Annual Gift Guide for Travelers {2019-2020}
UPDATED: 2/5/2023
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Most of us have someone in our lives who loves to travel or is dreaming of taking more trips to explore the world. Travel can be as local as sites in your hometown or as far-flung as halfway around the world.
Here are some ideas to spur gift giving this holiday season for the travelers in your life. We’ve categorized these based on your gift-giving preferences and the type of person you’re shopping for (and hey, no judgment if you’re shopping for yourself!). We have also included some suggestions for kids in a special section at the bottom.
Practical Gifts for Travelers
For the pragmatic travelers in your life…
Day pack - Almost everywhere we go, we appreciate having a small, lightweight, waterproof bag to fill with snacks, water bottles, cameras, and other supplies. Best yet, this can either double as a personal carry-on bag or roll up tiny and fit in a suitcase. We have long used and loved L.L. Bean’s Stowaway Day Pack.
Travel mug - While we’re partial to ours, which you can find here, we also love our L.L.Bean thermos.
Reusable water bottle - Camelbak has some great BPA-free and stainless steel options. Nearly all of our water bottles are from Camelbak, and they’ve lasted years and years.
Travel guides - Lonely Planet offers a whole host of guides by city, country, road trip route, and more. As much great information as there is online, we always do a lot of our planning with an actual physical book and usually take them with us when we travel, too.
Literary Gifts for Travelers
For the readers, writers, and thinkers contemplating all the places they’ll go…
Magazine subscription to National Geographic, Lonely Planet, or another travel-focused magazine. We’ve subscribed to National Geographic for 15 years now and had it at times when we were growing up and also enjoyed National Geographic’s Kids magazine, too.
Fiction and non-fiction books focused on an upcoming travel location or a place someone wants to go. There are endless book list recommendations out there. We have our own list of books - all of which one of us has actually read - listed out by location. Check that out here.
A monogrammed or fun journal. A couple of nice options on Etsy are: this monogrammed compass decorated journal (it speaks to us because it has a compass, just like our logo but is not affiliated with us in any way) and this old world style leather journal.
Artistic Gifts for Travelers
What better way to be inspired to travel by surrounding yourself with artwork of amazing places?
Photographs encapsulate a location and bring it into your everyday life. Pictorem is a great site where artists sell their images. You can view ours here (we’re constantly adding to it) or search by location/topic for other images.
Sketch book and colored pencil set. This is a leather-bound cover to hold a sketch book and with a built in pencil case section.
Help your traveler to create their own images to print and hang in their homes. We have our favorite photography equipment listed and explained here.
Gifts for Travelers focused on Experiences
For the “no gifts, please” travelers out there…
Get creative! Gift the traveler in your life an experience on one of their future trips. This could be anywhere from a gift certificate to a restaurant to a paid excursion (anything from horseback riding to hot air balloon rides). We took a Fat Tire Bike Tour of Versailles outside Paris earlier this year and had a wonderful experience. They operate in a number of major US and European cities and offer segway tours in some spots, so that might be a good option to check out!
Gifts for Foodie Travelers
For the “I don’t care where we go as long as the food is amazing” travelers…
Saveur Magazine bills itself as a magazine where readers can ‘Savor a World of Authentic Cuisine.’ Not a trend-focused food magazine but one that investigates the depth of food, culture, and travel. We subscribed for about 5 years.
A food-related gift that represents somewhere the person loves to visit or wants to visit. Some ideas based on gifts we’ve given or received: hand-carved chopsticks, or a Provencal (France) tablecloth.
Gifts for Traveling Kids
It’s never too early to start imbuing a sense of wonder and a love for all this planet has to offer!
Nat Geo Kids (ages 6+) or Nat Geo Little Kids (ages 3-6) subscription. My aunt and uncle subscribed to this for us when I was a kid, and I loved it.
Fun, decorated reusable Camelbak water bottles. With spill-proof features, you can’t go wrong in keeping the kiddos hydrated.
Lonely Planet has a plethora of travel-inspired books for kids from ages 0-12 categorized by age groups. These vary from books on flags of the world to pop-up books on popular cities to 'first words’ board books featuring various foreign languages.
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