Need Hostess Gift Suggestions Please for Weekend Visit

[Earlybird]

DD and I are due to travel next week to visit our friends who recently moved to Monaco. We will be staying with them for 3 nights. As a gesture of gratitude (and just to be polite), I will offer to pay for a meal out for all of us, and/or the adults only if we go out one evening. But I also want to take a nice gift. Price is not a particular issue, but I don't want to seem either cheap, or over the top extravagant (in my efforts not to look cheap! )

I want to be more imaginative/thoughtful than a bottle of wine, box of chocolates, or bunch of flowers. Anyone have any suggestions?

Do your freinds have a favourite brand of tea/coffee/chocolate etc that may not be easy to get in Monaco, and take that? I took Marmite and specific brand of teabags when I visited friends in Washington.

Good idea pandag, but they are back in London overnight every few weeks - so are able to stock up on anything they particularly crave.

One part of the challenge is that I've not seen their new flat so have no thoughts about what they might need, or what might be a nice addition...I know at a point, it's the thought that counts, but am hoping to find something special.

Oh I see. Not easy then. latest book by favourite author, dvd starring an actor they like? Something that shows you've thought about a present for them specifically?

Any thoughts from the evening crowd?

Thought I'd give this a last bump. It's such a slow night online that maybe this thread will generate some responses from people bored enough to answer anything!

Bundle of up to date magazines?
Good bacon?
Smart soap or candles?

Bottle of nice champers?? Always goes down a treat ire ckon.

Thanks moondog. They are back in London frequently enough to pick up mags. Don't think I could take bacon (or good cheese, which was another idea) on the plane.

I'd thought about maybe some wonderful jam, or maybe a selection of tea from Fortnum's. Or a coffee table book on photography....HELP!

I don't know.....