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 Wrap Up Their Wildest Dreams
One Atlanta-Based Company Turns a Ho-Hum Holiday Gift Card Into a One-of-a-Kind Experience
By Lissa Poirot
It’s the age-old question: What do you get for the man or woman who has everything? Skip the boring sweater and tie. Pass on those gift certificates to their favorite restaurant or a day on the links. Ignore the techies at the gadget shop touting the latest and greatest gizmos. Instead, give your special someone a total experience they will remember for a lifetime.
From Ho Hum to Yahoo
Giving an “experience” is how Colin Reid, managing director of Great American Days, describes his company’s unique gifts. While the concept is simple (pick an experience, buy a gift certificate, and personalize it with a message), both the gifts provided and the company’s take-charge handling of all details goes above and beyond your typical gift certificate.
Imagine the ultimate gifts: a polar bear encounter, where recipients visit the Arctic Tundra in Canada, observing and photographing polar bears from the comfort of a warm wilderness lodge as the lights of the Aurora Borealis dance overhead; hopping in the seat of a MiG-25 to fly over Moscow at an altitude of 80,000 feet, breaking the speed of sound; or experiencing weightlessness in a parabolic flight that replicates NASA’s own zero-gravity astronaut training.
Great American Days provides adventures for all price ranges and all ages. Families can enjoy a whitewater rafting trip following former Olympic courses along U.S. rivers; mom can enjoy a fully catered dinner party with her best girlfriends; dad can experience his own “Talladega Nights” in the driver’s seat of a NASCAR Winston Cup stockcar; your favorite cowboy-wannabe can saddle up and learn to rodeo; and couples can drift away in a breathtaking balloon ride over majestic scenery. There is nothing the gift giver nor the gift receiver needs to do but decide on a package. Great American Days does the rest.
 The Gift of Fond Memories
“It all began very simply with needing a birthday present for my brother-in-law Todd Belveal,” Reid said. “He lives in Buckhead, is in his mid-30s and is very successful. I didn’t know what to buy for the man who has it all. I thought it would be great if I could give him an experience off of his top 10 list of things he wanted to do before he dies. He always loved NASCAR, and I decided I’d buy him a chance to race around the track at Atlanta Motor Speedway.”
“It took three days of solid work to organize it,” he continued. “But he loved it and even went back with 11 friends. That’s where the concept began that we would organize these experiences and provide a single point of contact.”
From that moment, Reid and his wife Shannon Belveal created their Atlanta-based company that focuses on selling unusual, highly aspirational and memorable gift experiences, and providing innovative day trips and adventures in the 48 contiguous states. The company also has divisions in Australia, Canada and New Zealand, operating as Total Experience. And it’s Great American Day’s single point of contact and customer service that help turn dreams into realities. For it’s not every day that one performs aerobatic maneuvers in the sky from the seat of a Pitt S-2C biplane or receives covert and special ops training with Navy SEALs. Great American Days prepares all the details and provides recipients with information packs that detail every aspect of the trip, including how to get there and how to book it based on their own schedule.
 The Perfect Fit
With 7,500 experiences available across the country, Great American Days is certain to have something for everyone. “We’re very proud,” Reid said. “Whether it’s a 22-year-old looking for an adrenaline rush or an older person looking to celebrate a 50th anniversary, we have experiences for everyone.”
“For me, I’ve always wanted to get into a cage in the water with Great White sharks, and you can only do that a few places in the world. To be in a cage where 30-foot-long sharks are swimming and rattling my cage is my No. 1 fantasy,” said Bryan Vargo of Mableton. “My wife’s grandfather lived his dream experience of seeing polar bears in the Hudson Bay area. This is a man who was a farmer that raised 13 children and had lived a long life. His wife had passed away and he decided to take his dream trip. He rode around in all-terrain snow vehicles and watched polar bears in their natural environment. It’s great to have a way to fulfill your wildest dreams.”
The concept of preparing excursions even goes beyond exciting gifts, and the company can help plan a family trip to Disney World or anywhere in the world so you don’t have to. Businesses are turning to Great American Days for team-building trips and sales incentives. Brides and grooms can enjoy one last hurrah before the wedding day with bachelorette and bachelor party getaways. From children 6 to 96, gift certificates start as low as $20 and can climb as high as $40,000. All activities organized by the company are fully insured and meet the highest of safety regulations. In fact, Great American Days prides itself on never having an accident or injury on any of its excursions.
“Whether it’s a 22-year-old looking for an adrenaline rush or an older person looking to celebrate a 50th anniversary, we have experiences for everyone.”
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While experience gift certificates can be bought non-specified or with an experience designated, all certificates are transferable, so recipients will never complain. That said, Atlantans prefer the NASCAR experience, according to Reid. “For men, no question NASCAR is the most popular gift, but a third of the participants are female. Women are also huge fans of NASCAR.” The price of this hair-raising gift certificate depends on the racetrack and number of laps. For example, three laps around Atlanta Motor Speedway start at $125.
Even Reid’s brother-in-law is still reeling about his own experience. “It was the most fun I’ve had in my life,” Belveal said. “I turned laps at 176 miles per hour. I got to ride as a passenger before I got to train and drive. The world just moves as an optical illusion at those speeds. It was incredibly exhilarating.”
Belveal has since become a repeat customer, returning for the NASCAR experience twice at Talladega Superspeedway with plans to take his father-in-law to Pocono Raceway. “It’s an expensive day, but it’s a great investment and it’s worth it,” he said, adding that he has also presented less expensive gift packages to his friends. “I’ve given my friends food and wine gifts, like a personal chef for a week or a day. It’s packaged really well in a box, so it’s not like giving a gift certificate in an envelope but something more tangible.”
As the inspiration behind Great American Days, Belveal is the company’s biggest fan. “My NASCAR experience is something I won’t ever forget. I recommend it to all my friends,” he said, agreeing the experiences provide memories that last a lifetime. Can you say that about that sweater you were thinking of giving to your mother?
For More Information
Great American Days
866-987-9876
www.greatamericandays.com
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