Have you thought of gifting a hotel experience anywhere in the world? How about an RV rental that your gift recipient can use for a romantic getaway? You can stretch your money far with these unexpected gifts, or go a more standard route with quality luggage that offers smart organizing solutions or comfortable travel accessories. If you’re looking for a gift for a travel property entrepreneur, there’s an option on this list for them too. Must read:
The best cheap tech gifts for under $100The best cheap tech gifts under $75The best cheap tech gifts under $50The best cheap tech gifts under $25
The best travel gifts
Below are 12 travel gift ideas I found for the holiday season this year, from all-inclusive vacations to accessories.
The best travel deals
Below are five travel deals I found happening right now. The Merry Christmas box offers trips for one or two people to visit one of 100 countries. Your gift recipient can choose a trip close to home for a fun day excursion, or structure a longer vacation around an experience farther away. They can swim with the manatees in Florida, take surfing lessons in California, enjoy a sightseeing sail trip for two in Maine, or even take a waterfall hike in Hawaii. If they would like to leave the country, they can experience a gourmet five-course dinner in Rio de Janeiro, visit the Harry Potter studio in London, tour a Game of Thrones experience in Croatia, or visit a Beijing opera night show. You can select either an experience box or a getaway box – the latter includes the hotel stay. It can be much more expensive, ranging from $199 to $1,299. I bought a getaway gift box for my sister in May (for her birthday), and she loved it. I purchased the additional $10 gift box, so that she a physical gift to open, but you can also send the gift as an eVoucher via print or email. The latter option is more eco-friendly. I pretended I was booking a vacation to Aruba, leaving from JFK in New York to AUA in Oranjestad. What were my options if I left on December 12 and came back on December 26? A tidy two-week vacation right in the middle of the holidays. The options that unfolded before me were actually reasonable considering what was included in the price. For a 14-night stay and a roundtrip flight, I would be out $2,685 per traveler. The hotel featured an on-site spa, pool, and gym. Costco Travel is only available to Costco members who live in the US. You’ll have the benefit of transparent pricing on each package. Plus, you’ll receive alerts throughout the booking process if you incur additional fees. And if you’re an executive member, you’ll also receive a 2% reward after the vacation. All of Away’s Flex suitcases have a removable, washable lining for easy cleaning. There’s an interior compression system to help you pack in more stuff and a hidden laundry bag to separate clean and dirty clothes. The exterior measurements are 21.7 x 13.7 x 9 inches, and the interior measurements are 20 x 13.5 inches. When empty, it weighs only 8.15 pounds, and the capacity is 39.8 L (46.7 L after expansion). The benefit to gifting a Roadsurfer rental is that the recipient has access to a brand new, fully-equipped class B RV with unlimited mileage, roadside assistance, and camping gear. The downside? It’s currently only available from Los Angeles, with a drop-off point at either Las Vegas or San Francisco, and there’s a $690 one-way drop-off fee. This means listings on Airbnb, Vrbo, and Booking.com, all managed by Vacasa. It means 24/7 guest support, so the homeowner doesn’t have to be awake at all hours of the night. The home itself will stay safe, clean, and stocked, and it’ll be marketed effectively to millions of prospective customers. Vacasa prides itself on its tech and the data it uses to give clients more for their property. There’s also a real estate side of their site for buying or selling investment properties. Plus, the notebook comes in recyclable plastic-free packaging, and you can add a free gift note at checkout (or purchase a Papier gift box separately). Inside the notebook, there’s an About me page, a travel wishlist, space for six separate trip details (including transport, budgets, journaling, and more), a packing guide, a list of countries, and a map of the world to color. This notebook is the perfect gift for an organized world traveler. The phone holder mount offers 360-degree rotation capabilities, so having it means more possibilities for using your phone at a variety of angles and orientations. Pair it with your favorite noise-canceling headphones, and you’ve got a comfortable airplane ride. The phone holder mount folds up small and is sturdy enough to keep your phone at a comfortable viewing angle, no matter where you are. The mask is made of a breathable memory sponge that puts zero pressure on your eyes while blocking out 100% of light. The speaker it uses is thin and of premium quality and it supports all devices with Bluetooth. You can take out the Bluetooth module and wires and wash the mask by hand with warm water. The downsides are that this mask isn’t noise canceling, there’s a voice that says power on or off, and there’s a light that blinks when the mask is in use. The water bottle is free of BPA, BPS, PVC, phthalates, lead, and latex, and is dishwasher safe. You can put hot or cold beverages in it, or even freeze a beverage. The standout feature is that this bottle is leakproof, which any traveler will appreciate. The bottle is sturdy enough to stand on its own without water in it. You can bring it with you, empty and rolled up in your bag, and save a few bucks by filling it at an airplane water fountain while you wait for your flight. To use this product, open the travel-friendly packet and pour it into an 8 oz glass of water. You mix or shake it, drink it, and go to sleep faster. The Sleep Multiplier is non-GMO, gluten-free, dairy-free, soy-free, and vegan – plus, it tastes like blueberries. For every purchase you make, Liquid IV. donates a serving to places around the world that need it most, including disaster zones and hospitals. All you do is place the large, stone-like object on your chest. You pick a track from the 13 tracks that you’re given, download it to your phone within the Sensate app, and then play the track from your phone or headphones. The Sensate vibrates in time with the music, whether you choose a nature, space and time, sacred spaces, or breathe track. Focusing on the vibrations of the Sensate, ideally when your eyes are closed and covered with an eye mask, can help you feel calmer and more at peace. It can help you sleep or get into a meditative state. However, if I had more money in my gift budget, I would have gotten her an all-inclusive vacation. If I had less, I would have gotten her a travel notebook or accessory that she still would’ve appreciated. The main thing with gifting is showing the people you love that you listen to them and care about their interests, enough to gift them something meaningful. As I went through countless items to narrow down the best ones for this list, I kept thinking, would someone who travels a lot or wants to travel appreciate this? If the answer was a yes, then I could recommend it. But gifts can come in all shapes and sizes, so we also rounded up the best gifts by category, price, and retailer – plus, the hottest tech toys for kids in 2023. Gifts by category
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Gifts by price
The best cheap tech gifts under $100The best cheap tech gifts under $75The best cheap tech gifts under $50The best cheap tech gifts under $25
Gifts by retailer Gifts for kids