Don’t know what to buy for your traveler friends and family?
Holiday season has come! Did you finish your holiday shopping yet? If you are a reader of Runaway Juno, I bet you are going to buy the holiday gifts to some of your traveler friends. Long-term travelers, holiday travelers, travel bloggers, family travelers, and just people who love traveling would love any of the items on the list. As a long-term traveler myself, I made the perfect holiday shopping list! It’s tricky to buy something for travelers: you don’t want to spend money and buy something they won’t use. They are all about ‘pack-light’. And if you haven’t been in their shoes, it’s hard to guess what they want/ need/ use. So here I am! Don’t worry too much and pick something out from the list based on your budget. Most of the items are focusing on efficiency, unisex, and things that ‘I’m not gonna buy it myself but I’ll use it well if I got it from a present’. Trust me, your traveler friends will love it.
Ebook reader
Kindle Paperwhite
I was one of those stubborn people who was said ‘paper book is the real book!’ but I realized the value of the volume after I started long-term travel. A book or two can be nothing compare to the size of the backpack, but it’s amazing how many things I can fit in to the same size of the space.
After a long research and debate between iPad and Kindle, I decided to get Kindle Paperwhite. There are several version of Kindle, Kindle Paperwhite, 6″ High Resolution Display with Built-in Light, Wi-Fi seemed perfect. The backlight is the feature I can’t miss since I like to read on the buses and trains – and I do overnight trips quite often.For $40 more than the classic Kindle, this would be the perfect choice for me, and the long-term travelers like me.
Amazon Gift Card – E-mail delivery – Amazon Kindle
If you want to buy a simple gift with a low budget, and you can’t physically deliver it, Amazon Gift Card is great choice. All you need is the person’s email address. Especially the person you want to give the holiday gift has a Kindle, he/ she will use the gift card wisely.
Timbuk2 Kindle Cover (fits Kindle Paperwhite, Kindle, and Kindle Touch)
Kindle cover also is a great gift but it’s hard to choose if you don’t know his/ her taste on the accessories. However, you can get a higher success rate with Timbuk2 Kindle Dinner Jacket with Viewing Stand and Hand Strap ; it is a unisex and useful – perfect for the travelers. If you give this for a Christmas present to me, I’d love it.
Tablet
Kindle Fire HD 7″, Dolby Audio, Dual-Band Wi-Fi
Tablet became one of the most popular gadgets and gifts. I also considered to get Kindle fire instead of Kindle Paperwhite, but I needed an ebook reader more than tablet. Kindle Fire is budget friendly than iPad, and also has a great feature.
Apple iPad 2 (16GB, WiFi, Black) 
If your budget is flexible, iPad is a great (or the best) gift. The interface is easy to use and app store is filled with new/useful/not-so-useful-but-fun new apps everyday. The biggest complaint about Kindle Fire users was the lack of app choice. Apple is a leading company of the tablet market, no doubt.

Gears
Camera bag
If the person is a long-term traveler, there’s a good chance that they are an amateur photographer also. Great camera bag is a necessary item and it needs to be updated quite often since they are bringing the camera everywhere. There is a huge market of camera bag from countless brands, Lowepro and Nikon are always trustworthy.
Lowepro Edit 110 Camcorder and Camera Bag
Nikon 5874 Deluxe Digital SLR Camera Case – Gadget Bag
Wireless Flash Memory Drive
Eye-Fi Connect X2 4 GB Class 6 SDHC Wireless Flash Memory Card EYE-FI-4CN
This is not an ordinary memory card. Photos and videos can automatically land in date-based folders of your choice on your computer or even directly into iPhoto for Macs. Isn’t it amazing? I haven’t used it yet but I’d love to if I get one for somehow (maybe a holiday gift?).
Headlight
Headlight/ flashlight is not only useful for the hikers or cavers. It is a necessary item for every kind of traveler. Headlight can be more useful than flashlight for the long-term travelers since they are going so many various places.
Watch
It’s the era of smartphone and electronics, but the watch is still a necessary travel gear. Swatch makes a great watch as we all know: simple, cheap and high-quality. You can’t go wrong with the colour black and the basic Swatch design.
Swatch Something New Ladies Watch LB153
Traveler’s Kitchenware
Kitchenware is one of my favourite items to have/ pack. Don’t you just love things that work? Not only it’s a great design, but also it works – perfectly. Kitchenwares are the perfect example of things that work.
Spork
Spork is one of my favourite travel items. Sadly, I broke mine in Iceland last year when I tried to cut the cold cheese with my plastic spork. Stupid me. Wish I had Titanium Spork! No matter where the destination is, bringing spork can’t hurt. It’s small, flexible, cheap, and most of all, efficient.
Light My Fire SporkCase with 1 Spork
Guyot Designs Squishy Bowl and Cup Set
Klean Kanteen Stainless Steel Water Bottle
I travel with Klean Kanteen Klean Kanteen water bottle and a travel mug, and I highly recommend it to other travelers. Buying a bottled water isn’t always the option depending on the destination, and drinking the tab waster is healthier than the bottled water in many places. More importantly – it’s environment friendly.
Clothing
Gloves
Gloves are long-lasting travel gear. Even if in a summer hiking, gloves should be in the bag for the late night mountain climate. Outdoor Research gloves are light-weight, can be a warm base layer and made with smooth fleece. And again, you can’t go wrong with the colour black!
Socks
High-efficiency socks is one of my must-pack item. It makes so much difference. It is worth to spend the extra money to have at least one good-quality socks. It’s good for hiking, walking, running and a long distance transportation.
ExOfficio BugsAway Purdom Hiker Sock

I really love this Kindle Paperwhite. I saw it through this Juno and I love it. I got myself an Ipad2 16GB already and still wants to get hold of this to serve as my reading buddy on my trips 🙂 I wanna get this one or will someone out there be generous enough to gift me 🙂
Superb ideas Juno.
Headlight: Probably one of the nerdier things I’ve ever bought for myself, but also the one that comes in handy in the most unexpected places! Particularly on those overnight buses with no reading light.
Headlights are a great gift for a traveller. They come in so handy and it is much easier to do things if you don’t have to hold a torch in one hand.
I also think buying a voucher for an experience in a city they are about to visit is a great gift. I bought my in laws tickets to a Broadway show when they visited New York.
Great ideas here. I’m also one of those people that loves physical books, but every time I travel and have some heavy hardcover weighing down my bag, I start thinking about e-readers! I’ve seen the kindle paperwhite gets really good reviews, so going to seriously consider taking the plunge…
As in my tweet, I luv, like and want. The perect gifts for travellers and specially the wifi memory card.
the wireless flash memory card is cool! wonder how it works? i think i’m going to add a titanium spork to my gear because my boyfriend broke our plastic ones! awesome list! hope it’s ok that I featured it on my blog 🙂