Shopping for a travel lover this holiday season? There are thousands of kinds of gadgets and gear available for the globetrotters in your life. But after traveling nonstop through more than 60 countries, these are the top five gifts we’d recommend:
5. Sony MDRZX110NC Noise Cancelling Headphones
Travel can be overwhelming, and sometimes it’s nice to be able to create your own little bubble. These noise-cancelling headphones will drown out crying babies, chatty seatmates, and other travelers watching YouTube without earbuds. There are hundreds of kinds out there, but we like these because they fold flat for packing and work equally well with phones, laptops, and seat-back entertainment systems — they come with an adapter for international airplanes that use two-prong connectors. They’re also inexpensive enough that we don’t worry about traveling with them.
4. Dream Essentials Escape Luxury Travel and Sleep Mask
A well-rested traveler is a happy traveler who can enjoy the adventure. But with sun streaming through the windows of hotel rooms, airplanes, and everywhere else travelers are trying to catch some shuteye, being well rested can be a challenge. Enter the perfect sleep mask. This one is soft, features an adjustable headband, and has cavities for your eyes, so you can blink your way to REM bliss.
3. Samsonite Wheeled Underseat Bag
We love to save money when we travel (who doesn’t?), and this bag saves us luggage fees on nearly every flight. It’s compact enough to fit under the seat of even the smallest airplanes, which means it can count as a personal item when necessary, and it holds a ton of stuff. We’ve used ours as an overnight bag for short trips and as a gear bag for heavy, fragile electronics on longer trips. Having your belongings in the cabin with you means baggage handlers can’t lose them!
Find our packing tips for traveling using only carry-on luggage here.
image via Backpackers.com
2. Nalgene Tritan Wide Mouth BPA-Free Water Bottle and SteriPen UV Water Purifying System
This duo is another great way to save money when you travel. Rather than buying expensive bottled water in disposable plastic, we fill up our Nalgene bottle with tap water and purify it with the SteriPen. We’ve saved hundreds of dollars and safely enjoyed water from more than 100 countries all over the world since we began using these indispensable items.
This device is the best piece of gear we have with us on our around-the-world adventure. We no longer have to go from cafe to cafe searching for a free wifi signal, and we don’t have to pay for expensive daily coverage through our cell phone provider. We’ve had fast, reliable Internet access with no data caps in nearly every country we’ve visited so far, and it’s invaluable for maps and navigation when you’re finding your way around foreign places. Bonus: it serves as a USB power bank to recharge phones and camera batteries, too. Save 10% on Skyroam when you use promo code WEMARRIEDADVENTURE.
Happy holidays to you wherever you may roam!