Since our family loves to travel so much, we’ve gotten in the habit of giving each other a least one fun travel-related gift during the holidays. This year is no exception, and we’ve got some travel mixed into our holiday celebrations. If the holiday season is taking you away from home, you may want to follow our lead and gear up with the best gifts for your family. Whether you are traveling by air or taking a road trip, there are so many holiday gifts for the traveling family that will have you and your loved ones hoping for another trip real soon!
Holiday Gifts for the Traveling Family
Luggage
Invest in some lightweight but hardy and colorful luggage for your family. Choosing bright colors will help you identify baggage at the airport, amidst that sea of black bags spewing out of the belt at luggage claim. Back in the day, my mom used to tie these ridiculous and embarrassing tassles on our bags to differentiate them from others. With our kids, we try to make packing more enjoyable when they pull out their lime green, bright red, or fuschia suitcase. As soon as your kids are old enough to pack themselves, follow our advice – get them luggage they’ll love to use and not lose.
We’re getting ready for another trip, and like the idea of getting the girls bright luggage we can easily recognize.Journals
If you are traveling with teens (or even young children learning to write or draw), a travel journal is the perfect gift. When Sophia and Ava were little, their travel journals provided a creative project for them during down time. Sitting in an airplane or on a train, they would draw pictures of the places they had seen. As they got older they would write about these places too. Many parents more organized than us keep a family journal where everyone can write down experiences from the trip. This is something you can pull out each year around the holidays or keep as an ongoing family travel journal. A simple notebook works fine, but for gift giving season try a travel themed journal or leatherbound notebook to record your journey together.
The pages of a travel journal rarely stay blank for long, with so many memories to capture along the way.Maps
We’re not talking about big folding maps or atlases to serve as navigation on your trip. The perfect maps for holiday gifts are ones to track your family travels in a fun way. This scratch off world map makes it easy to keep track of all the states and countries your family has visited. Have the kids scratch off each destination with the scratching tool (included) and display with pride in your home. Another way to share your wanderlust is with a corkboard map where you can pin each of your destinations. We’ve even seen people color code the pins. Our friends use white pins for places they’ve visited, and black pins for places they want to visit. In progress, red pins are for places already planned to visit with itineraries already in place. Pretty fun way to keep track of where you’ve been and dream about going next!
Pins on a map can help the family remember all the places we’ve been, and where we plan to go next.Latitude and Longitude Gifts
Commemorate a family destination or the place you call home with some beautiful pieces with latitude and longitude GPS coordinates. Display a personalized sign on your wall with the coordinates of your favorite family trip. Give a bracelet or necklace to remember a special holiday excursion with your loved ones. Or even get personalized coordinate keychains for every member of your traveling family. With these special mementos of your trip, your family and traveling companions will have memories for years to come.
Loaded down for the holidays, even a road trip can be fun with the right presents along for the ride.Whether you’re buying presents this holiday season for your own family or other travelers that you know and love, these holiday gifts for the traveling family are perfect trip preparation. They’re also great for holding onto the travel memories after you’ve returned from your vacation.
