Christmas gift vouchers for a night away or a day out

For a night away, Hotelgiftcard is the natural place to start. It starts at €10, so it works as a small contribution tucked into a Christmas card or as most of a weekend, and the person you give it to chooses the hotel, the date and the room themselves. It comes as an e-gift card by email or as a physical card, which is handy if you'd like something to put under the tree. HotelCheque works on the same idea, also from €10, and is a good second option if you're comparing hotel gift cards.

Booking a specific hotel for someone is the version that tends to go wrong. You pick a weekend they're working, or a town they were in last month, or a lovely room two hours from anyone they wanted to see. An amount gets around all three. Most people already have somewhere in mind anyway, a corner of Kerry they keep meaning to go back to or a Dublin break they've been talking about for years, and a card lets them sort it out themselves.

Irish hotel vouchers also settle the awkward family present. Four siblings, four opinions on what counts as a decent hotel for your mom and dad, and one card that ends the discussion.

Some people have the house sorted, the wardrobe sorted and a drawer full of last year's presents still in their wrapping. Experience gifts in Ireland suit them best, because nothing arrives in a box and nothing needs storing.

The BucketlistGift Gift Card from €20 is for days out and activities rather than things, which makes it a sound pick among adventure gift ideas for the person who already owns all the gear. The Global Experiences Card from €10 covers similar ground and starts lower, so it suits a smaller budget or a few of you going in together.

For experience gift ideas closer to home, a Treatwell Gift Card from €5 goes towards a treatment they book themselves. It's for the friend who's been talking about a massage since last Christmas and still hasn't got round to it.

One tip: say what you had in mind when you hand it over. An experience card with no explanation can end up in a drawer next to the good candles, and the whole point is that it gets used.

Couples who've lived together a while are often the hardest names on the list. The kitchen has more gadgets than it needs, and two more objects will only be in the way. Travel gifts get around that by giving them time together instead of things, and that's the part they'll actually remember.

The TripGift Gift Card from €30 is for the pair who keep saying they'll get away and never quite book it. The ToursGift Gift Card, also from €30, suits a trip with something planned in it, a guided walk or a day with a bit of history, rather than two days looking at the sea (not that there's anything wrong with that). The RentacarGift Gift Card from €30 is for whoever will be doing the driving, which matters more than you'd think once you leave the cities.

Most lists of the best travel gift cards start from a destination. Start from the two people instead: would they rather be on the move, or sitting still with a pot of tea and a view? The travel gift ideas that land tend to come out of that question.

A hotel gift voucher in Ireland is one of the easier presents to get right. Set the amount first, because that decides what sort of break it turns into. Then add your message on the product page and say what you had in mind, whether that's a weekend by the sea in February or a night in the city with dinner and no alarm clock. That one line turns an amount into a plan.

At checkout you choose whether the card comes to you or goes straight to them. The digital version lands in an inbox within minutes, and the physical Hotelgiftcard comes by post, so give that one a bit of time.

If you're weighing up the best hotel gift vouchers Ireland has to offer, the real question is how much freedom the card leaves the person using it. Our Christmas gift cards keep the festive ones together, and the top 10 gift cards in Ireland has more ideas if a night away isn't quite right. Either way, it beats another jumper.