This season’s gifting is about experiences. After years of being cooped up, people want to feel the crunch of snow under their snowshoes, hear the evening surf, and taste damn delicious food. There’s some science behind this: studies have long shown that people derive more happiness from experiences than from material purchases, which is largely because the actual doing of things leads to more conversations and relationship-building, not to mention charmed memories. We’re nothing if not data nerds, and so our gift guide curates the best activities that you should do with your favorite humans, from hour-long classes to multiday adventures. Imagine: You say, “Hey, I bought us a snowshoeing tour! When would you like me to book it?” Your bestie grins ear to ear. You feel the warm glow of friend-love. A local business gets support. Win-win-win. It’s all one easy booking away.

Food Escapades for 2

Cook on an open fire 
The scrappy, seasonally driven chefs at Tournant specialize in live-fire cooking and willingly teach their tricks. Cool factor: exponential. Options range from four-hour classes to entire cooking retreats in places near (Loloma Lodge on the McKenzie River) and far (Croatia?!). Group classes $250–300, retreats $2,500–4,000 

Celebrate aging while you quaff 
Order a flight of six different vintages of either pinot noir or Riesling from the Brooks Wine tasting room in Amity. Called the Ageworthy Elevated Experience tasting, the program is meant to show what makes a wine good for aging and what characteristics develop during the process. Hungry? Fromage and charcuterie board included. $80 per person

Learn when to stir versus shake
The Craft Mixology classes at Straightaway Cocktails teach budding bartenders how to make four different cocktails. Each class has a boozy theme—Winter Wonderland, Remembering the Classics, Tropical Sippers—and uses Straightaway’s house line of liqueurs and vermouth. $85 per person

Nerd out on wine or beer
Palate-primer classes at the Wine and Spirit Archive, such as Wine 101 and Beer 101, teach rookies about flavor profiles and the techniques that shape them. The three-class intro series to beer and wine ($185) delves deeper into international drinking traditions. At the Archive, you can go as far down the rabbit hole as you’d like: they offer formal industry training on spirits, sake, wine, and beer. $65 per class for beginners

outdoor pursuits

Hike or snowshoe
Let a guide lead you through the Willamette National Forest. Daily adventures from the Cascades Outdoor Center could include a four-mile Tire Mountain hike through old-growth forests with views of Diamond Peak, the Three Sisters, and Mount Bachelor or a snowshoe trip to the 286-foot Salt Creek Falls, Oregon’s second-largest waterfall and a stunner during the winter. For an overnight, stay near Oakridge at Westfir Lodge, at the base of the Alpine Trail. Hikes $69–99 per person

Sip and cycle
One of several excursions offered by Hood River–based
MountNbarrel Guided Tours, its seasonal e-bike winery ride comes complete with all the needed gear and high-end service. $300–500 per person

Fly-fish the Upper Rogue River
Guides take groups of up to six anglers of all abilities on daylong fishing trips through Humble Heron Fishing. A package includes instruction and up to three boats. As they describe it, “the water runs cold, crisp, and clear over boulders, braids, volcanic ledges”—and that’s before you cast your line. $600 for one or two people

overnight escapes

Get romantic lakeside
A stay at Suttle Lodge, on the shore of its namesake lake, is the perfect gift to a sweetheart with whom you’re looking to escape or reconnect (or both). Two on-site restaurants, the year-round Skip Bar and the summer-only Boathouse, mean leaving the property is optional, but if you do, skiing, snowmobiling, and snowshoeing are all nearby in winter, and paddling, swimming, and hiking the rest of the year. Pop into nearby Sisters for the day to check out the local food and shopping scene. $75–400 per night

Backpack or glamp
If a tent is more your jam, Go Wild: American Adventures explores the beauty of Eastern Oregon with stargazing in the Elkhorn Range of the Blue Mountains or in the Wallowas. Trips range from classic backpacking to catered glamping. Starting at $330 per person, per day

Sleep and play in the trees
The new luxury treehouses at Skamania Lodge are a treat: soaring ceilings, gorgeous views, and lovely decks on which to take it all in, plus your own personal gas-powered firepit and s’mores kit. The glass-clad double showers are pure luxury, and the lodge’s two on-site restaurants will keep your belly happy. Don’t miss the choose-your-own-adventure high ropes course, complete with a canoe suspended in the air. Rooms from $189, treehouses from $319

Play hard, then relax
Head out from Headlands Coastal Lodge with your surfboard to catch some waves, then sip sunset beers next to a bonfire on the beach. If a storm rolls in, hunker down with breakfast in bed from the lodge’s in-house restaurant, Meridian, while you watch the clouds. There’s plenty to do around Pacific City with hiking, paddling, fishing, and crabbing. $485–920 per night