In a nutshell
- Looking for the perfect gift for a traveler? We’ve got you covered with 52 hand-picked ideas.
- Travel gifts don’t have to be expensive — there are great options starting at just a few dollars, whether you want something personal, practical, or sentimental.
- We rallied our entire team to bring you our absolute favorites — from clever travel gadgets to meaningful keepsakes. Let us inspire you!
Travel Gift Ideas for Under $25
Personalized Postcards from Fizzer
- Price: from about $2
- sentimental
- customizable
Our first gift idea isn’t necessarily for a specific occasion — it’s more of a little surprise from your own vacation. With Fizzer, you can create and send personalized postcards using your own photos.
Seriously. You pick a design and your best travel photos, write your message on the back, and the postcard gets sent in an envelope — no stamps needed. Way cooler than the same old WhatsApp message from vacation, right?
To the personalized postcards from Fizzer
Travel Spice Set
- Price: about $7–$10
- practical
- not customizable
A travel spice set is one of those travel gadgets you never seem to have on hand exactly when you need them most.
It’s not a big or expensive gift, but it can make a real difference for travel lovers — especially for anyone who enjoys picnicking on their trips or staying in vacation rentals.
Picture Frame Piggy Bank
- Price: about $5–$10
- practical
- customizable with your own photo
Giving cash as a gift feels a little awkward. But honestly, it’s often the best present for travelers. The solution? Just wrap it nicely — like with a picture frame that doubles as a piggy bank.
The recipient can keep using the frame as a piggy bank afterward, and you can even tuck in photos from past trips to make it extra personal.
To the picture frame piggy bank
A Small Game
- Price: about $7–$10
- practical
- not customizable
A small game makes a great travel gift. Instead of spending every evening scrolling through Instagram, you can actually play together. And your recipient can enjoy the game at home after the trip too. Win-win!
We think Uno is always a solid choice — but we’ve also linked a cool travel game collection with a variety of options.
Phone Crossbody Strap
- Price: about $10
- practical
- not customizable
A phone crossbody strap is one of the best gifts for travelers who love wearing dresses or skirts without pockets. They can just hang their phone over their shoulder without having to improvise. Plus, it’s super handy in cities like Barcelona where pickpockets are a real concern.
The phone strap we’ve linked works with almost any phone case.
Silicone Bottles
- Price: about $8–$10
- practical
- not customizable
We discovered these silicone bottles when we got fed up with those tiny plastic bottles from the drugstore. And wow — they’re genuinely genius! They make traveling easier AND are so much more sustainable than constantly tossing out plastic bottles.
If you can’t think of anyone to give them to, just treat yourself. We would!
Packing Cubes
- Price: about $25
- practical
- not customizable
Packing cubes are a must for us on every trip. Your clothes stay organized, your suitcase or backpack stays tidy, and you’re not spending forever hunting for specific items. What more could you want?
They come in sets of various sizes — and sets that include extra shoe bags and laundry bags are especially handy.
Sand Collector Jars
- Price: about $10–$15
- sentimental
- customizable with sand from their travels
Want to delight someone who loves reminiscing about past trips? Sand collector jars are a wonderful idea. They can fill each jar with sand from a different destination and label them.
The jars come in various sizes and different set sizes.
USB-C Flash Drive
- Price: about $10–$15
- practical
- not customizable
You’ve definitely hit the wall of your smartphone running out of storage space before, right? It’s so incredibly annoying. But you can spare your loved ones that headache by gifting them a USB-C flash drive.
It’s super practical on the road — small enough to pocket, and you can transfer photos directly to the drive as you go. Your phone stays decluttered, and your photos are safely stored in the safe or suitcase.
Waterproof Beach Bag
- Price: about $10–$15
- practical
- not customizable
You know that dilemma when you want to go in the ocean but have no idea what to do with your valuables? A waterproof beach bag solves that problem easily. You wear it as a fanny pack, and it fits your phone, money, and keys.
A really practical gift idea for water lovers, right?
Buff Headwear
- Price: about $10–$15
- practical
- not customizable
A Buff is a great gift for people who love being outdoors in any weather. It’s perfect for skiing, hiking, and breezy days.
The ways to wear it are practically endless: as a neck gaiter, headband, bandana, face covering, and wristband.
Knife-Fork-Spoon
- Price: about $20
- practical
- not customizable
The utensil looks a little quirky, but it’s a really clever invention and a great present for travelers.
We use the spork — that’s what this thing is called — mainly on train rides. That way we can pack a kiwi or some spread for our sandwiches.
Sure, we could grab plastic cutlery every time. But we’d rather do something for the environment. A genuinely practical, compact travel gift for eco-conscious travelers. Two thumbs up!
Vacuum Storage Bags
- Price: depending on quantity, about $5–$20
- practical
- not customizable
We introduced you to our packing cubes earlier. If you want to give your loved ones an even more space-saving alternative, vacuum storage bags are THE answer — especially great for backpacking.
They come with a pump that’s easy to take along on trips.
Bonus: the bags are also useful at home — for example, storing winter clothes during summer.
Phone Tripod
- Price: about $10–$20
- practical
- not customizable
Even if your recipient isn’t a photography enthusiast, everyone likes taking group photos when traveling. Without other people nearby, that can get tricky — which is why just about anyone would be thrilled to get a phone tripod. It even comes with a Bluetooth shutter button.
Bonus: it can also double as a selfie stick.
Luggage Scale
- Price: about $10–$20
- practical
- not customizable
A luggage scale is a great gift for travelers — especially people who fly with carry-on only.
Most airlines have gotten really strict about overweight baggage, so it’s genuinely worth weighing your bag before heading to the airport.
A digital luggage scale also makes a great add-on gift — paired with a nicely wrapped cash envelope, for example!
Lightweight Picnic Blanket
- Price: about $10–$20
- practical
- not customizable
A lightweight picnic blanket is another solid gift for travelers.
It’s so small and light that it fits in any bag without weighing you down. It’s also water-resistant and easy to shake off — making it a perfect pick for anyone who loves picnicking on their travels.
To the lightweight picnic blanket
Microfiber Towels
- Price: depending on size, starting at about $14
- practical
- not customizable
A microfiber towel is a small travel gift you really can’t go wrong with.
They dry super fast and can be rolled up really small. They come in various sizes — from a compact face towel to a full-size bath towel.
Key Lock Box for the Beach
- Price: about $15–$20
- practical
- not customizable
Here’s a great gift idea for surfers — for when you don’t want to give them a whole surfboard.
Surfers often face the problem of having nowhere to store their car key. A key lock box with a combination lock is perfect for that — it attaches to the car door or trailer hitch and the problem is solved.
Of course, it’s also a great pick for any traveler who doesn’t want to bring their car key to the beach.
To the key lock box for the beach
Moleskine City Notebook
- Price: about $15–$25
- sentimental and practical
- gets personalized on the trip
A Moleskine City Notebook is a great gift to send someone off with on their next city trip.
It’s a combo of travel guide and travel journal — with city maps, info on transportation and opening hours, plus space for personal notes, stickers, and a wipe-clean film over the city map.
The notebooks are available for many cities worldwide: New York, Amsterdam, Rome, Hong Kong, and many more. Perfect for anyone who loves to plan their trips down to the last detail!
To the Moleskine City Notebook
Travel Guide
- Price: from $16
- practical
- not customizable
What could be a better present for globetrotters than a travel guide for their next trip? Sure, we run a travel blog — so technically it’s the competition. But we also know how handy it is to just pull a guide out of your bag and quickly look something up or check the map.
We’re big fans of Marco Polo travel guides. The information is concise and to the point, and the maps make navigation easy.
To the Marco Polo travel guides
Dry Bag
- Price: about $15–$25
- practical
- not customizable
Dry bags are great when you’re out on a small boat or when heavy rain is in the forecast for a hike or bike tour.
Everything inside stays dry, and they can even double as packing cubes on trips. It doesn’t get much more practical than that.
Travel Adapter
- Price: about $15–$25
- practical
- not customizable
Another super practical travel accessory. Every traveler needs a travel adapter at some point — and if you get them a universal adapter right away, they’ll never have to think about it again.
The best options include USB ports alongside a standard outlet, so one plug can charge multiple devices at once.
Pride On Tour: 35 Queer Travel Destinations in Europe
- Price: about $20
- practical
- not customizable
Our author Simone gathered tips from the queer travel community during her travels and shares them in her book Pride On Tour.
For 35 European cities, you’ll find recommendations on classic sights, cozy cafés, cool bookstores, and more. Through many conversations with queer locals, she paints an authentic picture of each city’s queer scene.
It’s especially helpful for queer travelers planning their trips, with destinations to suit every taste and budget.
Cable Organizer
- Price: about $15–$25
- practical
- not customizable
For travelers who love staying organized, a cable organizer is a fantastic gift idea. Everything stays neatly sorted in one place.
Hunting down the right cable is suddenly a lot less painful when you’re not pulling them all out of your bag at once.
Sleeping Bag Liner
- Price: about $18–$20
- practical
- not customizable
Want to delight someone who loves hiking? A sleeping bag liner is the way to go. It means they can also spend a night in a mountain hut.
But it’s not just for huts — it’s also really useful on other trips. Stuff your pillow into the liner’s stuff sack and drape the sheet over you, and you can sleep comfortably without using the provided bed linens.
Scratch-Off World Map
- Price: about $18–$25
- sentimental
- customizable by pinning photos
A scratch map is a wonderful gift for frequent travelers. Hang it on the wall and scratch off each country you’ve already visited — over time, the map gets more and more colorful.
We’ve given this as a gift several times already, and it always goes over really well!
Design Your Own Custom Calendar
- Price: about $10–$25
- sentimental
- customizable
We make a calendar like this every year at Christmas for our parents and grandparents. We used to make them by hand.
But there’s a more polished way to do it: design your calendar online and have it printed on high-quality paper.
We always order ours from Pixum and have always been really happy with the quality and the ordering process.
Airplane Audio Adapter
- Price: about $25
- practical
- not customizable
Ever since AirPods and wireless headphones became a thing, it’s gotten pretty tricky to watch movies on the in-flight screens. For that, you normally need wired headphones. Normally.
Now there’s an airplane adapter that lets you use Bluetooth to watch movies anyway. If you know your loved ones are attached to their wireless headphones, this is the perfect gift idea for under $25. Super handy.
Europe Without Flying
- Price: about $23
- practical
- not customizable
You don’t need to fly for hours to get a beach vacation — sustainable travel is absolutely possible! This Lonely Planet book shows you 80 train routes that bring you to fascinating landscapes and cities in just a few hours.
Think: a train journey through Norway, island-hopping in Croatia, or a trip to Rome with stops at Lake Garda, Milan, and Venice.
You also get info on travel times, trip costs, and on-the-ground tips. Already getting ideas for the next trip, aren’t you?
To the Europe Without Flying book
A Book from Reisedepeschen Publishing
- Price: about $20–$30
- practical
- not customizable
We love travel, we love beautiful books, and we love great design. That’s why we’re big fans of the books from Reisedepeschen publishing — a project by two travel bloggers who want to make the world of travel books a little better and more beautiful.
One book stands out in particular: Deutschland im Winter (Germany in Winter). It’s the perfect Christmas gift, presenting exciting winter activities across all regions of Germany — with quite a few surprises in store.
If you’d like to support the two travel bloggers, order the book directly from the publisher. Free shipping and almost as fast as Amazon. We stocked up on several copies to give as gifts — and kept one for ourselves. Hehe.
To the Germany in Winter book at Reisedepeschen publishing
To the Germany in Winter book on Amazon
Reisehunger: The Best Recipes from the USA to Singapore
- Price: about $25
- practical
- not customizable
Food blogger Nicole collected her best wanderlust-inspiring recipes in her book Reisehunger. This cookbook absolutely belongs in every globetrotter’s kitchen.
What’s great is that the recipes are genuinely easy to make and all the ingredients are available locally.
The cookbook is also available as a Kindle edition.
Favorite Foods from Around the World
- Price: depends on the dish
- sentimental
- customizable
Food is a great way to mentally whisk yourself away to your favorite travel destination.
So how about surprising your loved ones with their favorite local specialties? Put the ingredients together in a beautiful basket to make the gift really shine.
Travel Gifts for Under $50
Luggage Tracker
- Price: about $25–$35
- practical
- not customizable
One of the worst things imaginable when traveling: you land at your destination, but your luggage doesn’t. You’re stuck without clothes, toiletries, and everything else — completely dependent on the airline for information.
If you want to spare others from that nightmare, a tracker is a really thoughtful gift idea. It shows whether the suitcase made the flight, and if not, where it currently is.
There are trackers for iPhones — AirTags — and trackers for Android phones — SmartTags.
Interactive Travel Journal
- Price: about $30
- sentimental
- gets personalized on the trip
If you don’t put your personal impressions of a place down on paper, they’re forgotten pretty quickly. Every traveler who loves to write should have a travel journal.
The Travelogue travel journal comes in three colors and includes eight built-in scratch cards where the owner can scratch off countries they’ve visited. It also has 64 lined pages for notes.
To the interactive travel journal
Travel Magazine Subscription
- Price: annual subscriptions from about $35
- practical
- not customizable
Not sure where your recipient is planning to travel next, or what they might need for the trip? Then we have a really great idea: a travel magazine subscription.
It’s something they’ll enjoy all year long, with loads of travel inspiration for the next destination — plus the magazines are packed with useful travel advice.
You can get annual subscriptions to Falstaff Travel and Merian. We’re also big fans of the DuMont Bildatlas, though there’s currently no subscription available for it.
To the Falstaff Travel annual subscription
To the Merian annual subscription
Stainless Steel Water Bottle
- Price: good bottles are about $30–$40
- practical
- customizable
This is one of our constant companions on every trip. The water bottles from 24bottles are super lightweight, easy to clean, and much more sustainable than plastic bottles from the store. A great gift for travelers — after all, everyone needs to stay hydrated, hehe.
Want to make it more personal? You can have a name or a quote engraved on the bottle.
To the stainless steel bottle from 24bottles
To the personalized stainless steel bottle
Bucketlist Family
- Price: about $35
- practical
- not customizable
Traveling with the family can be genuinely exhausting at times. If you want to make it easier for a family you know, we have one clear recommendation: the Bucketlist Family book.
A family of five has written down everything they’ve learned from their travels — from choosing a destination to helpful packing lists to cool activities in over 50 countries. It’s all in there.
Multi-Tool
- Price: good tools from about $35
- practical
- not customizable
A multi-tool is perfect for on the go — for opening bottles and cans, cutting meat and cheese, or even chopping down a tree. We almost always have ours with us, and it’s come in handy more times than we can count.
With this gift, you’re making travelers happy not just on trips but in everyday situations too.
Memomap Poster
- Price: from $36
- sentimental
- customizable
That feeling when you’ve just finished one of the best trips of your life and you wish you could go right back — you know that feeling, right? There’s so much wonderful nostalgia wrapped up in it. And now you can gift that feeling with Memomap.
You can have your travel route recreated in one of many beautiful designs, filled with your own details like the duration and type of trip. Order the poster digitally or with a frame. We’re now wishing we had an entire wall covered in posters from all our trips.
Tiny Adventures - Exploring Germany
- Price: about $40
- practical
- not customizable
Tiny Adventures is a great gift for travelers who sometimes prefer not to venture too far from home. The book is packed with tips on beautiful regions in Germany, recipe ideas, and interesting routes — insider tips included.
Everything is presented with plenty of humor and is beautifully illustrated.
To Tiny Adventures – Exploring Germany
Power Bank
- Price: good power banks from about $45
- practical
- not customizable
We use our power bank almost every day and always carry it with us. We’d always recommend one as a gift idea — especially for someone who can’t function without a full phone battery.
One important note for flying: batteries must not go in checked luggage. That’s not allowed. Carry-on is totally fine.
Travel Steamer
- Price: about $50
- practical
- not customizable
We don’t use an iron ourselves — and when we do, it’s basically only for iron-on beads. But if you know someone who’s always complaining about wrinkled clothes on trips, a steamer is the perfect gift.
The one we’ve linked is lightweight and compact. No ironing board needed. Perfect for travel.
Cork Globe with Pins
- Price: about $50
- sentimental
- customizable by pinning photos
A wonderful gift for any traveler.
The cork globe not only looks seriously cool — you can also use pins to mark where in the world you’ve already been. Or just mark where you want to go next.
The marking pins are conveniently included.
Lego Architecture
- Price: about $50 (though pricier versions are available too)
- sentimental
- not customizable
We actually received Lego Architecture as a gift ourselves, and just looking at Basti’s grin tells you how excited we were about it.
There are various sets featuring skylines of popular cities like New York and London, as well as individual landmarks like the Trevi Fountain in Rome. A great souvenir gift idea.
Gift Vouchers for the Next Trip
- Price: depends on the voucher amount
- practical
- often customizable
Something every traveler can make use of: gift vouchers.
Vouchers for activities, hotels, outdoor stores — there’s a great option for everyone. With specific activities, you can make it more personal too. Gift a city tour for the next city trip, a boat ride with snorkeling stops, or a surf lesson.
The possibilities are endless.
To gift vouchers from GetYourGuide
To gift vouchers from Bergfreunde
Gift Ideas for Travelers Under $100
Noise-Canceling Headphones
- Price: varies a lot depending on quality; the ones we’ve linked are about $70
- practical
- not customizable
Noise-canceling headphones are a fantastic gift idea for frequent flyers. They block out the loud airplane noise so you can sit back, relax, and listen to music or watch a show in peace.
The ones we’ve linked don’t hurt your ears after long wear, they’re wireless, and they have a battery life of up to 35 hours — perfect for long trips.
To the noise-canceling headphones
Gifts for Travelers Starting at $100
Travel Pillow
- Price: our favorite pillow starts at $100
- practical
- not customizable
Jenny never goes anywhere without hers anymore. There’s nothing better — especially for stomach and side sleepers — than sinking into your own cozy pillow after an exhausting travel day. An absolute must-have for any traveler.
The pillow can be rolled up and takes up barely any space in your luggage. It’s machine washable and dryer safe — which makes it officially perfect for any destination.
Instant Camera
- Price: from about $100
- sentimental and practical
- not customizable
There probably aren’t many people who wouldn’t love an instant camera. It’s not a replacement for a digital camera on the road, of course — but it’s the perfect complement!
An instant camera isn’t just incredibly fun — it’s also a genuine icebreaker in many countries. The Fuji Instax is definitely a top pick as a travel gift, and we’re already predicting that the first roll of film will be shot on Christmas Eve itself.
Pacsafe
- Price: about $130–$150
- practical
- not customizable
You don’t have to be a security fanatic to want to protect your valuables from theft.
We’ve been traveling with the 12-liter Pacsafe for years. It’s a wire-reinforced bag that gets secured to a fixed object with a steel cable and combination lock.
Most thefts happen out of opportunity — and that’s exactly the opportunity we don’t give.
A great gift for frequent travelers who don’t want to worry about their valuables.
Kindle Paperwhite
- Price: from $170
- practical
- customizable with a case
We’re both diehard paper book readers at heart. But for traveling, a Kindle is just incredibly practical. We’ve both finally made the switch and are genuinely happy about it.
If you know someone who loves reading and traveling, this makes a wonderful gift.
If you want to make your gift a little more personal, add a Kindle case — ideally one with a travel theme, of course. Cases run about $20–$30.
A New Backpack
- Price: our favorite backpack starts at $220
- practical
- not customizable
A backpack is genuinely something you can always use — and it’s especially great to have one that works for both everyday life and travel.
We chose the Blok Large from pinqponq as our favorite. At 40 liters, it’s allowed in the cabin when flying.
It expands at the top and only reaches its full size when needed, so it doesn’t look too bulky in everyday use. Even better, it’s made from recycled PET bottles.
