Gifts for Friends Going Travelling: Unique, Fun, and Functional Ideas
August 31, 2021
Check Out These Great Gifts For Friends Going Travelling
Do you have a friend that is going traveling? Perhaps you want to get him or her a little “bon voyage” gift to help make the trip a little easier and a lot more fun. This curated list contains both functional and fashionable gift ideas for friends venturing off on a new adventure. Many of these items have been gifted to me by friends and others are products that I myself have purchased and found incredibly useful during my travels.
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I received this passport cover as a gift from my best friend for my birthday and really love the look and quality. The cover comes in two colors, true black or english saddle. If you sign up to be a Madewell Insider — you just need to give an email address — you can personalize the passport cover for your friend for free. You have the choice of large or small font and you can add up to three letters to the bottom right corner of the passport cover. This was such a beautiful touch and at $29.50, it’s a reasonable price point for a gift for a friend going travelling.
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The Allbirds tagline?…the world’s most comfortable shoes. That’s a pretty big statement to make but fortunately for them and for us as consumers, Allbirds have created a shoe that is incredibly comfortable, if not the MOST comfortable. What traveler wouldn’t want a pair of tree runners to take with them on their next summer vacation? Beyond just comfortability, Allbirds are machine washable, minimize odor (you don’t need to wear socks with them), regulate temperature, and have a low carbon footprint. That’s like a quintuple win and a fantastic gift for someone travelling!
If you know the destination that your friends are traveling to, why not elevate that experience for them and choose a tour activity for them to participate? A paella cooking class in Spain or an olive oil tasting in Italy might not be on your friend’s radar just quite yet, but it will be once you gift your friend with that opportunity. The easiest way to do this would be to purchase a gift card through GetYourGuide, a trusted booking platform with over 35,000 listed experiences. Viator would be another reliable company to book tours through; however, they don’t have a gift certificate option, so you would need to choose a specific date and time for your friend’s experience. Most tours on Viator do have a 24 hour cancellation policy though, so your friend could probably change the date/time around if needed. Airbnb experiences would have been an ideal option, but unfortunately, you have to book the tour under your friend’s account which could prove difficult.
Shay Mitchell, of Pretty Little Liars fame, created her own line of travel accessories based off her own travels and “Shaycation” YouTube series. The company, Beis, is sold at Nordstrom and has the cosmetic case along with other items in the range including a weekend bag, backpack, spinner suitcase, etc. The cosmetic case isn’t the most affordable on the market, but it is sure to make any of your friends who watched PLL back in the day extremely excited about their gift.
5. Lifestraw Filtered Water Bottle
This might not be the flashiest gift, but your friends will be extremely thankful for the filtered water bottle when they are on vacation. After a long plane ride or a long day of sightseeing with 28,000 steps logged on their Fitbit, dehydration is the real deal. Your body will be craving and needing water 24/7. With a filtered water bottle, your friend can fill up from the tap or a nearby fountain and won’t have to worry about any funky tastes or cloudiness. And, you’ll limit plastic waste because you won’t need to buy multiple plastic bottles daily.
6. Noise Cancelling Headphones
If you’re anything like me and always manage to be sitting right in front of three screaming toddlers on a plane, then you might just feel generous enough to gift your friend some noise cancelling headphones for the airplane flight. Prices can range from $55 for these well-reviewed Cowin headphones to $279 for Bose headphones or a whopping $349 for Beats.
Socks are one of the most underrated travel items. Seriously. It’s an item that people generally just don’t give too much thought to when they are packing which can be a grave mistake. When you travel, you walk soooo much more than you would on your regular day-to-day. Socks are so critical that you want to make sure you have packed enough socks for the days, the nights, the airplane, and to sleep in if its cold in your hotel room. Barefoot Dreams is my absolute favorite brand for blankets, cardigans, etc. and of course, socks. The softness and overall feel of the material is unlike anything else, so while a pair of Barefoot Dreams socks aren’t the sexiest gift for someone traveling, your friend will undoubtedly be sending you thank-you texts throughout the journey.
Rarely when we pack for a trip do we plan our outfits around a rain jacket. In fact, a rain jacket is usually an afterthought to the whole packing process. We generally throw it in to the suitcase at the very last minute and then end up wearing one almost daily during our trip. Needless to say, your friend will be extremely grateful to you for gifting a North Face Resolve Plus, one of the best rain jackets on the market. The DryVent fabric is excellent quality and the fit is highly regarded.
You’ve made it to your destination after a long flight, took that glorious shower, and are now dressed and ready to go out to a nice dinner after a few too many airplane meals. You’re about to head out the door when you remember that you want to wear one of the necklaces you packed. However, when you go to pull that necklace out of your luggage, it’s in a tangled mess that would take way too much time to un-knot. If this scenario has ever happened to you, help a friend out and make sure it doesn’t happen to her.
Your friend might not be jumping up and down when you hand them a big black brick with a bunch of weird cords attached, but I guarantee you’ll be getting a text from that person two days into the trip letting you know just how useful the Anker charger has been on the travels already. Phone batteries drain incredibly quickly when you are using Google Maps to navigate and TripAdvisor to pick your lunch spot, so having that charger is crucial on any trip.
Read More: How to Meet Travelers Abroad
Giving your friend a travel wrap may just be the most perfect gift because it’s just the right balance between functional and fashionable. The gift is slightly more exciting than some of the other options on this list, and will be used frequently since it’s such a multi-purpose item. Travel shawls are great to use as an airplane blanket, a scarf to wrap around your neck while sightseeing in the frigid cold, and as a cover-up for your shoulders when entering religious institutions.
12. GoPro Action Camera or Red Light Filter
If you really want to do your friends a solid, gift them a GoPro camera for their travels so that they can document all of their outdoor adventures. GoPro just released the new GoPro HERO8 with HyperSmooth stabilization. You can also snag the GoPro HERO7 now for under $200! For an even more affordable option, you can gift your friend with a red light filter for enhanced underwater footage if you know your friend already owns a GoPro. The red light really makes an incredible difference in quality and would be incredibly thoughtful if your friend is taking any sort of beach vacation or diving trip.
13. Travel Steamer
If you have a friend that travels all the time for work and hasn’t yet figured out that a travel steamer is a game changer, then you should gift your friend this immediately. Sure, there are irons in many hotel rooms –especially accommodations that are used to holding conventions and conferences — but you never know if the in-room iron won’t work well or will end up burning your clothes. A travel steamer is compact, relatively light-weight, and totally worth it for perfectly pressed clothes. Just look at all of the incredible reviews these travel steamers have on Amazon!
14. Travel Jewelry from Etsy
Is your friend hosting a party after just getting back from a trip across the world? Instead of purchasing a gift for your friend’s upcoming travels, perhaps you want to purchase something that will be a great reminder of the great experiences that were just had. Etsy, an online store for handmade items, has a plethora of travel accessories that would be perfect for a friend returning from travel. Some of my favorite travel jewelry pieces include these vintage map pendants, longitude and latitude bracelets, and airplane stud earrings.
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Have you received any unique, fun, or functional travel gifts from a friend when you went traveling? Let us know your favorite travel gifts in the comments below!
