Inspire next year’s trips with these easy gifts for the traveler on your list
Our family of four started traveling full time in 2022. We’ve now road-tested (not to mention plane, train, taxi, rickshaw, and cruise ship tested) gear that has made our travels much easier and more fun. For the traveler on your list, we think these 5 easy travel gifts can make their next trips more enjoyable and lots easier too.
MODL Straps
Nowhere to hang towels in your room? Need a way to set up your phone for an amazing shot? What if you could contraption up simple rigs for whatever you needed to do on the road?
Whether a water bottle holder, a towel hook, or a camera mount, our MODL straps have become one of our most-used go-to travel items.
With these simple combos of straps, connectors, buckles, and hooks, we can rig up pretty much anything we need during our travels. Plus, they’re lightweight and compact, so we always have a bag with us on our day-to-day adventures too.
Cotopaxi Allpa 35L Carry-on Backpack
We got our his-and-her Allpa backpacks in 2022. From Malaysia to Mexico to Morocco, they have made backpack travel so much easier for us adults, especially for Jodie as an amputee who uses a prosthetic leg.
Our packs carry our clothes, cameras, computers, and more, in spaces that balance. Yet they carry well on the back. The straps stow for easy storage. We can even use our backpacks as airplane carryons.
Even better? In 2024, Cotopaxi redesigned the Allpa to include an exterior water bottle pocket.
Waypoint Goods Travel Scarf with Hidden Pocket Collection
Stylish, lightweight, comfy—and with a discreet hidden pocket that can store passports, cash, cards, and other small valuables? Jodie’s Waypoint Goods Travel Scarf with Hidden Pocket has become not only an essential piece of travel kit, but a useful and snazzy accessory to go with her travel dresses.
The scarf is available in a variety of colors and patterns, though Jodie is quite partial to her black with world map print. It’s a stylish pick for easy travel gifts.
Kids’ Volume Limited Headphones
For starters, as much as we love that our kids can entertain themselves with games and shows, or use their tech in their schoolwork, we don’t always want to hear the sounds. These headphones make our living space quieter, and they’re easy to pull out of a backpack on travel days.
While they’re Bluetooth headphones, they can use a corded connection (which is what we typically do). Multiple colors are available, and each pair has lasted us for years with no problems. Plus, the headphones have built-in hearing protection to limit noise levels.
Book pick: Pathfinders: Extraordinary Stories of People Like You on the Quest for Financial Independence—And How to Join Them
Travel can be part of someone’s overall journey to becoming financially independent. This compilation of essays from people on their financial independence, or FI, journeys, came out in 2023. It’s a book not just about building wealth, but taking control of one’s life and living based on your priorities, not someone else’s.
Pathfinders also includes an essay by Anthony on when our family left our house behind and started traveling!
You can get the book in hardcover, ebook, or audio formats too.
Looking for more ideas for easy travel gifts?
We’ve got other travel gift ideas at our Amazon shop:
And you can find more ideas on travel products and services perfect for gifting here:
May you and the traveler on your list have awesome trips next year and beyond! Happy holidays!
