For those that say “don’t get me anything!” or the person that tends to value experiences over things, here are a few thoughtful gift ideas for the frequent traveler in your life. From travel gear and packing essentials to memberships and services, here are 12 of the best gifts travelers actually want.
1. Beis Backpack
There is little more frustrating while traveling than frantically digging through the bottom of your bag and searching for one seemingly lost item. The Beis Backpack eliminates that struggle with its brilliant two-way zip-around closure, meaning it can open up and lay flat, just like a suitcase! Bonus features of this backpack are many handy pockets, a key leash, laptop zipped pocket, and vital luggage pass-through so the bag can flawlessly sit on top of your suitcase hands-free.
2. Wandrd PRVKE Bag
This is not your average travel backpack. Wandrd’s Prvke Bag is created specifically for photographers and/or videographers to keep their gear organized and protected while traveling. There are designed compartments for camera and tech gear and an expandable roll top that can easily fit extra clothes and other travel essentials while exploring. For the best gift for the media-savvy individual, we recommend the 31L with the camera compartments.
3. Beis Carry-On Suitcase
This is our favorite carry-on suitcase of all time. It’s modern, expandable, comfortable, and incredibly durable. The bag is highly functional and super trendy, with colors being very stylish and unlike most others on the market. This suitcase also has soft hand grips under the handle, which are a welcome relief when carrying the bag up and down stairs or rolling it through bumpy streets. We’ve used this suitcase for almost two years and can faithfully say the wheels have seen it all yet move flawlessly, and the suitcases are still in near-perfect condition. Got a little dirt on it? It’s nothing a wet wipe and a magic eraser can’t handle!
4. Expandable Pouch
We know, we know – one more Beis product. If you can’t tell, we’re avid fans of the company. But with travel gear that looks as cool and functions as well as their products do, we have to share about them. We’re confident no one has ever seen a travel bag like this one. Beis’ new expandable pouch is like the multi-tool of travel. It’s a waist bag (or fanny pack), cross-body purse, and backpack all in one! How genius is this?
5. Drawstring Organizer
No precious unnecessary space will be taken up with this flexible drawstring bag! It can hold as much or as little product as you’d like. The best part? Release the drawstring, and the entire bag lays down flat! While of course this bag can be used for makeup products as shown, it also can be a really convenient tech bag for chords, chargers, and batteries.
6. Twist Travel Memory Foam Pillow
Forget the puffy neck pillows that take up too much space and don’t move as they should. The Twist Travel Memory Foam Pillow bends into whatever shape you need. Use it as a classic headrest, curved lumbar support, or stretched straight to make that weird gap between you and the window seat wall more comfortable. It also has snaps to attach to your luggage or carry-on hands-free, so you don’t have to worry about keeping up with one more thing.
7. Stojo Collapsable Cup
The best conference, camping, and travel cup. The Stojo Collapsable Cup pops up when you need it, cleans easily, and collapses to a tiny disk when you’re done with it. Suitable for hot or cold drinks. My favorite business travel hack is bringing this handy cup along for coffee refills, then washing it off and popping it back into my bag to free up my hands when I’m done. Good for the environment and good for unlimited coffee breaks! Win win.
8. Theragun Mini
We bought this last Christmas, and we haven’t traveled without it since. The Theragun Mini takes the literal pains out of travel and can relieve the cricks in your neck after attempting to sleep on long plane flights, tight shoulders after lugging a full travel backpack, and tired feet after a long Disney park day. It fits in a tiny carrying bag, holds a charge for quite a while, and travels well.
9. AirFly
No one travels with wired headphones anymore, so why do airplane seatbacks still only have headphone jacks? That’s where the AirFly comes in. This handy wireless Bluetooth transmitter almost instantly transforms any technology with a headphone jack to become Bluetooth-friendly. This is a game-changer for those airplane seatback TVs. Pair these with the noise-canceling Airpods Generation 2 and the neck pillow and settle in for a more comfortable and entertaining flight.
10. Trusted House Sitters
While this is a service, not a product, this will be the best gift you can give someone that will save them hundreds of dollars for the year. Every time we go on a trip, we leave our sweet pets with loving Trusted House Sitters for free. We pay a once-a-year annual fee and can have unlimited sitters. You don’t pay them, and they don’t pay to stay in a hotel – it’s a perfect match system with thoroughly vetted sitters. We’ve used this program for over four years and have had excellent experiences. Buy a membership for yourself, or the traveling pet parent in your life and be the MVP of the holidays. Need to know more about? We wrote a whole blog explaining why we love and trust it just to further convince you to save your money and your sweet animals sanity.
11. FareDrop
Give the gift of unlimited updates about flight deals for only $49 for the year. Why do we love Faredrop? Unlike other flight-watch services, you can customize your alerts and only receive deals about the locations and prices you want. For example, you can customize to only receive alerts for fares just to Europe for flights under $600 and turn off notifications for flights to Asia entirely – or vice versa. This is our favorite money-saving flight tracking service. What’s the best deal we’ve ever had? Booking flights from Dallas to Helsinki, Finland for only $280 per person! Thanks Faredrop!
12. Audible
Gift a year of books and podcasts with an Audible subscription! We’re avid readers, but books take up so much space and are heavy, and Audible is the perfect solution on the go. You can listen to incredible books and podcasts instead of stoking motion sickness many are prone to through reading on planes, trains, and boats. Get 30 days free when you sign up through this link.
Quick advice for holiday travel: don’t chance your luggage getting lost on the way to visit friends or family for the season! We know it’s easy to overpack, but we’ve made a guide to traveling light with only carry-on luggage. Save yourself a potential headache and try it out!
