Admit it. The only thing you can think about during the whole Christmas day are presents. You pretend not to pay attention – after all you’re not a kid anymore. Only kids are allowed to wait for this moment.
But secretly you also wait.
For the moment when you can take a box with your name on it from under the Christmas tree. The moment when with your cheeks red in excitement you will tear the Christmas wrapping paper.
The moment when you will see a nice surprise in the box and when a smile appears on your face. But you also hope that your family and friends will smile when they see a gift from you.
Do you have to come up with a gift for a traveler this year? Let me help you solve this problem. 🙂 If the person you need a gift for likes camping, check this guide to great gifts for campers.
What to buy for a traveler?
1. Plane, bus, train tickets
Hardly anything can be a better gift for a traveler than a trip! Just make sure you pick the dates right. Pick the dates two-three months ahead to make sure your gift-receiver doesn’t have anything planned yet. 🙂
I love Ryanair’s search from a given airport to “anywhere”. It allows you to find the best deals. That’s how I found tickets for a weekend in Stockholm or another weekend in Bergamo there and back for 78 PLN (20 EUR)!
And some bus companies (like Polski Bus in Poland) can have tickets for less than 1 EUR one way!
2. Travel book
When a traveler doesn’t travel, he loves to read about travelling and other countries, believe me.
I mostly read and know Polish travel authors (check Polish version of this post for recommendations). From international authors I loved the book called “White Tiger” by Aravind Adiga telling a story of a poor but ambitious Indian villager. Another fascinating book is “Nothing to Envy: Ordinary lives in North Korea” by Barbara Demick who interviewed numerous people who managed to escape from North to South Korea.
I can also recommend you the books of Jon Krakauer (the author of famous “Into the wild”) and Paul Theroux who writes about travelling the world by train.
3. Travel magazine yearly subscription
If your travelling friend doesn’t like reading books maybe he prefers magazines? 🙂 I was subscribing National Geographic Traveler for some time and it’s a great read!
4. Photo accessories
A lot of travelers want to become better photographers in order to bring better and better pictures from their trips. How about some ND filters or a big tripod for the more professional ones or a little gorilla tripod and a selfie stick for amateurs? 🙂
If he or she uses a GoPro or some other sports camera there is a lot of accessories to go with it, for example a waterproof case, a chest strap or helmet mount.
5. Power bank
How could I live and travel without a good power bank – I don’t know. It can charge my phone, my sports camera, another phone and still be good to charge again!
I don’t need to worry about discharging equipment during a long flight or bus trip. I can finally make timelapse videos. Amazing little thing. I have Xiaomi Mi 10000MAH and I definitely recommend it. It can charge a device fully three to four times.
6. Packing cubes
An amazing thing which helped me figure out how to pack like a pro! A set of three or more cases in different sizes which help you squeeze your clothes and keep your luggage in order. Thanks to them in the USA I could find everything in my luggage in less than a minute without making a huge mess in the backpack. I didn’t have a ton of plastic bags and curled up clothes in there, finally! Extremely useful.
7. Camping accessories
7. Camping accessoriesDoes your travelling friend camp? Self-inflating pads, new sleeping bag, portable gas stove, multitool, camping lamp, thermos or a temperature-keeping mug… All these things were so extremely useful when I was camping in the USA!
I’m sure you will find something extremely useful for a camping aficionado that fits in your budget. I love using Decathlon shop for inspiration 🙂
8. Map on the wall
Traveler’s dream – to have a map on the wall for pinning all the visited places. It’s possible to buy a map printed on cork but it’s an expensive gift. I bought a regular, big paper map and I ordered a cork board the same size. I pinned the map to it and there you go – a bit of simple DIY and you have the same thing three times cheaper :).
There is also a possibility to buy a scratch map but personally I prefer to have a possibility to pin the places I have already visited and that I still want to visit. 🙂
9. Personalized place for souvenirs
What souvenirs does your traveler bring from the trips? If these are magnets which hardly fit on the fridge already, then a magnetic board might be a good idea. I collect shot glasses so for my last year’s birthday I got a special shelf where I can keep them all. Isn’t it genius?!
10. Travel-themed jewellery
I have a watch with a map of the world on it and I could wear it non-stop! And this cute little plane going in circles as seconds pass… 🙂 There is a lot of world map watches on E-bay and other online shops. Make sure from where the watch is going to be shipped – mine came from China and it took 60 days.
Except for the watch you can buy a necklace, ring or bracelet with the world map, a plane and any other travel-related object you can think of. Any female traveler will be thrilled 🙂
11. Fast-dry sports towel and/or clothes
11. Fast-dry sports towel and/or clothesExtremely useful – a towel which dries fast and takes very little space. I don’t really like using it because the feeling is much less pleasant than the fluffy towel I have at home… but I love its properties and I don’t take any other to my trips 🙂
Also if your traveling friend is an active person, sports clothes will be a perfect gift. I almost didn’t take any other clothes for my trip to the USA and I can’t imagine living (and hiking!) in this heat in cotton t-shirts.
12. Travel pillow and eye mask
A must have of anyone who sleeps in all kinds of weird places like planes, buses, train stations or airports. I bought my travel pillow very recently and after a night in a plane and then a couple more hours in a bus I must say the difference was amazing! The comfort is bigger and, most importantly, your neck doesn’t hurt the next day!
13. Kindle e-book reader
Some years ago books took half of the space in my suitcase. It was heavy like hell and still I wasn’t sure if I have enough books for the whole trip. Now I can take tons of books on this little device and the problem disappeared!
The new Kindle Paperwhite costs around 120$ on Amazon.
14. Photo album or a photo book
A great, personalized gift. Choose some pictures from a trip (preferably the one you did together). Print them and put them in an album or make a collage. You can also order a more professional photo book. A huge smile of the recipient – guaranteed 🙂
15. A colorful luggage identifier and a padlock
Oh I do need these things 🙂 Every time I need to sign my luggage I either do it on little paper straps provided by the airline or I improvise. I’m sure you can imagine that it doesn’t look great…
You know what? From now on you will wait even more impatiently for the moment when with your cheeks red in excitement you will tear the Christmas wrapping paper. And when others do the same. Because you will know that the traveler you bought a gift for will have the biggest smile in the room 🙂
