Unique travel gifts – best gifts for travelers guide: 2019 holiday edit

Never know what gifts to buy the travelers in your life? Our guide to unique travel gifts is here to help. 

Whether for Christmas, birthdays or a fond bon voyage, the travel tribe can be hard to buy for. But, here’s the thing, whether they are luxury look good and feel good travelers or pack light adventure travelers, they usually prefer:

• experiences like a – a food tour of Paris or cooking class in Rome
• practical items like a new suitcase
• things that remind them of their travels – an art print of Florence, a special fragrance or a photo book of memories

This is our guide to the best gifts for travelers, updated for the 2019 holiday season with loads of ideas for women, men and children too. You might also find a little something to treat yourself with.. I know I always do!

Best gifts for travelers

Travel gifts for her

Gifts to wear

These stylish yet practical items feature in our packing guides for London and Italy because they are used on every trip and in our daily lives at home.

Click the images below to check prices

• Travel tote – our most favorite in flight bag is useful at home and abroad – more info
• Elegant scarf – lifts every outfit, even after a long haul flight –more info
• Bracelet – add her favourite travel quote or destination coordinates –more info
• Crossbody bag – the best hand bag for travel – practical and stylish – more info

 

Travel essentials

• Bose headphones – help her stay zen in the air with these noise canceling headphones
• Sleep mask – she’ll wake up chic and beat the jet lag with this cute sleep mask
• Carry on – Light, chic and big enough to hold all her travel essentials 
• Olympus Pen camera – chic, lightweight and takes great travel photos (see mine ?)  

Travel beauty gifts

Travel can be less than glamorous so if your gift is for a traveler who like to look their best, these beauty ideas are sure to please.

• Travel makeup bag with mirror – compact storage for all her beauty products 
• Burt’s Bees travel set – all the essentials in handy travel sized tubes
• Vanilla coconut travel candle – a soothing scent at the hotel 
• Tatcha skin mist – this ultra hydrating spray keeps you fresh after a long flight

You could even build a travel beauty kit with travel sized items like this delicious smelling body cream, some handy body wipes, a luxurious shower gel and other travel sized beauty items.

Sephora have a wide range of mini and travel sized beauty products that you can use to build your gift – click here to browse the travel sized beauty products

Here are some more of our favorite travel beauty gifts. Click the images below to check prices

Small gifts and stocking stuffers

• Tender is the Night – F Scott Fitzgerald’s story of love and lust in the South of France 
• Travel journal – there is nothing like reliving trip highlights than by reading your first reactions 
• Playing cards – for the plane or quiet time. Bonus – they are so much more social than an iPad 
• Perfume atomizers – so she can take her favorite scents on her travels

Travel gift ideas for men

• Collapsible water bottle – help him stay hydrated on the road
• Travel backpack – lots of zip compartments to keep him organised
• GoPro HERO7 – so he can capture all his adventures [everyone wants one!]
• Airplane Travel Kit – a neck pillow, ear plugs and mask for the ultimate in comfort

• Bose Noise Cancelling headphones – keep him sane on the plane
• Flashlight – always useful everywhere you go
• Hanging toiletry bag – this top rated bag is packed with features 
• Passport holder – with RFID blocker to keep his passport safe

• Phone card case – a handy place to store his credit cards
• Monocle Travel Guide for London – what Monocle doesn’t know isn’t worth knowing
• Wool scarf – keep him stylishly snug and warm in transit
• Plane cuff-links – travel style for the office

Travel themed gifts for the home

• New York vintage travel poster – find a nostalgic print of their favorite destination
• Mini cork globe – comes with pins so they can track their travels
• Travel quote cushion cover – the most comfortable travel inspiration around
• Paris in Color coffee table book – gorgeous photos of the most romantic city in the world

Travel gifts for kids

• Magnetic activity set – hours of fun with pieces that stick. Great for planes + road trips
• Kidizoom camera – encourage your budding photographer (with added games)
• Kids headphones – soft with added noise protection
• Mr. Men and Little Miss books – small, lightweight and fun reading

• Kids travel pillow – a fun way to keep them comfy on the plane
• Twistable colored pencils – no mess coloring 
• First travel journal – capture their adventures in their own words
• Panda eye mask – a cute excuse for some shut eye

• Kids scooter luggage – glide through the airport with ease – read our full review here
• London sticker book – 1000+ stickers = hours and hours of fun
• New pyjamas – keep them cosy in transit
• iPad mini – honestly the best thing ever invented for entertaining kids on long trips

Curious kids will love Little Passports kids subscription box. Every month they are sent a package with games and activities based on countries around the world. It is a fun way to introduce new cultures to children – read our full review here

Mostly practical travel gifts

When space is a premium, gadgets that make your life easier are a great travel gift idea. Here are some of our must have tech and organisation items perfect for gifting.

• Compact travel mirror – for those touch ups on the go
• Cable organizer – an absolute necessity in these days of cords and plugs
• Travel steamer – we love this gadget – keeps us looking sharp and uncreased
• GorillaPod Tripod – an flexible tool for great photography

• Portable Charger – to keep devices charged and ready
• Waterproof portable speaker – travel is always better with a soundtrack
• Luggage Scale – we always travel with ours because it helps us avoid excess charges
• Mini binoculars – useful for spotting wildlife in the distance

 

• Packing cubes – the best travel product hands down – makes organizing luggage easy
• Drone with camera – I think we all want to try one of these for those aerial shots!
• Travel containers – to pack favorite products for travel in an eco friendly way
• Travel umbrella – because the ones you buy off the street in a downpour are terrible (except in Japan!)

The best travel gift cards

I’m always on the look out for the most thoughtful gifts but sometimes the best solution is a gift card.

If the person you are buying a travel gift for is difficult to buy for or will be away for a long time, a gift card can help them find what they really want and need.

• Airbnb gift card – with Airbnb you can stay in a treehouse or a houseboat.
• Hotels.com gift card – let them browse the deals on Hotels.com and pick their perfect stay
• Southwest Airlines gift card – a choose your own adventure gift with wings

The best overall gift card is from Amazon. With millions of products listed, your family and friends can choose almost anything they want or need, in most places around the world.

Apart from these options, most airlines, travel agents and hotel chains offer gift cards.

Experience gifts

We think the perfect travel themed gift is an experience.

Whether it be a memorable dinner at a wonderful restaurant – or at the Eiffel Tower in Paris! Or tour of Tuscany in a vintage car; those are memories that will last a lifetime.

Guided tour gifts

Traveling is all about the experiences you have in the destinations you visit and one of the best ways to do this is via a local tour. Surprise your loved ones with a special tour and they will be delighted.

The best place to find local tours is via an online portal like Get Your Guide or Viator

 

With over 29,ooo local tours and activities in destinations all over the world available on their online portal or handy app, a Get Your Guide gift certificate is a very thoughtful gift.

I have used this service several times and its a great way to find unique and interesting tours in countries around the globe.

 

 

 

You can either:

1 | go straight to the Get Your Guide gift voucher page and select the amount you want

OR

2 | browse the Get Your Guide site for suitable tours by location and interest and then choose the “Give as a gift” option on the right hand side.

Choose the value of the gift certificate and then add a personal message to the recipient. Review the preview of the printable gift certificate before you go ahead and pay via their secure connection.

To use the certificate, the recipient simply uses the gift card code after they have selected their tour and are checking out. The gift certificate is valid for 18 months from purchase.

Other companies offering experience gift cards:

• Worldwide experience gift card– a wide range of experiences to choose from in the United States and beyond

Favourite tour gifts

New York City

• Helicopter tour – how cool would it be to see one of the world’s greatest cities from a chopper
• Statue of Liberty + Ellis Island guided tour – discover the history of the iconic monument
• Sex and the City tour – follow in the footsteps of Carrie and friends in the Big Apple

Paris

• Eiffel Tower dinner – dine in style at 58 Tour Eiffel – a chic restaurant overlooking beautiful Paris
• Paris illuminations – enjoy the sparkle of the city of lights on this Seine river cruise
• Macaron making class – make traditional French sweets in Paris! So Julia Child

London

• Vintage London bus tour with afternoon tea – the absolutely most proper way to see London
• Harry Potter studio tour – this might be almost too much fun for your favorite muggles!
• Changing of the Guard walking tour – discover the pomp and tradition behind this very British ceremony

Tickets and attractions

Are your traveling friends and family on a tight budget? Then they will appreciate contributions to the cost of their upcoming trips.

Tickets to landmarks and attractions or even a city pass is a very thoughtful and helpful gift

New York City

• Skip the line tickets for the Empire State
• 9/11 Memorial skip the line tickets
• The New York pass – Free entry to 100+ top New York attractions, including Empire State Building

Paris

• Eiffel Tower skip the line tickets
• Louvre Museum timed entry tickets
• The Paris pass – includes bus tour, tickets to the Louvre and Musee D’Orsay plus more

London

• London Eye skip the line
• Tower of London and Crown Jewels ticket
• The London Pass – includes bus tour, Tower of London and View from the Shard tickets plus more

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Links to all the tours listed on Get Your Guide in these major cities

All London tours | All Paris tours | All Rome tours | All Barcelona tours

Show and theatre ticket gifts

If your traveling friends and family like to see a show in the places they visit, why not buy them tickets to the hottest shows in town.

In London, you can buy tickets on London Theatre Direct if you don’t know which show to choose they also offer gift vouchers.

 

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I hope you found some ideas and inspiration in this guide. The act of giving has always been a pleasure for me and I enjoy finding special and unique gifts that are either fun and/or useful.

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Disclosure: Untold Morsels assists our readers with carefully chosen product and services recommendations that help make travel easier and more fun. If you click through and make a purchase on many of these items we may earn a commission. All opinions are our own – please read ourdisclosurepage for more information.

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