Gifts for Travelers 2019

Travel Gift Ideas: Products and Experiences for Travelers of Any Age

Because pretty much all of us are presented with gift opportunities well beyond the holiday season, the Bashful Adventurer offers these gift ideas for the travelers in your life—even if that traveler happens to be you. Indeed, we like all of these unique gifts for travelers.

Unique Gifts for Travelers: Birchbox

Until recently, my knowledge of Birchbox was seeing those intriguing packages show up periodically at the mailbox of my neighbors, several of whom are in the 25 and under crowd.  I saw it as the Trunk Club or Stitch Fix of makeup. I have been delighted to learn that fill-your-own Birchbox opportunities now exist at Duane Reade and Walgreens.

A Birchbox is a perfect choice for a traveler—it provides an opportunity to bring along travel-sized options of products regularly used.

Why not just bring full-sized ones? Well, they do sometimes tend to run into trouble with the friendly folks at the Transportation Security Administration. I am still traumatized from the time several years ago when, after another terrorism scare, a TSA officer conducted a second bag check prior to boarding and confiscated multiple tubes of Chanel lip gloss from a group of young ladies. I am still annoyed that a full bottle of unused sunscreen was taken from me. But a Chanel lip gloss grab is over the top in my view.

Along comes Birchbox to save the day. With some personally curated travel-sized items selected in a little gift to myself, I need not worry about confiscation. And should a worst-case scenario occur with a grabby TSA-er, I needn’t pout that much since it won’t be the full-size version.

Plus, it’s nice to travel with face masks and other items I would not ordinarily bring along. Here’s what I chose for my Birchbox:

• Arrow Boost color enhancing lip balm (not sure how the color enhancing works, exactly, but I choose to believe)
• Jour d’automne Smoothing Balm (does away with frizzy hair—a much-needed product as my hair does not transition to changing environments as easily as I do)
• Sand & Sky Australian Pink Clay (a flash perfection exfoliating treatment—who doesn’t need this?!)
• Klorane Shampooing sec au lait d’avoine (that’s dry shampoo with oat milk to you and me—a product I need at home and abroad)
• Laura Geller Baked Gelato Swirl Illuminator in Diamond Dust (some say ‘eye shadow,’ others go with ‘baked gelato swirl illuminator.’ Either way, this adds a dash of fun—and I use it on eyes, lips, temples, everywhere!)

Best Gifts for Travelers, Youthful Version: Warriors & Scholars Joggers

For the youthful adventurers, a pair of Warriors & Scholar joggers are a perfect travel choice—in sum, they’re sweatpants with style. These met with the approval of all of the millennial travelers (ages 25, 21, and 19) in my life (although some maintain that they happen to be post-millennial, they still like the pants).

Gifts for Bookish Travelers: On Location: A Film and TV Lover’s Travel Guide

For the traveling movie buffs and TV fans in your life, pick up a copy of Lisa Iannucci’s On Location: A Film and TV Lover’s Travel Guide for state-by-state locations of interesting destinations based on, yes, cinema and the tube. Who knew there was a Breaking Bad tour in Albuquerque? Iannucci did! Get ready to mark up this work—to highlight places you need to go and places you’ve been. We can only hope Iannucci writes a similar work covering Europe—and soon!

For those whose travels trend more toward dark tourism, Tod Benoit’s Where Are They Buried? is a fun accompaniment listing, as it does, the final resting places of movie stars and other notables. For travelers headed to eastern New York state, a copy of Haunted Hudson Valley by Cheri Farnsworth provides some destinations where spooky fun might be found. (Cemetery tourists looking for places to go might find 13 Graveyards Worth Visiting to be a helpful starting point.)

Gifts for Travelers 2019: All Things Rick Steves

There are a billion guidebooks out there, but the ones I always turn to are those published by Rick Steves. What do I like about them? They include practical information like how exactly to procure train tickets and tips for avoiding long lines. Rick is like an experienced friend who’s been there before willing to dispense insider tips. Sure enough, I do cheat on Rick with other guidebooks, but his are the ones I return to most.

Best Gifts for Travelers: The Gift of Experiences

This year, rather than give our kids the electronics that they really want (but that they’ll also save up for to purchase on their own), we’ve opted to provide experiences. What that translates to: a tour and dinner in the nearest metropolis, which for us happens to be NYC.

For our financial wizard offspring, we’re touring Manhattan’s financial district and heading to a steakhouse frequented by Wall Street types. For the history buff in our family, it will be a tour based on Alexander Hamilton and a meal at an historic tavern. For the lover of unicorns, we’ll be headed to see the same at New York’s Cloisters. Because our unicorn lover also loves hot chocolate, we’ll be headed to Serendipity for some of the frozen stuff.

Giving the Gift of Travel: Gate 1 Travel

If you are into giving experiences on a grander scale, Gate 1 Travel opportunities might be a good option for you. What we like about Gate 1: it offers short-term trips even to very remote destinations (Machu Picchu) as well as upscale and lower-scale ones. You can opt for a guided tour or a do-it-on-your-own package (that just provides airfare and hotel).

Whether you are looking for a unique travel gift for others or gifting yourself, may your adventure (in person or from the sidelines) be a good one.

—Lori Tripoli

Full disclosure: Samples of some of the products mentioned here were provided to the Bashful Adventurer.

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Need some more gift ideas? You might like this post:

• Father’s Day Gift Guide: Gifts For Men Who Travel

What’s your favorite travel gift to give or to receive?