Gifts that travellers will thank you for
Travellers are difficult to buy presents for. Long-term travellers and short-term expats tend to seek to keep the amount of personal stuff to a minimum. So, what are the best gifts for travellers?
The best travel gifts
Data storage for photographers
Taking photos goes hand in hand with travelling. Nothing is more frustrating though than a camera declaring its memory card is full. Find out what sort of memory card your traveller’s camera takes and get them a shiny new high capacity one. It doesn’t sound exciting but storing all those photos is important, as well as other documents, files and data generally. Flash drives are handy and portable hard drives are essential. There is data storage to suit every budget.
Buy the reading traveller a Kindle
There was once a time when a book was a traveller’s best friend on a long journey, but now that kindles exist, travellers can take more than 3,000 books on a journey. Kindles can also access the internet using wi-fi and 4G or 5G. Books are great, but not in terms of limited luggage allowance. If the price of a Kindle is more than you wanted to spend how about a contribution towards one?
Adapters for tech fans
Adapter plugs come in various forms, often just adapting from one region to another, but the most useful are the ones that adapt any region into others. After living overseas for a while you quickly build up a collection of electronics which each have different plugs – so annoying!
Gifts for backpackers
Give the gift of light
A small torch, or depending on the travel perhaps a headtorch, can be invaluable when sharing accommodation with other people and their sleeping schedules. A mini torch with a keyring attached is easily locatable in the dark.
Language lessons
Most people are not naturally multilingual so appreciate a bit of help with languages. There are lots of language guides available but who wants to buy a book for each language you might meet on a trip? Gift your traveller friend a language-learning app.
Communications
There are several companies offering international SIM cards which work in several different countries and which you can pre load with credit so that your traveller can always be in touch, wherever they end up.
Travel $$$
What could be more perfect than giving a traveller the gift of travel? Or some spending money while travelling? If you earn airmiles through shopping or a credit card scheme the easiest gift you could give is to transfer your airmiles to the traveller’s account. If you are not part of any such scheme you can normally purchase miles for your traveller too.
Travellers – what would you like to receive as a gift?
Photo credit: Stevendepolo
4 Comments
dartangnonmusical
You make a valid point in regards to the amount of stuff to buy a frequent traveler, as most are not home enough to enjoy certain types of gifts. I am always thankful to read the lists individuals like yourself put together to see what I can get for my husband as we both travel frequently. He travels for a government contractor and I travel for work through Dish Network so he is gone internationally a lot and I am mostly in the States. I have a Kindle and I love it as I love to read and find it a peaceful place to rest my mind during long flights. I have gotten him what sounds like the 30 words language guide you mentioned, as it is pocket sized and he says it is a charm. One thing we both agree on is that we need more distraction when in the airports for delays and missed connections especially during high travel times. When talking to a colleague at work on a flight she mentioned how much she enjoyed the advantages of the Dish Sling Adapter. We had a long discussion about it and I got one for my husband and myself. In a nutshell it streams all your programming to most mobile devices and is free to new and existing customers through a rebate. I love movies so I have been utilizing mine with noise reduction headphones, which we bought each other last year with my iPad and it is magical. There was no fee for the Dish Remote Access application and I can block out the chaos of the airport easily. When there is less stress in our lives, we become happier individuals in general and that is such a reward. I think technology or accessories for technology make the perfect gift for the traveler in anyones life.
Liv
Hi there – my brother is currently travelling from the UK to Australia with a 7 hour delay so I appreciate what you are saying about keeping busy in airports. It does happen sometimes! I’m glad you like lists like this. I think they can help inspire people for gift ideas, when sometimes gift-buying can be very difficult.
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Steve
Of course, I think the gift of travel is the best one. That’s what my wife and I usually give each other each year. Although this year we had to cut back on travel so we could save more money.
I think a good idea for languages would be to buy someone Rosetta Stone so they could learn a new language. It costs a lot of money, but I hear it is a really good product.
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Liv
Hi Steve
Yes, I think language kits make good gifts too. They are often a bit bulky though unless the traveller is based in one place for a while.
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