Sometimes the best gift is not another item to keep track of but an experience where you can lose yourself entirely and find serenity, healing or replenishment.

Fortunately, L.A. is filled with unexpected places that provide an escape from the supersonic speed of our daily lives, and many of them offer gift cards. From a secret tea house in the Arts District to a festive sound bath in the Santa Monica Mountains, we’ve scoured the city for some of the best pockets of unexpected calm. Think your pals and loved ones will be into hiking with pygmy goats? Meditating with bees? Ready to try an ice bath? We’ve got you covered with self-care experiences for under $100.

If you make a purchase using some of our links, the L.A. Times may be compensated.

Escape to a dreamy oasis and drink tea

For anyone who’s obsessed with drinking herbal tea or hanging out in a TikTok-approved oasis for hours, Tea at Shiloh is the perfect gift. The tea house, which stays open until 11 some nights, hosts an array of connection-driven gatherings, including jazz evenings, breathwork sessions, flamenco performances and workshops. Tea at Shiloh also offers daylight hours — imagine a quiet co-working space — on select days. Reservations are required to experience this tranquil space, so treat your loved one to a gift card. A reservation for one is $44 and $88 for two. Or if they don’t live locally, consider purchasing them Tea at Shiloh’s limited-edition herbal book, “Roots, Leaves, Flowers.” — Kailyn Brown

$44 at Tea at Shiloh

(Zay Monae / For The Times)

Experience the healing powers of plants at Meet Me in the Dirt

When you don’t have the funds or time to get a massage at your favorite spa or stay at a luxurious hotel, you can find respite at a surprising place: the South Bay Galleria. Inside a 2,400-square-foot space at the mall is Meet Me in the Dirt, a whimsical plant shop that hosts events meant to generate the positive effects that being exposed to greenery and playing in soil can have on your mental health. We suggest gifting the soil meditation experience, which costs $75 and is hosted by shop owner Barbara Lawson, who is also a certified grief counselor. Or if your giftee might prefer alone time, book them space to in one of the five Zen-inspired rooms, which have names that represent what people may need in their life at that time (e.g., valued and loved). Room rentals are available for people ages 21 and up and cost $50 to $85 per hour. — K.B.

$75 at Meet Me in the Dirt

De-stress in an ice bath or sweat it out in a sauna at Remedy Place

Although many social clubs require you to be a member or a member‘s guest to experience their amenities, Remedy Place doesn’t have such restrictions. Created by Jonathan Leary, this Sunset Strip spot claims to be the world’s first social wellness club. Visitors can participate in everything from ice bath classes to infrared sauna sessions at a la carte rates. It’s the perfect way to try a service such as cryotherapy ($50) or lymphatic compression ($100 for 30 minutes) without having to commit to a pricey membership. We recommend buying a gift certificate; you can either pick the dollar amount or book a specific service for your gift recipient. Once they’ve completed their service, they can take a steamy shower, then hang out in Remedy Place’s gorgeous lobby, where there’s an alcohol-free bar that sells tonics, herbal energy drinks and more. — K.B.

Prices vary at Remedy Place

Channel the inner child on a goat excursion

Who needs a therapist when there are goats? Michelle Tritten of Hello Critter hosts rejuvenating goat events around the Los Angeles area. That includes goat yoga as well as goat hikes, goat walks and goat sound bath meditations. Her Nigerian dwarf goats are playful, loving creatures — part dog, as they’re smart, friendly and loyal; part cat, given their independent quirky personalities; and part horse, with an appetite for outdoor adventures. Treat your most harried friends or family members to a goat yoga class, held at cultural institutions around the L.A. area such as Pasadena’s Gamble House and the Los Angeles County Arboretum and Botanic Garden. Or splurge on an all-day excursion — Tritten leads private groups on goat hikes to a remote waterfall. Why goats? Because their “playful antics and gentle manner,” Tritten says, “open hearts, widen smiles and deepen stretches throughout each [yoga] practice.” — Deborah Vankin

Gift cards start at $50 at Hello Critter

(Dania Maxwell / Los Angeles Times)

Totally unwind at a head spa

A Chinese scalp treatment at the San Gabriel head spa Cai Xiang Ge might be the most relaxing spa service in L.A. Some on social media even claim it will “change your life.” The 60-minute service includes a detailed scalp analysis — shedding light not just on the health of your noggin but also your overall health, according to practitioners — followed by a slow, indulgent head and neck massage and repeated hair washings. All the while you’re wearing a heated eye mask and your feet are soaking in a warm bath infused with Chinese herbs. Dermatologists say that scalp treatments promote circulation and detoxify, as well as calm and hydrate skin, all of which can help prevent dandruff, itchiness, dryness and inflammation. But the real benefit is the deep relaxation and sense of being cared for that comes from someone expertly massaging your head in warm water for an hour. With gifts, it may be the thought that counts; but with a head-massage, it’s the experience that matters. The service ends in the salon, with an “anti-hair loss” treatment and blow-dry as you sip tea and eat sweets. Pure heaven. — Deborah Vankin

$95 for 60 minutes at Cai Xiang Ge

(Jason Armond / Los Angeles Times)

Seek guidance from the stars with a down-to-earth astrologer

Warm and infinitely relatable, Richard Contreras offers down-to-earth (and affordable) astrology and tarot readings that might change your giftee’s life or at least help them gain some much-needed perspective — assuming they’re open to that kind of thing. The messages Contreras divines may not always be reassuring — “I’m not going to lie. It’s going to be a bumpy road ahead,” he told me in a recent reading — but he also reminded me that challenge is necessary for growth. Contreras, who used to have a storefront in Pasadena, mostly sees clients on Zoom these days. He’s also efficient: I met with him for less than an hour, and the reading continues to reverberate weeks later. — Deborah Netburn

$60 for 30 minutes, $90 for 45 minutes. Contact him through Instagram: instagram.com/ozomapilli.

Meditate in an apiary at Teas With Bees

Spiritual beekeeper Marvin Jordana’s latest offering is Teas With Bees, a two-hour experience that invites participants to find calm in the presence of hundreds of thousands of bees. (Yes, it’s possible.) You’ll begin with a handcrafted herbal tea and a brief discussion about the divine energy of the hive. After a meditation, you’ll move slowly and mindfully into the apiary (Jordana provides bee suits and veils), where you’re invited to feed bees honey, observe a hive with a magnifying glass or simply zone out to the buzzing vibrations around you. “Ask yourself, ‘Can I slow down?’ And then ask yourself, ‘Can I slow down even more?’” Jordana said before leading my group out to meet the bees. “It’s a safety thing, and also a meditative thing.”
— D.N.

$44 at Teas With Bees

Bliss out with a magical sound bath in Malibu

Ana Netanel’s Shakti Sound Bath might be the most magical in all of L.A. It takes place most Sundays (weather permitting) on a grassy clearing high in the Santa Monica Mountains beneath a massive sculpture of a seated figure with a heart cut out of its torso. Led by Netanel and the members of her High Vibe Tribe, it’s a 90-minute alfresco experience that includes harp, flute, gongs, chimes, rain sticks, crystal bowls and other relaxing sound makers. I think of it as somewhere between a new age revival and a concert — joyful, rejuvenating, relaxing and festive all at once. It doesn’t matter if your loved ones are new to sound baths or if they attend them all the time — they will be dazzled. — D.N.

$45; $111 for VIP tickets at Shakti Sound Bath

Prices and availability of experiences in the Gift Guide and on latimes.com are subject to change.

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They finish each other sentences, in conversation and in music.

Brothers Lucas and Arthur Jussen have played music together as far back as they can remember. They performed for the Dutch queen as young boys. As a piano duo, they’ve taken that symbiotic connection to some of the world’s greatest concert halls.

“The strange thing is that with Arthur, I never notice when our hands touch or our heads or whatever, it’s just a very natural thing,” Lucas told NPR’s A Martínez. “I could never imagine doing that with someone else or or not doing that with Arthur.”

This month, they are releasing recordings of a set of what they call “tiny diamonds” — short waltzes and lullabies influenced by, and in some cases rejecting, French Impressionism from the late 19th century and early 20th century. There’s Debussy’s “En bateau” (“By Boat”) from his Petite Suite, alongside lesser known works by Benjamin Godard, Reynaldo Hahn, Charles Koechlin and Germaine Tailleferre.

It’s the first volume in a trilogy of releases. The second EP, Cantus, is due out in May and will feature works by Bach, Brahms and Estonia’s Arvo Pärt (b. 1935). A final release in November 2025 will include both of Edvard Grieg’s suites of incidental music narrating the story of Norwegian peasant anti-hero Peer Gynt.

The set begins with “Les décrets indolents du hasard” (“Indolent Decrees of Chance”), the first in a series of waltzes by Venezuelan-born Hahn known as Le ruban dénoué (The Unspooled Ribbon).

Binary and ternary meters alternate between the two pianists to evoke the indolence of the title, with an echo-like effect.

Hahn, the one-time lover of French novelist Marcel Proust, primarily composed lyrical music. Even for his piano works, “you have to play them also as if you are singing,” said Lucas, 31. That’s a major challenge at the piano, which, unlike the voice or string instruments, can’t sustain a note at length, let alone indefinitely.

Dutch brothers Lucas, left, and Arthur, right, Jussen have performed together as a piano duet since they were young children.

Jesaja Hizkia/Universal Music

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Jesaja Hizkia/Universal Music

The constant switching of leads that takes place here is central to the Dutch brothers’ broader approach to the piano duo repertoire, which they have sought to expand by shedding light on lesser known pieces such as these or by commissioning new works by contemporary composers, including concertos by Joey Roukens and Fazil Say.

“I am lucky as the younger brother that I never had an older brother who really wanted to be the older brother and wanted to be the boss in music as well as in normal life,” said Arthur, 28. “When you play together, I think the most important thing is that there is no ego that wants to be the biggest ego.”

Arthur says he tries to adapt to Lucas “almost each millisecond.” When they both achieve that level of synchronicity at the keyboard, “you can can reach a state of playing where you both almost start feeling the same and the blood starts flowing the same way,” he added.

Lucas (left) and Arthur Jussen bow with conductor Christoph Eschenbach after performing Mozart’s Concerto for Two Pianos with the Chicago Symphony Orchestra in October 2024.

Todd Rosenberg/Photo provided courtesy of the Chicago Symphony Orchestra Association

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Todd Rosenberg/Photo provided courtesy of the Chicago Symphony Orchestra Association

Tailleferre was the only woman in Les Six, the avant-garde group of composers formed more than a century ago in Paris. Their musical aesthetic generally rejected German romanticism and the lush style of Impressionists like Debussy.

Tailleferre’s “Valse lente” (“Slow Waltz”) has moments of subtle but confounding dissonance, “which makes you feel all the time, ‘Where is it going?’” said Lucas. “And then in the end, it resolves into this kind of beautiful, dreamy atmosphere.”

The Jussens praised the increased presence of women composers and conductors in classical music programming, a transition and reckoning that has been slow in coming.

“We would be very happy and we would feel we succeeded if people after listening to the album will say, ‘OK, that piece right there, that’s my favorite piece, just because I love the music so much,’ and that they will not say ‘I love it so much’ because she is the only woman on the record,” said Lucas.

Koechlin, who taught Tailleferre and Poulenc from Les Six, was a polymath whose interests ran the gamut from astronomy, car racing and cinema to mountaineering and mythology. Arthur expressed admiration for Koechlin’s many talents. “We can only play piano — for the rest, we’re absolutely useless,” he quipped.

Their career is one that comes with constant stress and pressure to perform, but the brothers say they remind themselves of what inspired them to play in the first place. “We try to always remember now 20 years after we started that we like it so much because if you forget that and it’s just about playing the concerts well and performing each day, then sometimes you lose the sparkle of what music can do and the magic that it has,” Arthur said.

The digital version of this story was produced by Janaya Williams. The digital version was edited by Obed Manuel.