Home > News > This year’s top Christmas gifts for travellers
When all someone wants in life is to wander the world, buying them gifts for Christmas can be something of a nightmare (unless you have the cash for a one-way ticket that is). However, if you delve a little deeper, there are plenty of great things you can get a travel lover. The trick is to break it down into two key areas: gifts to inspire and gifts that are useful. Here are some of our top presents to give the traveller in your life this year.
Gifts to inspire
Travel planner: This is such a useful gift for someone who loves travel but isn’t necessarily going to go ‘travelling’ for a few months. In the planner you can put all of the places you’ve been, all the places you want to go and all the things you want to see. Essentially, it’s a way to organise your travel throughout your life, allowing you to tick things off as you see them and prioritise where you want to go. The best planners will also have category breakdowns, so you can select holidays based on what you’re looking for at any given time, such as European city breaks for example.
Scratch map: If your travel lover is also partial to some travel-inspired interior design, you can’t go far wrong with a scratch map. Invented in 2009 by Luckies of London, they have a gold foil layer that can be scratched off once the country has been visited. Underneath the foil is the nation in colour and its capital. Pop these in a glass-less frame to make a really beautiful and unique gift.
Travel guides: Part of the joy of travelling is learning about new cultures and countries, but this has to start before you begin your travels. Travel guides are brilliant for inspiring people, helping to plan a trip and learning important information about a given country. There are loads out there too, covering everything from standard tourist stuff to information about going off the beaten track.
Useful gifts
High quality camera: A more expensive gift, a high quality camera is often the tool a traveller needs to inspire them to take their next trip. Once you’re able to capture the places you visit and the experiences you have in high quality technicolour, suddenly your desire to explore the world becomes a mandate to record and communicate to others through visuals. After all, it is through powerful images that we get an understanding of cultures and events.
Care package: When you’re travelling, it’s often the comforts of home that you miss and need the most. If you have a loved one who’s currently wandering the world, send them a care package with all of their favourite things they can’t get overseas. This might be Yorkshire Tea, Cadbury’s chocolate, a certain hair product or perfume, or a good book (finding a decent book in a hostel book exchange can be a nightmare).
Trek towel: You can’t travel without trekking and trekking is hard work. Consequently, you sweat. However, lugging around a normal towel isn’t practical. A trek towel is lightweight, antibacterial and can be folded up and put in a rucksack.
Tablet: A tablet can be really useful for a traveller, especially if they go away for short periods of time. They’re more lightweight than laptops and easier to use than smartphones but still allow you to surf the net, use apps, take images, email and read. It also means you can better track your travel and keep in touch with life back home.
Subscription to online streaming services: Netflix (or Prime – whatever you choose) is the dream when you’re on the road but it’s an unnecessary expense for many cash-strapped travellers. Consequently, giving this as a gift would be very much appreciated, as it means people can still kick back and watch movies and shows on the other side of the world – a welcome break from trekking, night buses and lugging your luggage around everywhere.
Nadine is one of the directors of eShores. She left school at 16 and went straight in to a travel agency. Over the 30+ years she has worked in various sectors of the industry and has also worked as an overseas representative in both summer and ski resorts. She has also travelled to many countries from Europe to the Far East and USA.
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AlisonFletcher
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Sandra
As always, Chris was extremely helpful and knowledgeable. He gave me good advice on my travel plans and booked the holiday on my behalf. I've used eshores a number of times, and will continue to do so.
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Harrison
We haven’t been on our trip yet but based purely on the experience of booking the trip we are pleased with the result. It started with a bit of a hiccup as we spoke to a member of staff who never came back to us but when we reached back out again we were placed in the hands of Andy who has helped us book a 2 week trip to India including the golden triangle and then a few days on the beach. Andy was very patient with us with our changes to our tailor made holiday, even when we asked him to explore different areas only to revert back to the original plan. He also recommended moving the holiday back one week which created a saving of over £700 which meant we could upgrade the room for our beach stay in Goa. Andy was also available on weekends if we wanted to speak and regularly picked up the phone as opposed to keeping it to purely email dialogue. Hopefully the holiday will be amazing but based on the booking experience I would recommend eShores if you’re looking to book a tailor made holiday
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Wendy
I spoke to Lynette who was extremely helpful in understanding the trip that myself and my sister in law wanted from Thailand. Myself and my sister in law are both 72years young and we are really looking forward to our trip.
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Dawn
Excellent service from Matt at eShores. So very helpful and nothing was too much trouble. I booked Mya holiday after all his hard work finding me the perfect holiday that I wanted. Superb service and not pushy all all.
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Amrik
We have booked two big holidays this year for a group of 8 and a group of 10, Rachel has coordinated our holidays with the utmost excellence, during the consultation we changed countires hotels and even flights but it did not phase Rachel one bit. Exceeds customer expectations by helping advising and supporting throughout the holiday. We are off to Thailand and Dubai in August and then followed by India and Thailand in November, I have rang emailed Rachel many times during the booking and I got very prompt responses even on her days off. Rachel is a credit to EShores and EShores is setting standards regarding customer focus.
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IainWilliam
I can’t praise Lynette at EShores enough. She has organised my trips perfectly to the point that I wouldn’t use anyone else. She listens to what I want or to the problem I have and comes up with a solution. Nothing is too much trouble. Try them out yourselves and I bet you become a repeater too!
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Kevin
At short notice, I needed a quote to travel through the USA (July the 20th) I emailed eShores with an idea of what I wanted to do, within a short period of time I had a response from Matthew, After several amendments to my holiday which wasn't any trouble to Matthew, Holiday all booked, now looking forward to travelling through the USA Have to say, the service I had through eShores was fantastic, well done Matthew for working through the changes,
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Marcus
Dealt with Adam who was great, I went back and forth many times, nothing was a problem for him. We got there in the end and Adam arranged a 3 place holiday to Malaysia and Singapore. We go on 5th August, will if update review when we return. EShores so far brilliant hats of to Adam.
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Jill
We as a family used eShores last year to go to USA, and they were brilliant, my husband and 1 are going to Italy with them this September and we have just booked again to go back to USA with them next May, very efficient and Matt is lovely to deal with
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