The best experience gifts for outdoorsy people are things they’ll do, not things they’ll store: a rafting day, a guided hike, a bike tour.
Browse all giftable adventuresIf you’re looking for experience gifts for someone who’d rather be outside, start here. This guide covers 30+ outdoor adventure gifts you can actually book: guided trips, lessons and rentals from local outfitters, sorted by activity, by person, by budget and by place. Most are good experience gift ideas for adults, and plenty work for kids too.
We’re Julie and Reet, the co-founders of TripOutside. We live in Durango, Colorado, and for years we’ve rented the kayaks, booked the rafting trips and pointed other people toward their first adventures. We only list human-powered trips from top-rated local outfitters. Reet is a Leave No Trace instructor, so how a trip treats the place it happens in matters to us.
Every link below goes to adventures you can give as a gift. Find one you like and choose “Gift This Adventure” on the listing. You buy the outfitter’s gift card, it arrives by email, and they pick the date.
Quick Picks: Top 10 Outdoor Experience Gifts
Short on time? These are the best experience gifts on TripOutside right now, picked from the activities with the most giftable trips. Call it our top 10 experience gifts for people who like being outside. Prices are the lowest “from” price in each category when we last checked.
| # | Experience | Best for | From | Season | Gift it |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Guided whitewater rafting trip | Families, groups, first-timers | $59 | Late spring to summer | See giftable trips |
| 2 | Guided kayak tour | Easygoing paddlers, couples | $47 | Summer; year-round in warm places | See giftable trips |
| 3 | Guided hike | Anyone who likes a walk with a view | $40 | Year-round | See giftable trips |
| 4 | Guided rock climbing day | Gym climbers ready for real rock | $125 | Spring to fall | See giftable trips |
| 5 | Canyoneering day | The friend who wants something different | $89 | Spring and fall | See giftable trips |
| 6 | Guided mountain bike tour | Riders who want local trail knowledge | $80 | Spring to fall | See giftable trips |
| 7 | E-bike tour | Mixed-ability groups | $59 | Spring to fall | See giftable trips |
| 8 | Snorkel tour | Ocean lovers, families | $50 | Year-round in warm water | See giftable trips |
| 9 | Guided snowshoe tour | Winter visitors who don’t ski | $68 | Winter | See giftable trips |
| 10 | Multi-day guided trip | Big birthdays and bucket lists | $289 | Mostly summer | See giftable trips |
Experience Gifts by Activity
The easiest way to choose adventure gifts is to start with what they already love, or what they keep saying they want to try. Here are our gift experience ideas, one activity at a time.
For Skiers and Winter Lovers: Backcountry Tours, Nordic Skiing and Snowshoeing
A lift ticket is the obvious gift for a skier. A day with a guide is the one they’ll talk about. Guided backcountry ski tours and intro courses start at $235 and suit confident resort skiers who want to get off the lifts with someone who knows the terrain and the snowpack. Cross-country ski tours and lessons start at $99 and are much easier on beginners.
For the friend who doesn’t ski at all, a guided snowshoe tour (from $68) needs no experience. If they can walk, they can snowshoe. The season runs roughly December through March.
More gift ideas for skiers and snowboarders coming soon.
For Hikers: Guided Hikes and Overnight Camping Trips
A guided hike sounds like something a hiker doesn’t need. It’s a good gift anyway. A local guide knows the trail that isn’t in the app, the right hour to start and what you’re looking at when you get there. Guided hikes start at $40, and most welcome beginners and kids.
They run year-round in the desert Southwest and from summer into fall in the mountains. For someone ready to sleep outside, guided camping trips (from $289) take care of the planning.
More gift ideas for hikers coming soon.
For Mountain Bikers and Cyclists: Guided Rides and Bike Tours
For mountain bikers, the gift is local knowledge. A guided ride (from $80) puts them on the right trails for their skill level, with no morning lost to wrong turns. We live in Durango, where a guide can show you more good singletrack in a day than you’d find on your own in a week.
E-bike tours (from $59) are the pick for mixed groups, because pedal assist keeps everyone together. Bike rentals work as gifts too. Road bike rentals start at $42, and many of ours are in California wine country.
More gift ideas for mountain bikers and cyclists coming soon.
For Climbers: Guided Rock Climbing, Rappelling and Ice Climbing
Know someone who climbs in a gym and keeps talking about real rock? A guided rock climbing day (from $125) is how most people make that jump. The guide brings the ropes and hardware, sets up the routes and teaches as you go. Most guided days welcome beginners.
Rappelling trips (from $89) fit people who like heights more than they like pull-ups. In winter, ice climbing (from $40) is the same idea with crampons and ice tools.
More gift ideas for climbers coming soon.
For Paddlers: Rafting, Kayaking and Stand-Up Paddleboarding
We list more giftable trips on the water than anywhere else, and they’re the easiest to get right. A guided rafting trip (from $59) works for almost anyone: families, groups, people who’ve never held a paddle. Tell the outfitter who’s coming and they’ll help match the stretch of river to the group.
Guided kayak tours start at $47 and stand-up paddleboard lessons at $60. For paddlers who’d rather go on their own, kayak rentals start at $25. The splurge is a multi-day rafting trip, from $525. Rafting season runs roughly May through September. Flatwater paddling goes year-round in warm places.
More gift ideas for paddlers coming soon.
Canyoneering
Canyoneering is hiking, scrambling and rappelling your way down a slot canyon. If you’re after unique experience gifts, this is the one for the friend who has done everything else. Guided days start at $89 and run in the canyon country around Moab and Zion, where guides supply the ropes, harnesses and helmets.
Most trips are built for first-timers who are comfortable with heights. Spring and fall are best. Summer is hot, and slot canyons can flood, which is one more reason to go with a guide.
For Surfers and Ocean Lovers: Surf Lessons, Snorkeling and Kiteboarding
For beach people, a surf lesson (from $88) gets a beginner standing up faster than a summer of trying alone. Snorkel tours (from $50) are the low-effort pick for anyone headed to Hawaii or Florida, and they work for most ages.
For the person who wants a new obsession, a kiteboarding lesson or a wing foiling lesson (from $250) is the start of one. Fair warning: nobody takes just one.
More gift ideas for surfers coming soon.
For Campers: Guided Camping and Multi-Day Trips
Camping gifts usually mean gear. A guided trip means they just show up. Most of the guided camping trips we list are overnight paddling trips: kayak in, camp, kayak out, with a guide who knows the water. They start at $289.
Multi-day guided trips start at $289 and go up to week-long river trips and sea kayaking among Alaska’s glaciers. Summer is the season for nearly all of them.
More gift ideas for campers and backpackers coming soon.
Lessons and Skills Courses
A lesson is the gift that keeps paying off, because they’ll use what they learn on every trip after it. We list giftable lessons in stand-up paddleboarding (from $60), sea kayaking (from $109), surfing, kiteboarding, rock climbing and ice climbing.
They’re good for a beginner who wants a proper start, and for the experienced friend who has hit a plateau.
Experience Gifts by Who You’re Shopping For
Not sure what they’re into? Shop by who they are instead. These are the outdoor experience gifts we’d pick for each person on the list.
Experience Gifts for Him
Skip the tie. The experience gifts for men we’d pick first: a guided rafting trip (from $59) for the dad who needs a day off, a guided mountain bike tour (from $80) for the husband or boyfriend who rides, and a guided rock climbing day (from $125) for the one who says he’s always wanted to try. All three work for Father’s Day or a birthday, and none of them has to fit in a closet.
More experience gifts for men coming soon.
Experience Gifts for Her
For mom, a wife, a girlfriend or a friend, here’s what we’d give: a guided kayak tour (from $47), a guided hike (from $40) with someone who knows the views and the wildflowers, or a stand-up paddleboard lesson (from $60) she can turn into a habit. They make good Mother’s Day gifts, and they outlast flowers.
More experience gifts for women coming soon.
Experience Gifts for Couples
The best gift for a couple is a day they spend together. Start with private trips, where it’s just the two of them and a guide. A snorkel tour (from $50) or an e-bike tour (from $59) is easy to add to a trip they’re already taking. It also solves the hard part of buying for two people, which is finding one thing they both want.
More experience gifts for couples coming soon.
Experience Gifts for Kids and Families
Kids remember the day they went rafting. They don’t remember the toy. Most of our giftable adventures are marked kid-friendly, including family rafting trips (from $59) and guided hikes (from $40). Check the listing for minimum ages before you buy. An experience also makes a good gift for parents: the grandparents give the trip, and the whole family goes.
More experience gifts for kids and families coming soon.
For Someone Who Has Everything
They don’t need another thing. That’s the whole case for giving them a day instead. For the person who has everything, go bigger or stranger: a multi-day guided trip (from $289), a canyoneering day (from $89), or something they’d never book for themselves. It takes up no shelf space, and they can’t already own it.
More gift ideas for someone who has everything coming soon.
For the Outdoorsy Friend Who Owns All the Gear
They have the bike, the boat and three puffy jackets. Don’t buy gear for gear people. They’ve already researched it harder than you can. Give them a skill or a new place instead: a lesson in something they haven’t tried, an ice climbing day, or a packrafting trip (from $107).
More gift ideas for outdoorsy people coming soon.
Outdoor Experience Gifts by Budget
Outdoor experience gifts cost less than most people expect. Here’s what each budget buys, using real starting prices from our listings.
Under $100
Looking for $50 experience gifts? They exist. Guided hikes start at $40, guided kayak tours at $47 and snorkel tours at $50. Kayak rentals start at $25. A little more gets you a guided rafting trip (from $59), an e-bike tour (from $59), a paddleboard lesson (from $60) or a guided snowshoe tour (from $68).
$100 to $250
This range opens up most of the guided days with more gear and more instruction: rock climbing (from $125), canyoneering in Moab (from $140), an intro to sea kayaking (from $109) and a first day of backcountry skiing (from $235). It’s a good fit for a birthday or a main holiday gift for one person.
Bucket-List Splurges ($500+)
For a milestone birthday, a retirement or an anniversary, go multi-day. Multi-day rafting trips start at $525. At the top end are five- and six-day river trips on the Main Salmon and the Snake through Hells Canyon, which run past $2,000.
Outdoor Experience Gifts by Destination
A trip in a place they love, or a place they’re about to visit, makes the gift personal. These are the states where we have the most giftable adventures.
Colorado
Colorado is our home state, and it’s where we have the most to give. Around Durango, where we live, Colorado experience gifts mean rafting, guided mountain biking and rock climbing. If you’re shopping for Denver experience gifts, look at the paddling and climbing days close to the city. Estes Park, at the edge of Rocky Mountain National Park, is the place for guided hikes, and Colorado Springs for climbing.
More Colorado experience gifts coming soon.
Utah
Utah is canyon country, and that’s what we’d give here. Moab has canyoneering, rock climbing and guided hikes among the arches and towers. Around Zion National Park you’ll find canyoneering, climbing and gear rentals for hiking the Narrows. In winter, Salt Lake City adds backcountry ski tours and ice climbing.
More Utah experience gifts coming soon.
California
California is where we have the most bike gifts. Napa Valley has e-bike, road bike and cruiser rentals for a day among the vineyards. San Diego and Lake Tahoe are for kayaking and paddleboarding, and the rivers of the Sierra foothills have guided rafting.
Florida
Florida is flat water and warm weather, so it works when the mountains are snowed in. Almost everything giftable here is a kayak or paddleboard trip, in Key West, Fort Lauderdale and the Orlando area, plus a few snorkel tours.
Hawaii
For someone with a Hawaii trip on the calendar, give them a day of it. Maui has the most: snorkel tours, e-bike tours and rentals, and surf lessons. Oahu has snorkeling and kayaking.
Alaska
Alaska gifts are the big ones. From Valdez, sea kayak trips head for the glaciers of Prince William Sound, including overnight camping trips. Near Denali there’s rafting and guided hiking, and Anchorage has guided hikes and bike rides.
More Gift Ideas for Outdoor People
Sometimes a trip isn’t the right gift. Here’s what we’d give instead.
A Gift Card to Their Local Bike Shop
People who ride are always spending money on their bikes: tubes, tires, chains, brake pads, a tune-up every spring. A gift card to their local bike shop pays for what they were going to buy anyway, and it keeps the money in town. Call the shop or stop in. Most sell gift cards at the counter.
If You’re Buying Gear, Buy From Brands That Give Back
If you have to buy gear, buy it from companies that put money into protecting wild places. Each holiday season The Conservation Alliance publishes a Give Guide of member brands that donate a share of their sales to conservation. Many of the offers run around Giving Tuesday, so check the guide for dates. A few from this year’s list, by activity:
- For paddlers: NRS (rafting and kayaking gear), Sea to Summit (dry bags)
- For campers: Crazy Creek (camp chairs), Klean Kanteen (reusable drinkware), PACT Outdoors (bathroom kits), RecPak (ready-to-eat meals)
- For skiers and snowboarders: TREW Gear (ski and snowboard jackets and pants), Tellus Outdoor (jackets)
- For hikers: Ridge Merino (merino socks), Chaco (sandals), SHÅR Snacks (trail snacks)
One Brand We Always Recommend: Patagonia
Patagonia is one of our north star companies. They build gear to last, they repair it when it breaks, and they’ve put protecting the outdoors at the center of the business. If we’re buying a jacket for someone, this is where we look first.
Christmas and Holiday Experience Gifts
Christmas experience gifts solve two problems at once: there’s nothing to ship, and nothing to find a place for in January. Here’s how to give one, whether you’re early or very late.
Why an Experience Is the Best Last-Minute Gift
It’s December 23rd and you have nothing. An experience is the best of the last minute gifts, because there’s no shipping deadline to miss and no store to drive to. The gift card arrives by email right away, so you can buy it tonight and print it for under the tree. And unlike most last minute Christmas gifts, it doesn’t look last-minute. A rafting trip for next summer reads as planned, not panicked.
Winter Experiences to Give Now
Some experience Christmas gifts can be used before the tree comes down. Guided snowshoe tours (from $68) are the easiest winter gift, since they need no skills. Cross-country and backcountry ski days suit people who already love winter, and ice climbing suits the ones who want a story.
Experiences to Gift Now for Next Summer
Most of our trips run in summer, and December is a fine time to give one. A guided rafting trip, a canyoneering day or a multi-day trip gives them something to look forward to through the dark months. The gift card comes now, and they pick the date once their summer plans firm up.
How to Gift an Experience
It doesn’t take long to gift an experience. Here’s how.
- Pick the activity and the place. If you’re not sure, choose something near where they live or somewhere they’re already going. Browse all giftable adventures.
- Check the season. Many summer trips can be given in winter. Just make sure the trip runs when they can go.
- Open the listing and choose “Gift This Adventure.” It opens the outfitter’s booking system, where you buy that outfitter’s gift card. Pick a set amount or enter your own. An amount that covers the trip you chose is the simple answer.
- The gift card arrives by email right away. Forward it, or print it and tuck it into a card that names the trip you had in mind.
- Wrap something small with it: a map of the area, trail snacks or a Leave No Trace card. It gives them something to open.
They pick the date later. These are experience gift cards in the useful sense: issued by the outfitter who runs the trip and good toward any of that outfitter’s trips, so if your pick isn’t quite right they can swap it for another. Expiration rules vary by outfitter. Most don’t expire, but check before you buy.
Why Experiences Make Better Gifts Than Things
We’re biased, but the research is on our side. In a 2003 study, psychologists Leaf Van Boven and Thomas Gilovich found that people said experiences made them happier than the things they bought. The new jacket becomes the old jacket. The day on the river gets better every time the story is told.
That’s the case for experiential gifts, or non-material gifts, or gifts that aren’t things, whatever you call them. They’re clutter-free gifts: nothing to dust, return or store. They’re time spent with people you like. And when the experience is a guided trip, the money goes to a local guide and an outfitter.
They’re also practical. Gifts for adventurers are hard to buy, because gifts for adventure lovers usually mean gear, and they already own it. They never run out of trips they want to do.
A Gift That Gives Back
Every adventure on TripOutside is human-powered: paddling, pedaling, climbing, hiking and skiing. We don’t list motorized tours.
We work with top-rated local outfitters, the people who know their rivers, trails and canyons and have the reviews to show it. You book direct with them, so your money goes to the local operator.
TripOutside is a member of The Conservation Alliance and Leave No Trace, and Reet is a Leave No Trace instructor. You can read about the Leave No Trace Gold Standard here. An outdoor gift should be good for the person who gets it and for the place where it happens.
Outdoor Experience Gift FAQ
What are experience gifts?
Experience gifts are things to do instead of things to own: a class, a trip, a ticket, a day out. You may also see them called experiential gifts or non-material gifts. Outdoor experience gifts are the active kind, like a guided rafting trip, a surf lesson or a bike tour, usually led by a local guide who supplies the gear.
What are good outdoor experience gifts for adults?
Good outdoor experience gifts for adults need no gear and little experience: a guided rafting trip, a guided kayak tour, a guided hike, a rock climbing day or an e-bike tour. For someone more experienced, look at canyoneering, backcountry skiing or a multi-day river trip. Match the trip to their fitness and to how they feel about heights and water.
Are experience gifts better than physical gifts?
Often, yes. Research by Van Boven and Gilovich found that people report more happiness from experiences than from things they buy. Experiences also don’t wear out, need storing or get returned. A physical gift still wins when someone needs a specific thing. If they don’t need anything, give them something to do.
How do you gift an experience?
Choose the activity and the place, then open the listing on TripOutside and choose “Gift This Adventure.” You buy a gift card from the outfitter who runs the trip, for a set amount or one you choose. It arrives by email right away. They pick the date later and can put it toward any of that outfitter’s trips.
How do I gift an experience for Christmas if it can’t happen until summer?
Buy the outfitter’s gift card now and let them book later. It arrives by email right away, and they choose the date when they’re ready. Most rafting, canyoneering and multi-day trips run from late spring to early fall, so a winter gift for a summer trip is normal. Print the card and wrap a map with it.
Are experience gift cards a good gift?
Yes. An outfitter’s gift card points them at a specific trip but leaves the date up to them, and they can switch to another trip from the same outfitter. Expiration rules vary by outfitter, and most don’t expire. Add a note about the trip you had in mind, so it still feels chosen.
What are affordable outdoor experience gifts?
Guided hikes start at $40, guided kayak tours at $47, snorkel tours at $50 and guided rafting trips at $59. Rentals cost less: kayak rentals start at $25. Those were the lowest prices on TripOutside when we last checked.
What if they’re a beginner?
Most guided trips are built for beginners. The guide brings the gear, teaches the basics and picks terrain that fits the group. Rafting, snorkeling, snowshoeing, guided hikes and e-bike tours are the easiest starts. Look for trips marked beginner-friendly, and tell the outfitter about any nerves or limits when you book.
