Travel-Based Holiday Presents

The holidays are coming up, meaning there’s a good chance you’re looking for the perfect gift for someone or to add to your own wish list. Why not make it travel-themed?

Gift an Experience

First and foremost, we recommend this as a gift idea. Most of us have too much stuff and for those of us who love travel, we tend to prefer trips/experiences anyway. Stuff accumulates on shelves and honestly most of us can make do with what we have. It’s better for the planet, less wasteful, and more creative to opt for an experience. You can easily gift an experience to a loved one – we know from personal experience. We tend to do a package bundle — a gift card for a bar, restaurant, and activity on their trip. It’s proven immensely popular and has lead us to discover some really great new spots to eat and drink.

• Restaurant gift card
  • We love giving this as a gift. Figure out a city that your loved one will be visiting and start looking up best restaurants (or look at our trip guides). Most restaurants offer gift cards and you can email or call them to arrange.
• Bar/winery/brewery gift card
  • Slightly less expensive than a restaurant, bars or wine bars in town often offer a situation similar to restaurants. You can also look up wineries or breweries where the traveler is headed and most of those offer gift cards as well.
• Hotel voucher
  • If you know the traveler hasn’t booked a hotel yet, this can be a great gift! Just contact the hotel for a voucher which leaves the dates flexible.
• Museum tickets
  • It’s often possible to buy tickets ahead online which can be great if you know the traveler’s itinerary. You can also often print out the museum’s webpage and wrap it up, letting the traveler pick a date to have you book which is most convenient for them.
• Theatre tickets
  • Heading to NYC, London, or Vienna, a concert, opera, or play ticket is a fantastic splurge for the traveler which gives the additional benefit of a chance to experience local culture and art. You can usually book a gift card without needing to know the exact date.
• Cooking class
  • These are so much fun in other countries! Guide books often offer great suggestions or look up major cooking institutes in the country you’re visiting and see if you can snag a class.
• Walking tour
  • Depending on how you do this, it can be a very reasonable gift. Get the traveler a 1/2 day walking tour of a city you know they’re visiting or a voucher for a group tour.
• Adventure activity
  • Whitewater rafting in Oregon? Zip lining in Costa Rica? Sailing in Greece? Horseback riding in Iceland? This is often a wonderful present as it’s a splurge for the traveler and not necessarily something they’re budgeting into their original trip. An extra fun activity can really make a trip memorable. Check out Tinggly which makes it super easy to give experiences and getaways all over the world. You can search by city/area and give a “giftbox” which gives the recipient a bunch of different experience options to choose from.
• Plane tickets
  • This works especially well if you’re planning a trip with someone and know your exact dates. You can also buy a gift certificate for all major airlines.
• Language lessons
  • What better idea than to gift the language of a country you know the recipient is visiting soon or wants to visit? You can purchase rosetta stone, a gift certificate on babble, or even classes with a native speaker online. There are many options for tutors online. Business Insider reviewed Italki with positive reviews, however other there are many other options out there.
• Travel themed night
  • In the time of Covid (still…2 years later) we understand travel can be difficult. Think about arranging a night around the idea for your next trip. If you’re heading to Ireland, make stew and soda bread, pop open a Guinness, play some Irish music and watch The Quiet Man, and make a gift pack of an Ireland travel book, a mini umbrella, and a tour voucher to, say, the Bushmill distillery. If you’re heading to Italy, make some pasta, open some wine, watch A Roman Holiday, and make a gift pack of an Italy book, quick dry clothing, and Italian lessons. You get the idea.
• Finally, for pre-arranged adventures, tours, or activities try and look for local companies that benefit the surrounding communities. Lokal Travel or Tours by Locals is one of these offering some great options, but there are many out there in each city.

If you want to give something tangible, we’ve compiled a list of things we’ve accumulated over the years and found actually useful on our trip without taking up too much extra room. We are firm believers in only taking 1 backpack and 1 carry on suitcase for any length of travel (be it 1 week or 4 months) – so these all fit into that criteria. We’ve arranged it into essentials vs splurges.

Travel Essentials – needed for most trips

• Luggage – Away(lifetime guarantee) or Merax or Mec(lifetime guarantee)
  • You obviously need luggage for a trip and one that is well-made with a lifetime guarantee is the perfect forever-gift.
• Travel Backpack – Got Bag, Fjallraven, Tumi, Patagonia, Ogio
  • A good backpack with plenty of pockets will serve as your additional piece of luggage. Compartments are great.
• Travel water bottle – Hydro Flask or S’well or Que(collapsible)
  • You may want to just get one with a filter, listed below, depending where you’re headed
• Purifying water bottle – UV water light, Lifestraw or Lifestraw Go waterbottle
  • This can help reduce plastic waste in developing countries
• Foldable day pack – this or this
  • It’s a pain to empty your regular backpack out every night of tablets, kindles, umbrella, books, etc. It’s much nicer to simply grab a day pack and only fill it with essentials for that specific day.
• Packable grocery bag
  • We’re in a world that needs to move away from plastic. That, and many countries will charge you for grocery bags. Save yourself some $ and bring your own. It’s also perfect for craft markets, picnic bags, and extra space if you end up with a larger souvenir.
• Travel purse
  • Fancier – Zamt or Corkor or Nisolo
  • Practical – Travelon or Pacsafe
• Money belt
• Passport wallet
• Reusable toiletry bottles
  • AirBNBs and apartment rentals often don’t supply toiletries. It’s just easier to bring your own products.
• To-go utensils – this or this
• Reusable straw –
  • You don’t always know where the top of your drink has been or what it’s touched. And you look silly drinking a pina colada next to a pool without a straw.
• Sleep mask
• Portable battery
• Charging station
  • Pick one with lots of USB ports and a few regular plugs. Then you can avoid fighting with your travel companion over the one plug in the room or prioritize which item needs charging the most with your single adaptor.
• Travel book
  • Pick the country and grab the book
• Travel sized umbrella(lifetime warranty)
  • Is it silly to spend this much on an umbrella? No. First a tiny one is so much easier to carry around. Second, if it breaks on your travels, they replace it for you. For an active traveler this is a must.
• Reusable sealable bags – LokSak or Stasher
  • Carry snacks, extra lunch, a half eaten pastry, really anything. They’re incredibly useful.
• Packing cubes
• Shoe bags
  • It’s gross to have the shoes you walked the streets of a city with touch the clothes you have to wear for the next few weeks. My life changed with shoe bags, and yours can too.
• Travel pillow
• Travel first aid kit
• Travel adaptor
• Toiletry case
  • Clear organization is key in limited packing space.
• Tech organizer
  • Think cords, headphones, chargers ie all technical organization for a trip.
• Kindle or tablet
  • There’s a ton of different readers/tablets out there. Having one that lets your read and stream from your hotel is wonderful.
• Travel toothbrush
  • It’s really wonderful to have a travel electric toothbrush, especially if you’re travel is for more than a week.

Travel splurges – extra nice to have

• Passport holder
• Luggage scale
  • Make sure you won’t get charged a ton extra for an overweight bag at the gate.
• Comfy walking shoes
• Luxury Travel set
• Hat
• Sunglasses – (lifetime warranty)
• Camera bag
• Luggage tag
• Collapsible trekking poles
  • Depends where you’re going, but if trekking, these foldable ones can be very useful.
• Travel journal
• Travel pen on carabiner
• Keychain wet bag
  • To stash wet swimsuits or clothes post-rain storm, this thing is awesome and folds up tiny.
• Packable quick-dry towel
  • For beach or lake trips this is great and shockingly necessary – you don’t know the number of times we’ve found ourselves without a towel on a stop between hotels.
• Push pin Map
  • A visual to keep track of you’ve been.
• Photo book
  • Did you take a trip with a friend or family member? A nice way to commemorate this is a book filled with pictures of all of your favorite adventures. Paper culture is our favorite site because of its eco mission including using sustainable paper and planting a tree for every order.
• Travel robe – Una Pluma or coyuchi
  • Definitely not a must-bring, but it can be very nice to have if you have just a bit of extra room in your suitcase. Look for something light and short that won’t take up much room.
• Travel slippers – Chilote or Acorn
  • Same as above. Do you absolutely need them? No. When are they great? When you’re visiting a cold-weather place after a long day of walking around or hiking. I often wish I brought them. Make sure they roll up whatever brand you buy.
• Collapsible cooler
  • Very useful when you’re staying in places with kitchens, planning to make your own meals. Traveling around with leftover groceries can be very annoying, but made simpler with a cooler. Make sure you buy the ice pack inserts as well if you’re planning to check a bag.