“What is the best gift for a man?” must be one of the hardest questions ever asked. Scientists have been studying men’s gifts for centuries and the best they’ve come up with is, “not socks”. Which is useful, up to a point.
On Father’s Day, it helps to remember that the whole point of buying a present for a man – as with gifts for women – is to show not just that you love him but why you love him. If you appreciate the way your dad cooks, his skills in the garden, his love of music or his sense of adventure, you can show him with the right choice of present.
We’ve found 31 men’s gift ideas that should cover all those bases come Father’s Day – but if you’re in a rush, here’s a quick look at the key five:
What are the best gifts for men in 2024? At a glance
- Best Father’s Day gift under £20 – Car Scent Diffuser
- Best Father’s Day gift under £50 – Virgin Experience Days
- Best personalised Father’s Day gift – Personalised Highland Single Malt Scotch Whisky
- Best luxury Father’s Day gift – Fitbit Versa 4
- Best unique Father’s Day gift – Personalised Airpod Case
When is Father’s Day?
In 2024, it will fall on June 16. Father’s Day is always the third Sunday in June. In our guide, we’ve only chosen gifts that are available online. Where next-day delivery is available, we’ve marked it below to help you find the best last-minute gifts. The others may take a little longer to arrive, but none take longer than seven days.
How much should you spend on a Father’s Day gift?
Naturally it depends on your budget, which is why we’ve divided the gift ideas below into price bands: gifts under £50, gifts under £100 and gifts for men who have everything – some of which go up to £450, for only the most deserving fathers.
From personalised gifts to crowdpleasing comestibles, one of these should make dad feel loved, valued and proud to have such a thoughtful son or daughter. Don’t forget to remind him of that as you hand it over.
Best Father’s Day gifts under £50
1. Car scent diffuser
£15, The White Company
Best value gift for men
We like: personalisable with his own fragrance
- Next day delivery available for £7.95
Cheap but effective, this has been the most popular men’s gift on our list for two years and we see no reason to demote it now. It’s an impeccably masculine, matt aluminium stick which hooks on to the air conditioning vent and can be filled with any fragrance or essential oil.
2. Virgin experience days
From £40, Virgin
Best experience gift for men
We like: experiences are more memorable than physical gifts
- Free instant delivery by email, fast delivery within two days as gift pack (£11.99) or as gift box (£14.99)
When surveyed about the gifts they really want, men reliably rate experiences over things – and if it’s an experience you can share with him, so much the better. Virgin Experience Days’ man-centric vouchers start at around £40 for experiences like comedy nights, Michelin-starred meals, supercar driving days and flying lessons. Their main competitor, Red Letter Days, offers a very similar range.
Virgin recently added a £61 Rage Room For Two experience to their range, where you get half an hour to smash up TVs, printers and so on with a selection of weapons. This sounds like an excellent idea for father-son bonding.
3. Personalised airpod case
£37, Not Another Bill
Best unique gift for men
We like: a gift from you that will never leave his side
- Express delivery (2-3 days) available for £8.95
Not Another Bill are well worth checking out for their range of personalised man-tech stuff. You can get anything from money clips to toolboxes engraved. Our favourite is this leather airpod case, which fits both generations of Airpods Pro and the second and third generations of standard Airpods. Earbuds are a more common accessory these days than wallets and this will remind him how thoughtful you are every time he puts them on.
4. Lazy man frying pan
£30, MenKind
Best funny gift for men
We like: silly but practical (kind of)
- Free same day click and collect, next day delivery for £6.99, otherwise standard delivery in 3-5 days for £3.99
Overgrown boys are well catered-for at man-centric gift store MenKind, but this one immediately leapt out at us: a giant frying pan with compartments for different foods, saving him valuable cooking time. Experienced chefs may spot one or two drawbacks to this approach, but doubt is for wimps.
5. Taylor of Old Bond Street Sandalwood Shaving Cream Bowl 150g
£9.95, Amazon
Best shaving gift for men
We like: adds a touch of class to his morning routine
- Free next day delivery with Amazon Prime
This is a super-cheap way of upgrading his shave, but the 170 year-old barber’s classic, gentlemanly branding makes it feel much posher. You only need a tiny dab of this sandalwood-scented cream on your shaving brush to work up a rich lather, so it lasts months. It also comes in almond.
6. LEGO 2K Drive
£24.99, Nintendo
Best Nintendo switch game to buy for a man
We like: equally addictive for dads and kids
- Free instant delivery as download
Now that games can be downloaded (in fact, this one has no physical disc), they make the perfect last-minute, or even last-second gift. 2K Drive combines hair-raising driving action with the ability to create your own car from Lego blocks. Buy it for a son or a dad, but don’t expect them to tear their eyes off the screen for the rest of the day. It’s also available for Playstation, Xbox and PC.
7. Thoughtfully Gourmet Inferno hot sauce set
£15.99, Amazon
Best budget gift set for men
We like: very hot, but in an interesting way
- Free next day delivery with Amazon Prime subscription
In case you hadn’t noticed, men recently evolved from a brown sauce-based life form to a hot sauce-based one. Their taste for garlic, jalapeño and habanero is infinite, so you won’t spend a better £16 than this: four sauces of varying flavours and intensity to stimulate his curiousity and test his constitution. There’s a proper dad gift.
8. Ultimate protein hamper
£22.99, Amazon
Best protein gift for men
We like: it’s the gift that says, ‘Ooh, have you been working out?’
- Free next day delivery for Amazon Prime subscribers
For those of us of a more sedentary disposition, this will appear the least indulgent thing you could possibly give: a hamper of proteins to optimise bodybuilding. But it’s the 2020s and men are like that now. Give in to it.
9. The Lost Explorer Curious Copitas gift set
£28.99, Drinks Distilled
Best drinks gift set for men
We like: makes a refreshing change from whisky samplers
- Express delivery available in 1-2 days for £7.99
More and more men are getting into mezcal. It’s smokier and earthier than tequila and comes in many forms, from basic to complex. The Lost Explorer Espadin from Oaxaca is on the complex side, with a subtle, herby spiciness. A full bottle costs £64, but a great way for him to explore it is with this 20cl mini and two copitas - the traditional ceramic cups for laid-back mezcal-sipping.
Best Father’s Day gifts under £100
10. Dior Sauvage eau de toilette 30ml
£53.10, Boots
Best aftershave gift for men
We like: smells like Johnny Depp in the desert with a wolf
- Next day delivery available for £4.95, otherwise standard delivery in 2-7 days
The world’s top-selling aftershave reputedly makes £3.5million every single day for Dior and, even better, you can sellotape a letter S over the V for a hilarious gag that he will laugh at for hours and hours, before enjoying its notes of zingy bergamot and earthy ambergris. If you’re feeling generous, there’s a fairly gorgeous £125 gift set including a large (100ml) bottle of Sauvage eau de parfum and a refillable 10ml travel spray.
11. Marvel’s Spider-Man 2
£59.99, Game
Best PS5 game
We like: Spidey humour and incredible visuals make it the perfect Playstation gift
- Next day delivery available for £9.99, otherwise standard delivery in 2-4 working days for £4.99
Competition is tough for the best console game to buy a man. You can’t go far wrong with Call of Duty or EA’s football game (now called FC24 after the FIFA deal ended), but for our money, the best bet is Spidey 2, with stupendous ninth-generation graphics and just the right blend of baddy-whupping action and wholesome good humour.
12. Ploughman’s hamper of luxury cheese and craft beer
£65, Snowdonia Cheese Company
Best hamper gift for men
We like: a masculine alternative to chocolate
- Free standard delivery in 1-3 days
You will notice there is no chocolate on this gift guide. Dads require something stronger. The Snowdonia Cheese Company have got the message, offering four types of cheese, two types of chutney and posh pickled onions in their Father’s day hamper – alongside two bottles of excellent Welsh beer. Their hamper range goes from £45 all the way up to £500, and you can get cheese gift vouchers too. He will approve.
13. Sunspel boxer shorts
£75, Sunspel
Best underwear gift for men
We like: lighter and comfier than any pants he’s worn before
- Delivery in 1-3 working days for £5
These are no ordinary pants. These classy boxers are made from luxuriously light and soft Liberty fabric by the British company famously associated with a cinematic super-spy. Sunspel offer 11 different prints in this fabric – and if he doesn’t need boxers, there are swimming trunks and all sorts of accessories. Everything he needs to give Daniel Craig a run for his money.
14. Personalised Highland single malt scotch whisky (48%ABV)
From £59.95, The Whisky Exchange
Best gift for older men
We like: a properly grown-up man gift
- Express delivery (2-3 days) available for £6.95 or free click-and-collect same day in four London outlets
The older a man is, the more likely he’ll be into fine whisky (as any pub near The Telegraph will tell you). There are six personalisable single malts at The Whisky Exchange, ranging from this Highland Special Reserve to a 30 year-old single grain Lowland (£200), of which only 200 bottles are being made. Choose the label, have it engraved with his name, and he’ll have a whisky he can show off, as well as savour.
15. Dining for two experience
£59.99, BuyAGift
Best gift for a man to share
We like: gives him the chance to treat someone else (ie you)
- Instant delivery via e-voucher, next day postal delivery available for £8.50
Men love to be given experiences, as mentioned above, and a special meal is right up there with Ferrari-driving (well, nearly). This BuyAGift voucher offers a choice of 725 dinners, lunches and afternoon teas for two around the country. Step up a level to the Award-Winning Dining Experience Box (£150) and he gets to choose restaurants with Michelin stars, two AA rosettes or other prestigious culinary awards.
16. Champagne Duo gift set
£80, Harvey Nichols
Best Champagne gift
We like: classy packaging looks more masculine than most gift sets
- Next-day delivery available for £8
And talking of gifts to share, what’s better than a bottle of champagne? Two bottles of champagne, obviously. Harvey Nichols’ extremely classy gift box includes a 70cl bottle rosé with floral, raspberry and strawberry notes and 70cl of classic brut with orchard fruit and brioche flavours.
17. Telegraph custom book
From £60, Telegraph Books
Best personalised gift for men
We like: comes from a reputable source (us)
- Lead time to delivery 5 days unless stated otherwise
Forgive us for tooting our own trumpet, but we do a fine line in customised books. They combine original Telegraph articles to tell the story of his life and times (with the front page from every birthday) or the story of his favourite football team in news and match reports dating back to the 1850s. Each book is bound in leatherette and embossed with the recipient’s name.
18. Ancestry DNA activation kit
£79, Ancestry DNA
Best family history gift for men
We like: impossible not to be fascinated by this new science
- Standard delivery in 7-10 working days for £9.99, or expedited in 1-3 days for £19.99
The modern version of tracing your family tree is tracing your DNA. Ancestry DNA’s activation kits contain a saliva swab which you send off and, six weeks later, receive a breakdown of your genetic heritage. You may be 46 percent Ghanaian, 23 percent Irish and 21 percent English with a hint of French and German. The app can even help you trace your forebears’ movements around the world. That’s a bit more meaningful than novelty socks, isn’t it?
19. Higonokami folding knife
£75, TOG Knives
Best knife gift for men
We like: high-end Japanese version of the classic man gift
- Next day delivery available, weight-dependent cost calculated on checkout
In previous generations, the classic gift to a boy was a folding pocket knife. (Many of us still have our dads’ knives, bought in the days of Davy Crockett-mania and lovingly handed down.) The luxe modern version is this 7cm steel ‘higonokami’, made with three layers of steel and a central core of VG10 – the high quality steel used in TOG’s ultra-high end chef’s knives. They actually start at £35, but this is our pick.
20. Gourmet Kiru knife set and leather knife case
£79, ProCook
Best knife set for men
We like: very reasonable price for this much slicing pleasure
- Next day delivery available for £4.95 on orders placed before 7pm
Look, we’re not obsessed with knives, OK? At least, no more than the average man, and that’s the point: they’re the only completely failsafe dad gift. There’s not a man on earth who wouldn’t want a roll-up leather case containing a paring knife, a utility knife, a nakiri, a chef’s knife, a breadknife and a carving knife, all made of X30 stainless steel with a 10-year guarantee. He will finally feel understood.
21. Decanter, aerator and cleaning balls set
£75, John Lewis
Best gift for men who love wine
We like: elevates his tippling to a high art
- Next or named day delivery available for £7.50
And since we’re in the kitchen, how about a decanter so he can show he’s a proper wine connoisseur? Riedel are the big name, but with prices to match, and for our money this set from Le Creuset has everything he’ll need, including an aerating fountain which goes in the neck as you pour the wine in and (not pictured here, but very useful) a set of cleaning balls to restore it to crystal cleanliness.
22. Apple Homepod Mini
£99, John Lewis
Best technology gift for men
We like: surprisingly large sound for its size
- 2-hour delivery available in some postcodes for £8, otherwise free next day delivery
The one thing all men want is a decent speaker. If he’s an Apple Music user, you can’t get better than Apple’s homepods: they sync seamlessly with iPhones, respond to Siri voice commands and can go toe-to-toe with high-end speakers on sound quality. The full-sized Homepod is probably a bit expensive for a gift, but this Mini version is just right.
23. Stone Heritage Check Suit Jacket
£93.60, Jacamo
Best suit gift for men
We like: huge range of sizes and easy returns
- Next day delivery for £5.99 or free click and collect at Evri ParcelShop
Man-friendly online retailers Jacamo have been around for a while but they come into their own in the spring when we suit up for race meets, weddings and other dress-up events. Prices are reasonable – this classic suit jacket is £94, the trousers are £45 – but the best thing is how flexible they are on sizing. That’s crucial when you’re buying for someone else. They go from S to 5XL, with shoes available in wide and extra-wide too. Returns are free in 28 days.
24. Wacaco Nanopresso
£70, Fenwick
Best gift for men who love coffee
We like: looks like a hand grenade, serves top-notch espresso
- Click-and-collect same day in store, otherwise free standard delivery in 3-5 working days
If he’s the type of man who never tires of talking about how to make the perfect cup of coffee this could be the perfect pocket-sized gift. You just put a measure of hot water in one end, a scoop of ground coffee in the other, press the button a few times and out comes a single serving of barista-quality espresso. Perfect for camping, or (more likely) showing off at his work desk.
Best gifts for fathers who have everything
25. Heritage sterling billfold wallet
£220, Ettinger
Best wallet gift for men
We like: smells like classic British craftsmanship
- Delivery in 1-7 days for £6
There’s no point going cheap if you’re giving him a wallet: it needs to last years and get better with age, so you’ll be wanting real leather from a classic British company like Ettinger (established 1934). There’s a huge range and you can personalise any of them for an extra tenner. Very classy.
26. A year in cheese
From £132, cheesegeek
Best subscription gift for men
We like: makes him feel like a cheeseboard connoisseur
- Free delivery in 1-2 days
Beer subscriptions are yesterday’s man-gift. The new thing is cheese subscriptions. Buy him this and he’ll get a box of five 120g seasonal, artisanal cheeses every one, two, three or four months (you can choose the frequency), along with tasting notes and pairing tips. By the end of the year he’ll be able to talk for hours on end about cheese and you will listen, enraptured, because you love him.
27. Philips PerfectDraft machine
£189, PerfectDraft, also available at Amazon
Best beer gift for men
We like: turns the kitchen into a pub for the day
- Free delivery in 2-5 working days
This would be the perfect gift for most dads we know: a beerpump that chills his beer of choice to 3C and serves it at just the right pressure for a superior, pub-style pint. The range of beers is huge, including some rare German and Belgian brews, and each keg makes about six pints. You basically can’t go wrong.
28. A2D2 Stream
£149, A2D2
Best gift for music lovers
We like: allows him to enjoy his records all round the house
- Free delivery
Does he have a much-loved but rarely listened-to collection of vinyl and old mix tapes? He’s a man, so yes. Trouble is, those are analogue formats and we live in a Wi-Fi world. The tiny, matchbox-sized A2D2 Stream bridges the gap, plugging in to the audio output of any analogue device and streaming to any smart speaker, including Sonos, Chromecast, AirPlay and Alexa as well as computers, phones and smart TVs. Is it sexist to say this is the most dad gift ever? Maybe. But we’ve got one on order already.
29. Marshall Monitor II active noise cancelling headphones
£235 at John Lewis
Best headphones gift for men
We like: superb sound and guitar god cachet
- Free delivery from Marshall in 4-5 days. Next day delivery available for £7.50 at John Lewis, otherwise free standard delivery in 2-7 days
If he’s asked for headphones, he means the best headphones you can afford and they can easily hit four figures. Ouch. Anything over £200 is very good, though, and Marshall’s noise-cancelling Monitor II makes a superior gift, thanks to the brand’s impeccable rock’n’roll heritage. If it’s good enough for Jimmy Page…
30. Fitbit Versa 4
£179, Very
Best gift for men who keep fit
We like: it’s ten gadgets in one
- Next or named day delivery available for £7.50
According to research, one of the most-wanted gifts of 2024 is the latest fitness tracker from Fitbit. It’s not cheap – but it does combine the functions of a very nice watch with heart rate and sleep trackers, built-in GPS, on-screen fitness coaching and voice assistants which allow you to check the weather, set reminders or get on-screen answers to spoken questions. We rate it one of the top three best fitness trackers available.
31. Clase Azul Gold 70cl (ABV 40%)
£450, Selfridges
Best premium alcohol gift
We like: tastes absolutely heavenly (yes, really)
- Next day delivery available for £8.95 if ordered by 9pm, or click and collect free
You may be thinking that no tequila could possibly be worth £450 a bottle, but the shocking truth is that Clase Azul really is. It’s a totally different beast, made from 100 percent blue agave grown at the highest point in Jalisco and matured in French oak casks, whisky casks and sherry casks for a fruity, nutty, soft and subtly smoky flavour. The range actually goes up to £2,500, so this is a relative bargain. For heaven’s sake, no slammers.
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