Stuck for a present? Give them a London experience

Theatre Tokens are the safest experience present in London, because they never expire and the recipient picks the show. The same logic runs through the rest of this list. A spa voucher can wait for a grey February and a restaurant gift card lets them choose the night, so aim for things they can book on their own terms.

Theatre, concerts and a thermal bath

Theatre Tokens are run by the Society of London Theatre and taken at more than 300 theatres across the UK, every West End house included. Because they never expire, the recipient can hold out for the show they actually want rather than whatever happened to be on in December. For a sense of scale, the cheapest seats for the big musicals this September ran from about £25 to just over £40 on Theatre Tickets Direct (The Book of Mormon at the low end, Wicked in between, The Lion King at the top), and a good stalls seat on a Saturday night costs several times that, so err on the generous side.

For someone who prefers chamber music, Wigmore Hall in Marylebone is within about a kilometre of a good number of central serviced apartments.

AIRE Ancient Baths is in a converted building on Robert Street, between the Strand and the river. You work round a candlelit circuit of baths at different temperatures, and most people add a massage. It opens from 8am most days and stays open until 11pm on Fridays and weekends, so a late session after dinner is doable. Vouchers come boxed or as a digital version you can send on the day, but the actual session needs booking well ahead for weekends in January and February, when half of London seems to have been given the same present.

If it's for someone visiting rather than living here, put the session on the first full day of their stay. After a long flight, an evening in warm water is the best jet lag cure we know of.

Dinner at Core by Clare Smyth

Clare Smyth's restaurant on Kensington Park Road in Notting Hill holds three Michelin stars. The cooking is British and precise, and the dining room is relaxed rather than hushed. Give a monetary voucher rather than a set date, since tables go several weeks out. From Kensington or Bayswater it's a nice walk through Kensington Gardens to get there, and a taxi home.

Climbs, games and classes

Up at The O2 is a guided climb over the dome on a raised fabric walkway, harnessed in, with views over Canary Wharf and the river from the top. There are daytime, sunset and twilight climbs, and it's honestly more brisk walk than climb, so most reasonably fit adults manage it fine. The O2 is in North Greenwich, a few stops east on the Jubilee line, which puts it about twenty minutes from Bond Street, Green Park or Westminster.

Climbs go ahead in most weather but stop for gales, lightning, heavy snow or ice and get rebooked, which is another reason to give a voucher rather than a fixed slot. Climbers have to be at least eight and 1.2m tall. Bring gloves in winter.

The Crystal Maze LIVE Experience recreates the TV show, with themed zones, timed games and the Crystal Dome to finish. Teams are up to eight, a game runs about an hour and a quarter, and players must be 13 or over. It's properly physical, so wear flat shoes. Being two minutes from Piccadilly Circus, it's easy to pair with dinner in Soho, and for an office party or a family with teenagers it beats another round of drinks.

If you can't decide, Obby lists hundreds of workshops across London (pottery, bread, sushi, silversmithing, flower arranging), and its gift cards let the recipient pick the class, which saves you booking a cookery course for someone who's always secretly wanted to throw pots.

London weather by month

July is the warmest month, averaging 23°C by day. July has the fewest wet days (9) and October the most rain (80 mm). For sightseeing on foot, June scores best on our combined warmth-and-dryness measure.

Month	Avg high	Avg low	Rain	Wet days	Chance a 7-day stay sees a washout	Record high / low
January	8°C	2°C	74 mm	13	53%	16°C / -12°C
February	8°C	2°C	51 mm	10	43%	18°C / -8°C
March	11°C	4°C	45 mm	9	44%	23°C / -7°C
April	14°C	5°C	54 mm	10	44%	26°C / -3°C
May	17°C	8°C	54 mm	9	39%	30°C / -1°C
June	20°C	11°C	58 mm	9	35%	34°C / 2°C
July	23°C	13°C	52 mm	9	34%	34°C / 4°C
August	22°C	13°C	68 mm	9	37%	37°C / 4°C
September	19°C	11°C	62 mm	9	39%	29°C / 2°C
October	15°C	8°C	80 mm	11	47%	27°C / -2°C
November	11°C	5°C	76 mm	12	52%	18°C / -6°C
December	8°C	2°C	69 mm	12	50%	16°C / -8°C

Calculated NOAA GHCN-Daily observations at the Hampstead weather station, north London (records 1960–2015; averages from about 25 years per month). A wet day has 1 mm of rain or more.