One of the best gifts I got my husband was a flying lesson for his 35th birthday. He was THRILLED.
If your girlfriend likes to cook (Williams Sonoma tipped me off), perhaps one of your high-end local restaurants offers a "cook with the chef" night.

I often reminisce about when I owned a couple of horses. I really do miss the experience, but not the expense! Anyway, last summer when BF and I went to Gettysburg, we noticed there are a couple of riding stables that give horseback ride tours of the battlefields. BF doesn't ride, but he practically insisted that I take the tour, on horseback, and he would walk. I LOVED every minute of it. And so did he! He got some amazing pictures!

Ahem, so LW, maybe she might enjoy something of that nature?

The best present my husband ever gave me for my birthday was two season passes for the Renaissance Festival. (We cheerfully acknowledge that we're dweebs.) It was when we were still dating, and my birthday is MONTHS before the fest actually starts. So to me, it showed that he was thinking ahead, that he was thinking of what I actually liked, and that his idea of a great present was effectively promising to spend a lot of time with me doing something we loved months in advance.

Best gift my hubby ever, in his entire life, got was when I took him skydiving the first birthday of his that we were together.

Take her to do something she's never done before, that's adventurous.

This advice is perfect. I have nothing to add.

I bought a copy of "The Rules", and it was every bit as trashy as I expected. One part made good sense, about gift buying: Special occasion gifts shall be frivolous and romantic, not sporty and functional. For non-special occasions, sporty and functional is okay.

I second the above statements that the best gifts aren't things but experiences. Think of something you think he's really like to do and take him to do it.

This is true for children as well, BTW.

Things can be excellent gifts if you really know the person. My husband and I are having a house built, and we need to decorate it. We're turning the basement into a gaming room. We usually play tabletop RPGs. We were cruising consignment shops and he noted that he really liked this gigantic wooden sword, and that it would like great in the gaming room (+2 to geekery!). So I bought it for him for his birthday. He loves it. He put it up in the dining room.

He also loves that I didn't even blink when he put it up in the dining room.

My husband and I are avid sailors. This year for my birthday, we're driving to San Francisco for the day to watch some of the America's Cup trials. Cost - gas to get there and a lunch that we would have bought anyway. I'm so excited!!

OK, well, we know she likes camping (REI) and fancy food (Williams Sonoma). Take her camping and bring a fancy picnic.

This year my husband bought me tickets to see one of my favorite comedians. The show was about 5 weeks after my birthday, so we got to joke about my birthday "month", and then we had such a good time that we've been talking about it ever since. So I vote for an experience, too, over a "thing".

Perfect suggestion! Auntie B prefers giving random experiences to the kids instead of gifts that are attached to birthdays and holidays.

Their first multi-course Cantonese meal, from soup course to ice cream is a tradition at whatever age they attain table manners. The Exotic Feline Rescue Center and Wolfpark trips. Concerts, festivals, the Ballet. Mushroom hunting, visits to farms with baby animals or horses, a row of their own in my garden. Some like to help cook, some like to ride the tractor, all want to learn to shoot the guns (which means learning gun safety *first*.) I have an annual creek-side cookout where they can wade and run a little wild and is probably the favorite thing.

I've received some fine experiences -a hot air balloon ride. An introduction to a favored singer-songwriter. A quiet hour with a young lioness. An open stage birthday where every single performer got up and asked for my request. Moments are the best gifts. Amy hit this one out of the park.