Top 10 Outdoor Activities to Gift This Christmas!

Christmas brings good food, wine, and quality time with family but it also drags along the pressure of giving the perfect gift to loved ones. Gifting someone a lifetime's worth of memories in the form of an outdoor activity that they have never tried is pretty special. In this article, we are going to take that weight off your shoulders and suggest the top 10 outdoor activities to gift this Christmas to family or friends.

With over 6,200 activities available worldwide on Manawa, it’s easy to find the perfect pick for you or your loved one.

Bungee jumping

bungee jumping as a gift

Bungee jumping is always a top pick for adrenaline junkies who want to try an extreme sport, feel the rush as you jump from 40 to 300 meters high, and let go of all the stresses from yesterday as you fall through the sky. Bungee jumping is, as its name implies, a simple jump from a crane or bridge, with an elasticated cord attached to your ankles. Once you’ve taken the plunge, enjoy the thrill of the free fall followed by successive ups and downs, before you’re safely assisted back on to the solid ground. When it comes to outdoor activities to gift, bungee jumping is a classic and reliable choice.

Bungee jumping has a number of variables that affect the price range, from the height to the location which is between 30 to 150 euros.

If you’d like to check out all our bungee jumping activities, please click the provided link for booking information.

Tandem Skydiving

tandem skydive as a gift

Nothing quite compares to the adrenaline rush of a parachute jump and this extreme sensation is even better shared! Freefall from the sky with a breath-taking view and experience the feeling of weightlessness alongside your best friend – we guarantee you’ll be talking about it for years. Skydiving could be an expensive gift going all the way up to 1400 euros but you can easily find a cheaper version at around 120 euros.

If you’d like to check out all our skydiving activities, please click the provided link for booking information.

Rafting

Whitewater river rafting as a gift

It’s time to get the heart rate pumping with an adrenaline-loaded rafting session. The aim of the game is to descend the river by paddling from one checkpoint to another, all the while trying to navigate through rapids and slaloming between the rocks and waterfalls. Jump aboard with family or friends, put on your wet suit, life jacket, and helmet, and enjoy a great day out while experiencing the joy of paddling the river’s currents as cold water splashes in your face! Rafting is probably one of the cheapest activities on this list, starting at around 15 euros but it could go up to 100 euros per person too, depending on the rapid class you pick.

If you’d like to check out all our rafting activities, please click the provided link for booking information.

Ice-climbing

ice climbing as a gift

If you’re looking at an unconventional outdoor activity to gift someone, look no further than ice climbing. Ice climbing is derived from classic rock climbing and mountaineering that began in the 1970s, but it involves navigating along glacial formations, through corridors and up frozen waterfalls, equipped with ice axes and spiked crampons. Whether artificial or natural, ice walls provide a great playground for thrill-seekers who aren’t afraid of the cold. Once again, depending on the location you pick, ice climbing can be cheap or very expensive. Starting at 40 euros, going up to 450 euros, the activity price has a lot of variants.

If you’d like to check out all our ice-climbing activities, please click the provided link for booking information.

Dog sledding

Dog Sled as a gift

There’s nothing like being pulled along by a pack of sled dogs while you take in the snowy and magical landscapes in the mountain valleys and forests of Andorra! Dog sledding is ideal for families, as it doesn’t require much physical exertion and you can just sit back, snuggle up, and admire the spectacular landscapes. Starting at around 40 euros for half-day expeditions, dog sledding can go up to 2800 euros if you opt for a 6 day expedition, which takes care of your lodging and food requirements.

If you’d like to check out all our dog sledding activities, please click the provided link for booking information.

Skateboarding

skateboarding as a gift

Cruising the streets standing on a skateboard is a dream for many, yet it doesn’t actually require as much balance or training as you may think. Sign up with a good teacher and they’ll explain all you need to know about positioning and the important movement before you roll over to the skatepark. Whether you’re into freestyle (tricks on the ground or on modules), downhill longboarding (extreme descent on the road) or simply just cruising, all these activities are offered with personalized courses. On average, you will have to shell out around 45 euros for skateboarding but the price can also go up to 100 euros.

If you’d like to check out all our skateboarding activities, click the provided link for booking information.

Diving with sharks

Diving with sharks as a gift

Probably one of the deadliest outdoor activities to gift someone this Christmas, you can be sure that your gift will be one of a kind. Dive into a VIP meeting with the most formidable predators in the ocean, feel your heart race whilst admiring the grace and power of the sharks as they swim freely past you in their natural habitat. Many spots in the world offer this thrilling activity which is guaranteed to quickly change your mind about this misunderstood species. 40 – 180 euros is the price range for diving with sharks but you could also apply for a group activity, costing you around 600 euros.

If you’d like to check out all our shark diving activities, click the provided link for booking information.

Speed-riding

speed riding to give as a gift

If cross-country skiing or freestyle skiing isn’t your thing, then maybe you’ll be tempted by Speedriding or snow-kiting, which combine skiing with paragliding or kite-surfing. Equipped with wings or sail, you can carve down the slopes then take to air whenever you fancy! This sport is totally different from paragliding, the spirit of Speedriding is influenced by the speed and the proximity between you and the snowy ground beneath your board. The price range for speed riding is anywhere between 100 to 400 euros.

If you’d like to check out all our speed riding activities, click the provided link for booking information.

Paragliding

Paragliding as a gift

There’s a good chance that people you know have already tried paragliding but there’s a better chance that they haven’t. Not to sound too dramatic, but to be the person who gives someone the gift of flight will surely earn you some brownie points. Paragliding and especially tandem paragliding is one of the easiest outdoor activities to gift someone this Christmas when it comes to difficulty levels of the activity. As you can see in the picture above, paragliding is a recreational outdoor activity where the participant is comfortably seated and suspended from a fabric wing, allowing him or her to float and navigate in the sky, propelled by the wind.

Some of the best places to go paragliding in the world are Interlaken, Switzerland; Pokhara, Nepal; San Gil, Colombia; Oludeniz, Turkey, and Valle de Bravo, Mexico. Usually, the price range for tandem paragliding is in the range of 50 to 150 euros, depending on which part of the world you’re in. The activity itself lasts anywhere between 10 minutes to 45 minutes, which will also have an effect on the price.

If you’d like to check out all our paragliding activities, click the provided link for booking information.

Microlight flights

Microlight flight as a gift

If you’re looking for a hipster version of outdoor activities to gift this Christmas, microlight flights are probably your number one choice. As the name suggests, microlight flights or ultralight aviation is the flying of a lightweight 1 or 2 seat fixed-wing aircraft. We know what you’re thinking, doesn’t flying a plane require years of training? Well, microlight flights don’t require you to fly the plane yourself, but rather enjoy the wind running through your hair as you relish the scenery from the sky.

The best part about this activity is that you can normally practice it all year round costing anywhere between 100 to 200 euros, depending on the amount of airtime you opt for. Traditionally, you have two options as your vehicle:

  • the Pendular: An airplane surmounted by a delta wing, a classic!
  • the autogyro or gyrocopter: An airplane topped by a rotary wing (like on a helicopter), which is fast and easy to handle.

If you’d like to check out all our microlight flight activities, click the provided link for booking information.

Flyboarding

flyboarding as a gift

If you know someone who has the appetite for the spectacular, fly-boarding is the perfect outdoor activity to give as a gift. Perfectly illustrated in the picture above, flyboarding is a water activity that allows the participant to eject into the sky using sheer force from the water. It uses the same logic as a rocket, which uses fuel to launch into the sky, except flyboarding doesn’t land you amongst the stars, no matter how hard you try.

Needless to say, coastal cities make for ideal locations for the sport of flyboarding. The activity will cost you anywhere between 50 to 200 euros depending on the duration of the session, ranging from 15 minutes to an hour. Very little training is required to go flyboarding, making it the perfect gift for anyone who’d like to try the activity.

If you’d like to check out all our flyboarding activities, click the provided link for booking information.

Scuba diving

scuba diving as a gift

There are plenty of outdoor activities to gift someone but one to enter a different realm is pretty hard to beat. Scuba diving is an activity that lets you explore a completely alien environment and is probably on most people’s bucket list. You will receive an ample amount of training and knowing how to swim ironically, is not a prerequisite for first-timers. Keep in mind, if you want a scuba diving license, knowing how to swim is necessary.

When it comes to the location, remote ones are the best. So places like:

  • Cape Kri – Raja Ampat, Indonesia
  • Barracuda Point – Sipadan Island
  • Blue Corner – Palau, Micronesia
  • Thistlegorm – Egyptian Red Sea
  • Shark & Yolanda Reef – Egyptian Red Sea
  • The Yongala – Queensland, Australia
  • Great Blue Hole – Belize
  • Big Brother – Egyptian Red Sea

Depending on the location you pick, the price range for scuba diving is between 50 and 100 euros, making the activity pretty affordable.
If you’d like to check out all our scuba diving activities, click the provided link for booking information.

  • If you’d like to have a look at our winter activities, please click the link provided.
  • If you’d like to read about 10 outdoor activities to get fit after an over-indulgent Christmas, click the provided link.