When Hallmark stocks are up, wine suddenly comes in a mug and Mariah Carey’s bank account is going kaching-elingeling, it can only mean one thing: Christmas is around the corner. And if your festive calendar has been anywhere near as packed as ours, you’re likely to be a little behind on your holiday shopping. How convenient, then, that our team of elves have a few suggestions up their red velvet sleeves. And because an experiential gift guide is much better at helping you make lasting memories together, here are the best experiences (not things!) to give this year – from our family to yours.
A skiing adventure with an Olympic or Paralympic athlete, as recommended by Rupert Mellor
When you’re schussing down the velveteen trails of Deer Valley, Utah, winner of the World Ski Awards 2025 United States’ Best Ski Resort for the last 13 years straight (and favourite pre-Chardonnay-fuelled-slanging-match day-out of those Titans of schadenfreude TV, the Real Housewives of Salt Lake City), you might already feel like you’ve won a gold medal. But if you want to elevate the ski bunny in your life’s winter holiday higher still, treat them to a full or half day’s downhilling with one of seven resident Olympian skiers (you and up to four more friends can go along for the ride).
Yours to choose from, the Ski with an Olympic Athlete programme’s stellar line-up includes 2002 silver medallist Shannon Bahrke, Trace Worthington, the most awarded freestyle skier in U.S. history, and Paralympian Chris Waddell, one of the planet’s few athletes to secure World Championships in both winter and summer sports.
Long famous for its next-level portfolio of uberluxe hotels and exceptional dining offer, Deer Valley upped its game yet again this season with the opening of a whopping 3,700 acres of ravishing new terrain, all blanketed in snow that Utah’s high altitude and weather systems’ journey here via arid desert skies conspire to make exceptionally fluffy and grippy, and has earned it the nickname ‘greatest snow on earth’. So why not explore it while having your technique fine-tuned and being regaled with chairlift reminiscences about competing at the highest level by a living legend of the sport?
A cooking class that gives back, as recommended by Bradley Burke
Consider this a two-tiered festive gift: a joyful experience for the traveller in your life who loves to cook, and an intervention for the one who also loves to cook but probably shouldn’t be allowed anywhere near poultry without supervision. If the latter has offered to host you this Christmas, keep reading… for your own sake.
The gift in question (you might’ve guessed) is a cooking class. But not just any cooking class, one led by the incredible women of Amal, a non-profit culinary centre in Marrakech, which, for over a decade, has been transforming the lives of vulnerable women across the country by providing them with a pathway to independence and long-term employment in the hospitality industry. That’s right, while the rest of us wrestle with scarves and hats in winter, your giftee could be rolling up their sleeves in a balmy, saffron-scented kitchen in the Red City, learning the ins and outs of traditional Moroccan cuisine while supporting a meaningful cause at the same time.
Central to Amal (its name meaning ‘hope’ in Arabic) is a rigorous eight-month programme that teaches women everything from professional cooking techniques to French language skills and customer service training, guided throughout by community members and experienced chefs at the organisation’s very own restaurant. Since being founded by Nora Fitzgerald Belahcen in 2012, more than 300 women – many of whom are single mothers, widows, or individuals who have experienced social and economic hardship – have graduated, going on to work for hotels, riads, cafés, and catering kitchens across Marrakech (that alone is enough to warrant Amal a spot on our experiential gift guide).
The organisation’s public cooking classes, which run for three hours, take guests through the building blocks of Moroccan home cooking, with trainees and graduates on hand to demonstrate techniques and answer questions. Depending on the day, your giftee might be preparing a classic tajine, shaping traditional breads, or assembling a scrumptious pastilla. If they get the hang of it, it’ll be you asking them to host next year’s Christmas dinner.
A day of pampering in London’s Mayfair, as recommended by Steffen Michels
Diamonds or an OutThere subscription aside, time may well be the biggest luxury of all, and the most precious time is perhaps the one you take for yourself. We’re becoming a little better at treating ourselves to some me-time each year, and in 2025, we’ll be giving our friends and family some me-time (well, them-time?), too. Conveniently, two of our favourite recent self-love sessions took place less than 15 minutes walking from one another.
At Mandarin Oriental Mayfair, the luxury hospitality brand’s second London address, spa treatments range from the ‘micro’ kind (think quick fixes for immediate results) to more elaborate therapies made bespoke to suit each guest’s individual requirements. We opted for the 90-minute ‘Natural Time for You’ treatment, which allows for maximum flexibility and can entail everything from body scrubs to a hydrating facial or a suitably festive Tuscan candle massage. As vegans, we appreciated that the hotel was able to ensure all products used during our session were entirely plant-based and cruelty-free. Rudolph would approve.
With our skin marked safe from hitting epidermal rock bottom, our hair, too, needed some love ahead of the holidays. Conveniently, Mayfair’s latest (and arguably its most show-stopping) one-stop shop for all things cutting, colouring and grooming isn’t far from the hotel. Founded by Brazilian hair stylist Marcos Verissimo – you know his work from the Academy Awards and the Cannes Film Festival – The Six gets its name from the six-storey, Grade II-listed Georgian townhouse it occupies. The space is impressive and comes with all sorts of mod-cons and a fully equipped kitchen, should the legend you’re bestowing this experience upon end up needing an iced matcha latte mid-cut (and of course they will).
But facilities aside, it’s the team’s expertise with a wide range of hair types that sold us on The Six. With over 50 hair services and some additional beauty treatments on offer within walls that date back to the 1770s, this is perhaps London’s sole luxury salon with a boutique feel. We’re not the only ones raving about it, either: “When we first opened, we had all the chic, elderly Mayfair ladies pop in for a haircut”, Marcos told us. The prospect of being in their presence alone would make an afternoon at The Six a fabulous present, indeed: just imagine all the festive gossip.
A membership in women’s travel company Club Avandra, as recommended by Uwern Jong
If you’re puzzling over what to gift the worldly woman this Christmas – the one who already has the good luggage and the platinum credit card – allow us to introduce Club Avandra. It’s a new, private members’ travel club for women who want to see the world solo without compromise: a global sisterhood of “SWANs” (Sorted, Worldly And No sh*ts given), who believe luxury and independence should co-exist beautifully.
In an era where solo female travel is less Eat, Pray, Love and more The Devil Wears Prada, Club Avandra has swooped in to close what it calls the “glamour gap” between mass-market group tours and the chic, soulful travel experiences women actually deserve. Born from a cadre of brilliant female travel experts, the club curates a polished portfolio of stylish adventures, insider editorial content, intimate events and a private digital community known, delightfully, as “People Like Us”.
Why gift this? Because travel is always better when you send someone into the world feeling supported, celebrated and surrounded – when travelling solo. Club Avandra gives women the freedom of independent adventure with the joy of companionship: sisterhood on the road, camaraderie in foreign lands and the kind of shared laughter that turns strangers into lifelong travel confidantes.
Members can join expertly hosted trips, from baroque beauty in Malta with editor Marianne Jones, to desert nights in Jordan, fashion-forward Marrakesh escapes, alpine glamour in Verbier, wine-soaked wandering in Galicia and soul-resetting Helsinki retreats. Each itinerary is led by a remarkable woman deeply connected to the destination, promising “money-can’t-buy” access and transformational experiences… It’s exactly why Club Avandra belongs on our experiential gift guide 2025.
And as a festive flourish, the first 100 members enjoy a founders’ rate of £250 (rather than £400). Honestly, what better gift than the world – wrapped in sisterhood and sprinkled with style?
A city walk that gives back to London’s vulnerable communities, as recommended by Martin Perry
So what do you give the OutThere traveller who already has everything? This year, think outside the box – and give something that actually changes lives.
If you’re in (or visiting) the city we’ve devoted our brand-new issue to, London, Unseen Tours offer gift cards for their city walks, guided by vulnerably housed individuals who curate and lead tours across eight diverse London neighbourhoods. The guides share their stories of homelessness, their unique perspectives on the city, and earn an honest living in the process. You’ll be immersed in history, stories, and hidden corners of London, all seen through the eyes of people who have lived on the margins and emerged as extraordinary storytellers. It’s perspective-shifting and infinitely more memorable than a pair of socks.
The story behind Unseen Tours is what truly makes the organisation special. It began with The Sock Mob, a volunteer group handing out warm socks to people sleeping rough in London – small gestures that broke the ice, sparked conversation and forged real human connections.
Building on that spirit, Unseen Tours went further, empowering vulnerably housed individuals to become guides, sharing their own perspectives and stories. Since 2010, they’ve run over 450 walks a year, welcoming more than 6,500 guests to experience London in a way you simply can’t find in any guidebook.
This winter, the Aviva Community Fund, a UK initiative that supports grassroots projects and social enterprises, particularly those tackling climate change and promoting financial wellbeing, driven by its parent insurance company, will match-fund every gift card you buy from Unseen. This means double the support for the guides, double the impact and double the joy (to the world).
www.deervalley.com | www.amalnonprofit.org | www.mandarinoriental.com | www.thesix.com | www.clubavandra.com | www.unseentours.org.uk
Photography courtesy of Deer Valley Resort, Amal Center, Mandarin Oriental Hotels, The Six, Unseen Tours and via Unsplash
