I love giving gifts, but as a minimalist, I dislike the idea of adding to people’s material possessions, particularly when there is a huge possibility that I will buy someone something they don’t like. And there’s only so many times I can gift the same person yet another plant.
This is why I love to gift experiences. Be it luxury hotel stays, delicious tasting menus, fun music events, and much more. In my experience, it is much harder to go wrong gifting an experience, as long as you have some basic knowledge about your giftee, like what they like to eat or drink, whether they are active, or if they enjoy creating things.
There are a few gifting experience companies, like Red Letter Days, but I find they lack unique and interesting options. You can also certainly do a lot of shopping around yourself, but I have been enjoying using The Indytute, a gift experience platform with a much more curated and personal touch.
They invited me to test out one of their experiences, so I booked myself onto their Vegan Wine Tasting Experience in Brighton (free gift). In this review of The Indytute, I will be sharing my whole experience of using their site to book my experience, as well as going into detail about the quality of the experience itself.
Pros
- Giftees can easily swap their experience
- Variety of dietary options for food experiences
- Option for physical gift cards
- High-quality experiences
Cons
- Predominantly London based
What is The Indytute?
Built out of the founder’s desire to declutter her life, The Indytute is an experience booking platform offering unique gifts. They are partnered with a variety of independent brands across London and the UK and each experience has been tested and handpicked by The Indytute team.
What sets them apart from other companies is their dedication to finding experiences that feel personal and a bit out of the ordinary. You’ll be sure to find an experience that will be fun and interesting for your giftee!
How does The Indytute work?
The Indytute is a predominantly gift-based platform, which means you purchase an experience and have it sent out as a physical or digital card to your giftee. You can also buy a gift card that gives them access to The Indytute’s entire range of experiences.
That being said, you can also purchase an experience without gifting it to anyone (like I did)! It is a great place to discover new and exciting things to do, for yourself or others!
You can browse through their directory of gift experiences and filter by price (from under £35 to £150+) or category, including Food & Drink, Activity & Wellness, Big Birthdays, and more.
Once you have purchased your experience The Indytute will pass your details over to the partner brand and you just need to show up on the day. Some experiences may require further planning, but the team will get in touch with you if this is the case. It is a straightforward process.
What kinds of experiences do they offer?
There isn’t much you won’t find on The Indytute. They offer everything from food and drink to arts and crafts, with lots of random and unique experiences sprinkled in between. There are classic offerings like wine tasting (here is the one I went on) and pottery making, but there are also plenty of unusual activities like learning how to DJ, foraging for wild food, and plunging yourself into an ice bath. You can even arrange to have a theatre group perform in your garden.
If you are looking for a list of their most unique experiences, check out their Extraordinary Gift Experiences page.
Whilst most of their experiences are London-based, they’re expanding with a good number in places like Brighton and Margate, and more popping up across the UK, so there’s always something interesting to explore.
My experience
I decided to book the Vegan Wine Tasting Experience in Brighton for 2 people. The experience cost £45 per person and included 5 wines (3 white and 2 red), bread, nuts, and a vegan cheese board.
After booking, I was provided with details on how to contact the partner brand to set up a date and time. This was a quick and simple process. Although in some instances, I feel it would be useful to have a reservation function that allows you to book a time when purchasing, but I can see that this wouldn’t be convenient for the average user of their website – most people will be buying a gift experience which will allow the giftee will be able to book a time most convenient for them at a later date.
On the day of my experience, I showed up at the venue and gave my name to the staff. They had my name on their books and we were shown to our table straight away. I was concerned it would be clunky, as it usually is when I’ve booked events using gift cards in the past, but the whole process with The Indytute was seamless!
We were then greeted by our host for the evening, a vegan sommelier in training. He was very knowledgeable about the vegan wines we were tasting and gave the whole experience a personal and educational touch. He was also very attentive and informative, teaching us how to properly smell and taste the wine.
We discussed tasting notes and the origins of each wine, before being left with the remaining glass to enjoy with a vegan cheese board, sourdough bread, and nuts. Each snack we were presented with was given to suit the wine we were enjoying.
The whole evening ran smoothly and was a lot of fun. It felt like a high-end experience that was suitable for many occasions, including a birthday or anniversary gift.
My verdict
My whole experience using The Indytute was seamless, fun, and unique. The platform itself is easy to use and has a large selection of experiences to choose from, no matter your preferences. If you are buying it as a gift and you can’t decide what to get, then you can opt for a sitewide gift card. I like the fact that you can choose between a virtual gift card or a real gift card which can be sent via post.
You can tell the experiences have been thoughtfully picked out by The Indytute team. I had a lot of fun on my wine tasting evening, not only was it educational but it was also a very unique and special experience.
I wouldn’t hesitate to use their platform again to purchase a gift for a friend or family member!
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