What do you give the person who has everything – or could buy themselves anything? Our answer: a luxury experience. Whether it’s a culinary masterclass or a stay in a new design-led hotel, making memories is often far more meaningful than material objects – especially when you get to do them together. So, here’s our list of memories we’d like to make in 2024: the gifts we can’t wait to give and receive this Christmas.
A flight into space
It’s finally happened. You can officially gift your loved ones a trip into space – albeit on a balloon instead of a rocket. For $125,000pp, you can board Spaceship Neptune (an eight-seat balloon created by Space Perspective) and ascend to 100,000 ft, where you’ll admire the Earth's curvature through the craft’s wraparound windows. You’ll spend about two hours gazing and grazing high-calibre fare before descending to Earth with, we’d bet, a brand-new perspective.
A cocktail omakase at one of the world’s best bars
Simply walking into Kwãnt is an experience; it’s leafy and loud, with a lot of plants and no ability to book in advance. But this January, the team are launching a brand-new, bookable experience: Kwãnt’s cocktail omakase. Inspired by both Japanese traditions and bartender Erik Lorincz’s travels, you and five others will sit at the six-person counter and make your way through a menu of five tiny cocktails – including creations like Urchin (Nikka Coffey Gin, sea urchin, KAY sake, seasn LIGHT, and chive oil).
A dinner and diamonds experience at Pavyllon London
It feels extravagant to say, but this is no ordinary dinner and diamonds experience. This is a dinner at Michelin-starred Pavyllon London (by Yannick Alléno, recipient of 16 other Michelin stars) with a private appointment at Boodles Sloane Street where your lucky loved one will receive a Be Boodles gold diamond pendant. They’ll start off with the gemologist-led diamonds session before a private chauffeur will whisk them to Pavyllon for a six-course tasting menu – quite literally one for those with a taste for luxury.
A Tuscan food and wine retreat
We need both hands to count the reasons we’d want to receive a Castello di Vicarello food and wine retreat this Christmas. First, the accommodation – eleven unique, design-led suites filled with objets collected by a pair of Milanese designers. Then, the food: a series of four-hands dinners with some of Tuscany’s finest chefs. The wine: organic, award-winning, and bountiful. Experiences from foraging to cooking classes to cocktails under the starlit sky… Want more info? Read our full review of the hotel’s inaugural retreat here.
A slow adventure on Belmond’s new Brittanic Explorer
Caledonian who? From July 2025, it’s all about Belmond’s new luxury sleeper train – the first of its kind in England and Wales. The luxurious new train will see you chugging through some of Britain’s loveliest landscapes – from the Welsh hills’ lenitive lines to Cornwall’s icy blue coastline. The ensuite cabins are all suitably swish – as is the food, dreamt up by chef Simon Rogan – and there are two routes to choose from, London to the Lake District via Cornwall or a wander through Wales.
A tailored fashion experience with Heristoria
When you buy a vintage item, you’re not just buying an object. You’re also buying a story. But that story isn’t always clearly written – unless you buy your vintage item through Heristoria, that is. As well as sourcing rare, storied pieces from around the world, the brand also creates experiences tailored to whatever you’re buying – like, a trip to Zenith Manufacture in Le Locle, Switzerland, to learn the history of your ‘new’ 1950s Zenith Sporto watch. But the next chapter? That’s up to you.
A floristry masterclass with Claridge’s Flowers
Claridge’s and creativity go hand in hand – just look at its annual designer-led Christmas tree if you need any further evidence. So, it’s no surprise that Claridge’s Flowers now hosts expert-led floral masterclasses to help you get to grips with the art of floristry – either in a group or, our preference, a private class. You’ll spend a couple of hours crafting your own floral arrangement under the watchful eye of a master florist – perhaps taking inspiration from the glorious surrounds of Claridge’s Salon.
A stay at Saudi Arabia’s futuristic new resort
From the shore of Shebara Island, you can see a fleet of stainless-steel orbs floating on the horizon like a string of pearls. No, this isn’t an alien invasion – it’s the brand-new Shebara Resort, which opened in November. Marooned on a private island about 25km from the mainland, the resort is surrounded by some of the most coral-packed, fish-filled waters around. And it’s committed to preserving them, too, via 100% solar power and guest programmes about marine conservation. One for the eco-seeker on your list.
A place on board the world’s first sustainable polar expedition
Selar’s inaugural polar voyages are an adventurous gift for those who get a kick out of going where few have gone before. Manned by Sophie Galvagnon, the first-ever female Arctic captain, the ships will be completely powered by sun and wind – a callback to the sailing boats of old. There are no set itineraries; instead, you and a maximum of 35 others will sail into previously unchartered waters in the Earth’s polar regions, with experiences like observing polar bears and kayaking past glaciers on the way. Bookings are open now for voyages in 2026.
A sound bath session at Four Seasons Hotel London at Park Lane
We heard the wellness guru in your life wants a sound bath session for Christmas. And here’s the one you should go for: South Bath Serenity at the Four Seasons on Park Lane. The hotel has teamed up with Sahana Sound to create its weekly sound bath healing sessions, designed to soothe frazzled urbanites (as is everything on our list of the best winter spa treatments). The two-hour experience also grants them access to the spa as well as a welcome drink and the session itself. Sounds…relaxing.
A masterclass dining experience at The Raymond Blanc Cookery School
As anyone who has been to Le Manoir will know, Raymond Blanc is serious about food. Every element of the Oxfordshire manor has been carefully crafted to enhance his guests’ culinary experiences, so it follows that the cooking classes are similarly detail-oriented. You can learn to make practically everything from macarons to chef’s sauces, but the masterclass dining experiences (suitable for 2–8 people) are simply the best – an interactive evening of gastronomy where you cook and eat a two-course meal with thoughtful wine pairings.
