Once in a lifetime experiences available to you (redletterdays.co.uk)

Member Name: Squiddly450

Product:	redletterdays.co.uk
Date:	23/02/09 (120 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Hundreds of days to choose from

Disadvantages: More expensive than DIY

I have bought gifts for people using Red letter days and also have had days booked for me so Ill try to give you some insight.

Red Letter Days is a company which allows you to buy "experiences", these range from spending a day at a spa to being a zoo keeper for a day to driving a landrover around a cross country course.
You can buy the "experiences" either in shops like WHSmiths or House of Fraser, or more conveniently, on their website.

The website has the following sections available:
Driving
Couples
Adventure
Pampering
Flying
Short Breaks
Gourmet
Lifestyle
Culture
Sports
Animals
Water
Kids

Plus a few others such as VIP, London and vouchers etc.

OH loves cars, we don't have the moolah to get a smart one of our own so I had a look at the "driving" section of their website.
Here, you can choose a package to suit your taste and pocket. For example, I bought "Aston Martin vs Ferrari Driving" where you get laps round a track driving each of these cars. You can drive practically any car, Lotus, Hummer, Mini etc. In this section are also Rally Driving packages, Off road experiences, JCB driving etc.

I can't list all of the experiences available in the other categories as there are so many.

I have been bought Aston martin driving and rally driving, and I have bought the Aston vs Ferrari experience plus horse riding for my step daughter.

Some of the experiences have height/weight restrictions and for the driving ones you will need a full driving licence.

Once you have bought the experience and paid for it, RLD (redletterdays) send you a smart red box containing a card with booking codes on and other information including disclaimers etc. You can either get this sent to you so you can book the actual experience, or you can have it sent to someone you have bought the experience for.

Once you have the booking codes, you can log on to their website and choose your venue and date. At this stage, you can change the experience to something else so if you've been bought JCB driving but you'd rather have a manicure and facial, that's fine!

For some experiences, the dates available get booked up really quickly or are only on week days so that is worth checking before you choose.

Once you've chosen your venue and date, you will get a confirmation letter giving you directions and phone number to call in case the weather is bad on the day.

Once the day arrives, you get yourself to the venue and register, in my experince this is fairly simple and registration is well signposted. The staff are helpful and do as much as they can to help you enjoy the day to the max.

When I have bought experiences, I have always searched the net for offers and usually manage to get a 15% discount. If you go through Quidco, you can also get cashback.

I think the experiences are a little overpriced and you could get a better deal if you organised it yourself. For example, I now live in Berkshire but at my family home in Herefordshire, my parents are quite well connected in the equine world. If I had tried to get a "beginners lesson" for my step-daughter at a local stables, it would probably have cost me £50. The RLD experience cost about £100. You pay for the convenience though as RLD sort the logistics out for you.

Summary: If you want a convenient, once in a lifetime birthday present, this is for you.