Gift-giving can be tricky for birthdays and Christmas let alone finding unique travel gifts for a friend who’s about to hit the road. We’ve been there, giving and getting travel gifts.
Use this handy guide to buy unique, fun and useful travel gifts that your buddies will love.
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Unique Travel Gifts for Friends Going Travelling
It’s always a nice idea to give something to remember you by. But, if you are going to spend money on travel gifts, spend them wisely.
Those who travel all the time, appreciate more practical travel gifts. So here’s a quick list of quirky travel gifts which your exploring friends will love.
1. Gift Your Friends a Portable Solar Charger
How many times did you have your phone die on you when you were uploading that awesome story on Instagram?
Yep, travelling wares out mobile devices very quickly. But this compact solar unit can provide your friends with some free juice to any device.
2. Audible – a Great Travel Gift Idea for the Road
This is not just a unique gift, it’s an experience.
That’s why giving them an Audible subscription is one of the most unique travel gifts for your friends who are planning to go travelling.
3. Tech Travel Organiser Bag – the Best Gift for Explorers
Travel in the modern age can often mean packing a fair few cables, memory cards, adapters and more.
We’ve tried it all: Bulldog clips, bags, you name it.
But nothing keeps the chargers and memory cards quite as neat as this smart travel accessory.
If your friend is a tech-savvy traveller, definitely get one and it will help them neatly store all their accessories in one place.
4. Give Them Something Mindful
Why give your friend any old travel journal when they could enjoy one of these unique travel gifts to inspire them daily.
This funky little You Are Here: A Mindful Travel Journal will do just that.
By highlighting simple mindfulness techniques each day it will make your travel-loving friends stop, look around and appreciate where they are. Nice.
I, personally, love travel journals. And while everyone (including us) travel with their super-light laptops, it’s still nice to have a notebook and a pen. Plus, we’ve been to quite a few remote places during our travels and a travel journal really helped.
For example, we recently did the epic Scottish road trip, the NC500 and stayed in places with no signal. Plus, I was making notes as Charlie was navigating the bumpy roads. Laptop, in this case, was useless. But I could still scribble on a piece of paper.
5. Help Them Stay Organised with Packing Cubes
Pants and socks all over the suitcase? And none of the socks that you pull out of your bag matches the other? Yep, travel can be messy, but it doesn’t have to be. Give your soon-to-travel friends this super helpful gift.
We’ve been using packing cubes for many years and love them. They are now also one of our favourite campervan accessories as we tour Europe in our van conversion.
One set of cubes will help your travelling friend to separate our clothing and essentials inside the luggage (or wardrobe in a van) making it super easy to find stuff quickly.
They’ve helped us to stay super organised and tidy on the road. Here, read our full Pro Packing Cubes review if you are not convinced.
6. Give Small Gifts to Help Them Travel
Looking for small travel gifts for explorers? This is what we talked about earlier: Fun and quirky, but still very useful travel gift.
Sometimes the simplest ideas are the best. Rest assured that your friends will be understood anywhere in the world with this simple credit card-sized flipbook of common images.
All they have to do is simply point at the images in Point to What You Want Picture Translatortor to communicate, no language skills needed. Super lightweight and easy to pack. Genius!
7. Special Gifts for Special Explorers
If your travel-loving friends are looking for a good backpack, tell them to invest in Osprey bags (or better send them the link to this post, wink wink).
Special travel gifts are for special friends and this Osprey Farpoint 40 Backpack certainly qualifies as one of the best travel gifts for people who love to travel. One that your lovely friends will love and use for years of travel to come.
Trust us when we say we know a thing or two about backpacks. We’ve used terrible ones, we’ve used great ones.
This right here is a great backpack for anyone travelling for more than a few days at a time. It’s been a pleasure to use these for the past few years as they still look as good as the day we purchased them.
8. Quirky Travel Gifts Can Be Fun and Useful
Gift shopping for friends who love travelling and camping? Then this is the ideal travel gift for them.
It packs down to a tiny bundle and ideal for camping, backpacking or just chilling in your backyard!
9. Coffee on the Go For Your Coffee Loving Bestie
This super lightweight and compact espresso maker makes a delicious shot without needing electricity of gas so can be used practically anywhere.
Easy to pack, easy to use. The perfect travel gift for wild camping and exploring.
10. Save Them Money with a Collapsible Water Bottle
We’ve ended up buying a lot of bottles of drinking water as we travelled the globe. It’s not only expensive at times but also a massive environmental waste. It’s a no-no way to travel so arm your friends with useful travel gifts.
11. Pack This! – a Fun & Quirky Gift for Travellers
This handy notepad of packing lists gives the ultimate way to check they’ve packed all the essentials before their trip.
Unique Travel Gifts for the Home
Here are some great gifts for your travel-loving friends and family who like to be reminded of their adventures when they are back home. They might even get inspired to hit the road again soon with these lovely and unusual travel gifts.
12. Travel Between the Lines with Adult Colouring Book
It features 47 highly detailed cityscapes to colour in at leisure and let the travel daydreams take over.
Any chance your friends are travlling in a campervan/van conversio? This could be a lovely Christmas stocking filler too!
13. They’ll Love this Beautiufl Pushpin Travel Map
Complete with a choice of frames and a set of pins it’s a great way to keep a constant reminder of past journeys whilst inspiring future travels.
14. Coffee Table Essentials: The Travel Book
This is the book which helps us to decide where to travel to next. It’s a great addition to any coffee table.
With a super double-page spread for each country in the world, it’s a great way for your friends and loved ones to improve their global knowledge and get inspired to explore more.
15. Remind Them of Their Travels
These maps have vibrant colours, accurate flags, careful details and make a beautiful gift that any adventurer will love. Available in White and Gold or Black and Gold.
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Those are some great ideas! Love them! We would definitely put the tech-bag and portable solar charger at the top of our list but maybe because we’re digital nomads haha! Thanks for sharing 🙂
Marta & Max
Thanks guys, glad you like the list. We just tried to pull together some practical and fun stuff for fellow adventurers!