The Best Travel Gifts

As a traveller, I know I can be difficult to buy for. Travellers tend to want to live a minimal lifestyle, some may not even have a house! So you know general gifts may not be appreciated. So what do you buy someone like this?

Whether you’re looking for the best Christmas gift for the nomad in your life, or shopping for a birthday or other event, I’ve put together a list of travel gifts that I’ve either used myself or plan to get in the future.

Take a look at my gift list for travellers to find that perfect gift:

Travel Gifts for the Regular Traveller

Whether your friend is a nomad and constantly on the road or has a home and is off jet setting regularly, here are some useful general travel gifts:

Water Bottles

All backpackers need a good water bottle. It’s much better for the environment and the budget to simply refill from the tap rather than continually buying plastic bottles. Personally, I love the Hydro Flask. This water bottle holds a litre and keeps water cool throughout the day. It can even be used for hot drinks, keeping them warm for hours too. So whether your traveller is going somewhere hot or cold they can stay hydrated, which is very important when travelling.

Buy a Hydro Flask on Amazon.

If you know your friend often hikes, camps, or goes to countries where the tap water isn’t safe, the Lifestraw Go is a great choice for a water bottle. It’s a useful bit of kit for travellers to have up their sleeves, as the straw is also a filter, making it possible to drink from just about any water source.

Find the Lifestraw Go on Amazon.

Travel Towel

For regular travellers, they may stay in hostels regularly and, unlike hotels, these don’t always provide towels. So, a travel towel makes a great gift.

Travel towels aren’t like regular towels. They dry quicker and fold up small, making them perfect for travel. For long trips where hostelling and camping are going to feature, these are so useful for your traveller friend.

You can buy travel towels here.

Sleep Master

Eye masks are helpful for sleeping on long journeys or in hostel dorms. However, I never found these useful until I tried the Sleep Master Sleep Mask. This eye mask It’s super soft, completely blackout and even muffles noise, and even comes with ear plugs. It is the best sleep mask I have ever tried and very useful for the traveller who needs to sleep on the bus.

Find the Sleep Master Sleep Mask on Amazon.

TRTL Travel Pillow

Another vital piece of equipment for getting some shut-eye on long journeys is a travel pillow. My favourite travel pillow is the TRTL (pronounced “turtle”). This travel pillow is scientifically proven to support your neck. It has an internal support structure in a soft fleece cover, meaning your traveller can rest and not wake up with an ache in the neck from leaning against the window. It’s half the size of a normal travel pillow and really light. It’s even machine washable. It’s the perfect travel companion and so makes a great travel gift.

Buy the TRTL Travel Pillow here.

Adaptor

All travellers need a way to charge up their devices. And if they often travel to various countries, they can end up with a collection of adaptors. Luckily, nowadays there are loads of universal travel adaptors to choose from.

If you don’t know what countries your friend is planning on visiting, a universal adapter is helpful. An adaptor with multi-sockets and USB adaptors for multiple charging, like this one would be particularly useful.

Packing Cubes

Packing cubes may not seem like much, but they can really help with organising a backpack. They help to compress clothes slightly so that there is a little more room. They’re also helpful in separating clean and dirty clothes, which can be difficult in a backpack. Making them a practical travel gift.

Take a look at packing cubes on Amazon.

Power Bank

When you’re out and about all day, you don’t want to worry about your phone losing power. And that’s why a power bank makes a great travel gift.

I have had a few power banks over the years, the one I really like is the Zippo Power Bank. This power bank allows for several charges off one charge. It has lights that show how much power it has left and even doubles up as a hand warmer.

Find the Zippo Power Bank and Hand Warmer here.

Guidebooks

You may wonder if guidebooks are useful in this digital age. Personally, I still love a guidebook when travel planning. I like to use a guidebook and travel blogs to get various opinions on a place. Many guidebooks now have a QR code so that you can download the book to your phone so that you don’t need to take the book when travelling too.

If you know your traveller friend is going to a country or city, a guidebook will be a useful item. I tend to use Rough Guides, but there are plenty of other brands to choose from.

Another idea is not a guidebook per se, but inspirational books, like this Travel Bucket List Book for a gift for a traveller.

Travel Gifts for the Nostalgic Traveller

I’ll be honest, travellers tend to be a nostalgic breed. We love delving into our memories. So, for the traveller that has a base somewhere, or the part-time traveller, these gifts will help them to get lost in their travel memories when not travelling:

Digital Photo Frame

If your traveller friend is anything like me, they’ll have way more pictures than they could ever imagine printing off. A digital photo frame can help with displaying their many photos and allow them to glance at memories throughout their day.

Take a look at digital photo frames here.

Photobook

Photobooks are another great travel gift. This is something I keep meaning to do, make a photobook for each year, but I keep forgetting and I’m terrible at choosing what pictures I love. So why not do this for your travelling friend and take the mental load off them?

It’s easier and easier to make a photobook, and they can store loads of pictures. If they’ve sent you pictures, or if they’re on social media, you can easily get access to their travel pictures and create a book for them of the past year.

I love the look of this Travel Photobook, as it can be personalised and hold up to 200 pictures.

Travel Journal

Many travellers love keeping notes when they travel. This can be as simple as noting down where they’ve been on what day, or a full diary with thoughts and feelings. Travel journals can also be used for planning and ticking off important destinations.

A nice notebook will do for some travellers, or you can find travel journals with prompts. Different travellers will prefer different types of journals.

Take a look at the various travel journals here.

Mark-Off Map

Travellers love seeing how much of the world they have been to. It’s not about showing off, it’s about knowing where we have been. So a way of marking off where they’ve been makes a great gift. You can get worldwide maps for this or more niche maps for continents or even countries.

Scratch-off maps are the classic travel gift. But you could also just buy a map and some coloured pins for a DIY mark-off map.

Take a look at the range of Mark-Off Maps available on Amazon.

Travel Gifts for the Active Traveller

If your travelling friend is a lover of the outdoors and so is out and about in all weathers, there are a few useful gifts you can get them.

Underlayers

Vital for cold countries or for the winter hiker, underlayers make a great travel gift. I’ve worn these when visiting Christmas Markets in various countries, climbing Kilimanjaro, and on hikes in the UK.

Check out baselayers here.

Ordnance Survey

If your travel friend is an avid hiker in the UK, there are various Ordnance Survey gifts that they would find useful.

Every hiker needs a paper map, as up in the mountains they might not have the signal for a digital map. If your traveller has a favourite area or has spoken about exploring a new walk or area, get them the correct map to help them explore. For a friend with a base of a house, you can even get a custom map, with their home in the middle. I keep meaning to get one of these so I can explore more local walks.

You could even gift an Ordnance Survey Subscription so they have access to all maps. These maps can even be used without signal, so no matter where they are they will have a map.

Thermos

For adventurous and on-the-go travellers, a decent thermos is a must. Having coffee on the go allows them to get going quickly and can give them a boost when walking in the cold. Although the Hydro Flask above does do the job, I personally, like to have a separate container for water and coffee.

I use the Contigo Thermo Flask for my coffee.

Travel Gifts for the Traveller Who Has Everything

Some travellers really do have everything. Or if they’re always on the road they may not have the space for any physical gifts. Not to worry, there are still some travel gifts you can buy for these.

Experiences

Travellers love making memories, so why not buy them a new memory in the form of an experience? This could be a tour, a night away, a cooking class, anything. Whether you buy them an experience for home or if you know somewhere they are going soon, an experience will always be appreciated.

Get Your Guide has loads of experiences and tours worldwide to choose from, or check out Buy A Gift for UK adventures.

Audible

Having entertainment on long journeys is important for many travellers. I love reading, but taking a load of books with me on my travels isn’t always practical. That’s Audible can help. A subscription will give your travel friend access to loads of books, so they can stay entertained on long journeys.

Get an Audible subscription for your traveller friend here.

So there you have my travel gifts for Christmas, Birthdays, and more. I know travellers can be difficult to buy for, so I hope this helps. Do you have any other ideas? Leave them in the comments!