ago. (For Christmas.) £20 it was worth.

The nearest Odeon cinema is a 45 mile round trip, and there were only 2 times we could get for the film we wanted to see ..... One was at 2pm (and work stopped that most days,) or we could have gone at the weekend and it would have been rammed, and we would have struggled to get a parking space, and it costs £6 to park or the length of a film. OR you can go to the long stay car park and pay £3.50, but then have a 35 minute round trip walk.

OR we could have gone at the other showing at 7pm, and had to travel back home (23 miles) at 10pm - half hour drive in the dark - half the journey through the countryside.

Plus, the £20 wasn't enough, and we would have had to have added about another fiver. (As well as the £6 for the car park, and about a tenner for petrol.)

Honestly more trouble than it was worth. We didn't go. The £20 voucher ended up wasted. The film came out on DVD about 2 months later and we got it for less than a tenner.

By the way, I love your username. Fellow Swiftie here! 🫡

I agree with the OP. We were bought something Christmas 2024, we can’t use it. Not sure if the giver looked fully at the T&Cs or opening times but the place itself is only open on a couple of mid week afternoons and evenings - explicitly states not at weekends. We would have had to have taken time off work because of that and had to get public transport because there is also no parking - residential restrictions only, again stated on their website. Honestly, you couldn’t make it up! I actually think the company in question has a bit of a nerve to offer this experience as it’s so flipping awkward. I suspect the voucher has also expired so they’re laughing with being paid for literally nothing.

That's a bit annoying and a bit sad @Glittertwins Waste of money. As a few posters have said, the people/companies who offer the experience(s) are the real winners!

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