GIVE STORIES, NOT STUFF: A REVIEW OF TINGGLY

Hot air balloons over Napa Valley, California

GIVE STORIES, NOT STUFF

Do you have that friend or family member who buys everything they want? Or who doesn’t want anything at all, which makes it incredibly difficult buying them gifts? Well we have a solution for you. Every year, we have birthdays, anniversaries, engagement parties, baby showers, weddings, and countless holidays. In nearly all cases, there are gifts of some kind being given. And as people get older, and more independent, (and maybe more picky) it becomes increasingly more difficult to find gift ideas. So we want to introduce you to a new concept: give stories, not stuff. Below, we’re going to do a review of Tinggly and a hot air balloon ride.

A CHANGE IN MINDSET

Being that we consider ourselves a travel couple, you can go here to read more on us, we obviously have a love and passion for travel. Much of our love of travel comes from the experiences of traveling. Seeing new places, meeting new people, and immersing ourselves in other cultures. Trying local foods (and drinks), broadening our views of the world, the lands, the people (and animals) in it. We never realized it, or thought about it, but subconsciously we have been thriving off of these experiences and the stories we’re able to share.

Additionally, we’ve been making changes in our lifestyle to reduce the amount of stuff we own, and live a more minimalist lifestyle. Doing so helps us save more money and put it towards travel. So when we came across Tinggly who is a company from Lithuania who’s mission is to challenge the status quo of giving stuff, and to instead give stories, we were immediately drawn to them and had to find out more about what they do.

EXPERIENCE COLLECTIONS

Heading over to Tinggly’s website, you’ll find curated Experience Collections and Gift Boxes ranging from $0 to $300+ for all sorts of different occasions (birthdays, weddings, etc). What is an experience collection and gift box you say? Think of it as a package, which you purchase, and gift to someone. Each package (or collection) includes hundreds of different activities (or experiences), and they get to pick any activity that is included in the package to experience at a later date.

Tinggly experiences all over the globe, in over 100 different countries. So no matter where the person receiving the gift is, there’s plenty to choose from. And they never expire, so if the person is planning a vacation later in the year, and wants to use their gift on an experience in their vacation destination, they can! Here’s just a handful of examples of some of the different types of experiences they have:

Wine tasting and tour
Cooking workshop
Helicopter tour
Hot air balloon tour
Skydiving
Ziplining
Horseback riding
Sunset cruise
National/state park tour
Surf lessons
and so much more!

HOW DOES IT WORK?

So how does it work? First, you search and pick the gift box that you’d like to gift. This can be based on either price, collection or the types of experiences included in the collection.

Once added to the cart, you can then choose to either have an eVoucher emailed to the recipient, or an eco-friendly gift box mailed to them.

Tinggly eVoucher or eco-friendly gift box

When the recipient receives the gift, they can use their voucher to search all of the different experiences included in the collection. And not only can they pick their own experience, but they can pick when to do it. How cool of a gift is that?! Imagine if someone gifted you one of the above activities? Wouldn’t you cherish that more than an item? Unless of course it’s a really sentimental family heirloom of some sort. Or a diamond ring. That’s different. These experiences create memories, and stories that will last forever.

HOT AIR BALLOON RIDE

After researching and looking in to Tinggly, we decided to check it out for ourselves. So we searched their Experiences Map to see what types of experiences were available in our area. We found many of the above experiences which made it super tough to choose. But ultimately we decided on doing the hot air balloon tour over Napa Valley in California. This is part of a number of collections such as Best Balloon Rides and Ultimate Collection.

Now that we’d landed on the experience, we followed the process of ordering (we opted for the eco-friendly gift box). Upon receiving our voucher we then followed the instructions to redeem and have Tinggly book our reservation based on our timing and availability. Sadly, this was in February (2020) when the world was just realizing how serious COVID19 was. So our first reservation was cancelled due to the tour operator closing.

Foggy morning in Napa Valley, California

At this point, we began communicating with the Tinggly team who was incredibly helpful and understanding of the circumstances. Once the tour operator reopened operations, they promptly notified us and inquired if we’d like to reschedule our tour, which we did. In addition to this, they confirmed and ensured that the tour operator was following strict social distancing practices. Additionally they ensured there were procedures in place for zero human contact while in the basket of the hot air balloon. This was incredibly important to us as we did not want to risk our exposure to others, or others to us.

So on June 27th (2020), At 4:00am, we made our trek up to Napa from San Jose which is roughly a 1.5 hour drive. Upon arrival, the operator notified us that due to fog and weather, they may need to cancel the tours. We waited around for about an hour at which point they confirmed they would need to cancel and postpone the tour. Thankfully, Napa is a beautiful place, so we spent some time driving around, exploring and making the best of the trip.

Back to the drawing board. Throughout this entire process, Tinggly was incredible in working with us and the operator to find a new time for our tour. Third times the charm! On July 25th (2020), we made the drive again and the weather and morning could not have been better. We’ll let the photos speak for themselves.

A MORNING WE WILL NEVER FORGET

Even with the first two failed attempts, this balloon tour was something we will never forget. And quite honestly, it’s something we may do again in other places. The sun rising up over the hills, and the incredible views of the fog washing over the valley, were well worth the early morning drives. This whole experience (no pun intended), has been incredibly eye opening and has truly changed our outlook on gift giving.