Choosing gifts for someone going travelling is harder than it looks. Whatever you give has to do one of two jobs: earn its place in a backpack that's already too full, or stay behind and mean something while they're away. So this guide splits the ideas in two: light, useful things that travel with them, then sentimental gifts that wait at home. There are also sections for parents buying for a daughter or son, for best friends and for the office leaving collection, plus a short list of what not to give a backpacker.
First, what kind of trip is it?
Working out what to get someone going travelling starts with the trip, not the shop. Before you buy anything, ask (or quietly find out) three things.
- How are they carrying it all? A 40-litre rucksack and budget-airline baggage limits mean every gram counts. A suitcase and a year on a working holiday visa leave more room to play with.
- How long are they going for? A three-week Interrail loop and a year in Australia need different things. The longer the trip, the more sense a gift that stays at home makes.
- What have they already got? It's surprisingly easy for a gap year student to end up with three travel adaptors from three different relatives. A quick message to a sibling or flatmate saves a duplicate.
If you're still not sure, a gift that stays at home is the safe bet: it can't be lost and adds nothing to their luggage.
Gifts that fit in a backpack
A good rule: if it isn't small, light and used most weeks, it'll be left in a hostel by week three. These earn their space.
A passport cover with an AirTag pocket
The passport is the one thing they really can't lose. A cover stops it getting bent and scuffed at the bottom of a bag, and one with a pocket for an Apple AirTag means they can see where it is in the Find My app.
Our AirTag Passport Cover (£31.95) is slim tan leather with the AirTag pocket on the front, fits a UK passport and has slots for cards and a boarding pass. AirTags are set up with an iPhone or iPad, so it suits Apple users, and the AirTag itself isn't included, so you could add one to the present.
A luggage tag they'll spot on any carousel
When forty near-identical black rucksacks come round the belt in Bangkok, a tag that stands out saves a nervous few minutes and an awkward mix-up. Our Personalised Leather Luggage Tag (£9.95) carries their initials or name, up to 10 characters, in gold foil, and makes a nice small add-on to a bigger gift. Whatever tag they use, suggest a phone number and email on it rather than a home address.
Light essentials: adaptor, microfibre towel, packing cubes, power bank
Not the most romantic presents, but these are the ones that get used every day.
- A universal travel adaptor. Pick one with built-in USB-A and USB-C ports, so a single plug charges a phone, camera and earbuds overnight.
- A microfibre towel. It packs down small and dries fast, which matters when checkout is at 10am and the towel is still damp from the morning swim.
- Packing cubes. They turn a top-loading rucksack into a chest of drawers. A set of three in different colours is plenty.
- A power bank. Handy on long bus rides and in dorms with one socket for eight people. Under UK Civil Aviation Authority rules, power banks go in hand luggage, never in the hold, and mustn't be recharged on board. Airlines can add their own limits, so check before flying.
Sentimental gifts for someone going travelling
Practical gifts get used. Sentimental ones get kept. The best sentimental gift for someone going travelling often doesn't need to come with them at all.
A memory box that waits at home for their tickets
Every long trip produces a pile of paper: boarding passes, bus tickets, museum stubs, a hostel wristband, a beer mat with a phone number on it. Without a home, it ends up in a drawer. Our Memory Box gives it one.
It's a square shadow-box frame with a slot cut into the top edge. Tickets, photos and postcards go in through the slot and collect behind the clear acrylic front, under a thin black wire outline of the world map. It hangs on a wall or stands on a shelf, and the back opens with release tabs, so things can be taken out and rearranged.
Give it before they leave and hang it in their room. Pop a photo from the send-off inside so it isn't empty, then add the postcards they send home while they're away. When they get back, the boarding passes at the bottom of their bag finally have somewhere to go.
It comes in Medium (20 x 20cm, £34.95) and Large (30 x 30cm, £39.95), each in white, black or natural wood. A standard airline boarding pass is about 20cm long and goes in short end first, so in the Medium it sits at an angle or upright rather than flat. For a long trip with lots of full-size boarding passes or A6 postcards, the Large is the better fit. For ideas on what's worth keeping, see our guide to travel memory box ideas.
Letters to open on the road
Free, weighs almost nothing, and probably the gift they'll keep longest. Write a handful of short letters, each labelled for a moment:
- Open on your first night
- Open when you're homesick
- Open on your birthday
- Open on the longest bus ride
Keep them thin, number them so the birthday one doesn't get opened in week one, and put the stack in a zip-lock bag, because rucksacks get rained on. If a group of friends each writes one, it doubles as a leaving present.
Flag stickers to mark every country
Our Flag Sticker Set (£9.95) has 192 country flags on waterproof, easy-peel vinyl, and it's light enough to slip into a bag. The stickers can turn a water bottle, laptop or journal into a running scoreboard, or stay at home and go on the Memory Box frame as each new country is ticked off.
Gap year gifts for him and her
Most gap year gifts don't need splitting by gender. What changes is the person: the planner, the photographer, the one who loses everything. So here are our gift ideas for someone going travelling, sorted by rough budget instead.
| Budget | Fits in the backpack | Waits at home |
|---|---|---|
| Under £15 | Microfibre towel, packing cubes, a personalised luggage tag (£9.95) | Letters to open on the road, flag stickers (£9.95), printed photos from the send-off |
| £15 to £40 | Universal adaptor, power bank, packable daypack, AirTag passport cover (£31.95) | A Memory Box: Medium £34.95, Large £39.95 |
| £40 and up | An e-reader (far lighter than a stack of paperbacks) | The Traveller Gift Set (£66.99), which covers both columns |
A few quick matches: the photographer will always use a spare memory card, the planner will love a paper notebook that survives being sat on, and the one who loses everything needs that passport cover more than anyone.
Gifts for a daughter or son going travelling
When parents buy a gift for a daughter going travelling, or a son, there's often a quiet second aim: peace of mind. That's fair enough, as long as the gift feels like theirs and not a tracking device in disguise. If you're giving the AirTag cover, ask whether they'd like to share its location with you rather than assuming.
Gifts that tend to land well with grown-up children:
- Something practical they'd never buy themselves, like a decent power bank or adaptor.
- A Memory Box for their room, with a family photo already inside.
- A letter from you for the first night, tucked into the passport cover.
- An agreed time to call each week, which costs nothing and often means more than any parcel.
Leaving presents from friends and colleagues
A leaving present for a friend going travelling can be more personal (and sillier) than anything the family gives. Ideas that work:
- A stack of open-when letters, one from each friend.
- Three or four printed photos, small enough to tuck into a journal or phone case.
- Flag stickers, with the flag of their first stop already stuck on a water bottle.
An office leaving collection is different. The best leaving gift for someone going travelling from a whole team is usually one shared present, with a known budget and something a committee can agree on in a single chat thread. A ready-made bundle helps here. Our Traveller Gift Set (£66.99) brings together a Medium Memory Box in white, black or natural wood, the AirTag Passport Cover and a Personalised Leather Luggage Tag. Add a card where everyone writes one tip or recommendation for the trip, and you've got a present they'll actually read.
What not to give someone going backpacking
Well-meant, but likely to be left behind:
- Anything heavy. Hardback books, chunky guidebooks and full-size toiletry sets. Their phone already has the maps.
- Anything fragile or precious. Glass, ceramics, good jewellery or an expensive watch they'd worry about in a dorm.
- Bulky clothes. They'll have packed for the climate already, and hostel washing machines are not kind.
- Things that need looking after. Plants, or anything that would have to be posted home.
- Duplicates. See the three-adaptor problem above.
The test for going travelling gifts is simple: would you carry it for six months? If not, make it a gift that waits at home.
FAQs
What do you get someone going travelling?
Mix one practical gift with one sentimental one. For the backpack, think small and used daily: a passport cover, a universal adaptor, packing cubes or a power bank. For home, choose something that keeps the trip, like a memory box for their tickets or a stack of letters to open on the road.
Is a sentimental gift or a practical one better?
It depends on the trip and the luggage. For a short, light trip, practical gifts get used every day. For a long trip, a sentimental gift that stays at home is often better, because it can't be lost or broken, adds no weight, and is waiting for them when they return.
What's a good leaving gift from colleagues for someone going travelling?
Pick one shared gift rather than lots of small ones, with a clear budget agreed up front. A travel gift set works well because the choosing is done for you, with something useful for the trip and something for home. A card full of tips from the team finishes it off.
When should you give a leaving gift?
Give practical gifts a week or two before they go, so there's time to pack and test them, and to swap anything they already own. Sentimental gifts can wait for the leaving drinks or the send-off at the airport, when a letter or memory box means the most.
Send them off in style
The kit gets them there. The memories are what they bring home, and the best gifts for someone going travelling make room for both. Give them somewhere to keep every boarding pass, bus ticket and postcard from the trip with the Wandersake Memory Box, ready and waiting on the wall for the day they walk back through the door.