TL;DR:
Everyone has a running list of places they mean to get to. This season, you can help them cross one off. Airline gift cards let them choose the fare. Travel registries let friends and family pitch in on a bigger trip, one guesthouse night or snorkel tour at a time. Hotel gift cards cover the stay, and an experiences card covers that one afternoon they'll talk about for years. Below, we break down how each option works, plus the gear that makes the trip easier once it's booked.
How to Give the Gift of Travel
Most of us have enough stuff. The sweater gets worn twice, the gadget lands in a drawer, and the garage fills with bins nobody opens. A trip doesn't end up in a closet. Years later, you still remember the first look at the Louvre, or the cooking class, or the hike with the bucket list view.
That's why more people are giving travel: a flight, a few hotel nights, a guided tour, or a share of a bigger trip someone has been planning for years. Here are the most practical ways to do it this holiday season.
Airlines Gift Cards & Miles
The simplest option is an airline gift card. American Airlines, Delta, and Southwest all sell them, and they work like cash toward a fare, so the traveler still picks the destination. United works a little differently: you can buy TravelBank cash toward United travel, or a United Vacations gift card for flight-and-hotel packages.
Some loyalty programs also let you buy or transfer miles into someone else's account. It's a nice gesture for a frequent flyer, but bought miles usually cost well more than they're worth at redemption. In most cases, a gift card goes further.
Travel Registries
For a bigger trip, like a honeymoon, a milestone birthday, or a long-planned sabbatical, a registry lets several people chip in. The traveler lists the pieces of the trip: a night at a guesthouse, a snorkel tour, a museum pass, even visa fees. Friends and family fund whichever pieces they choose, and the money is paid out to the traveler.
Most registry sites charge a small fee, and features vary, so compare a few before setting one up. Long-running options include Traveler's Joy, Honeymoon Wishes, and Honeyfund. The best part comes later, when the photos from the trip show up in the group chat.
Hotels & Resorts
Several hotel, resort, and cruise brands run their registries through Honeymoon Wishes, including Hilton, Fairmont, Atlantis, Disney's Fairy Tale Weddings & Honeymoons, Carnival, and Royal Caribbean. Guests contribute toward a stay or onboard extras at that specific brand.
If you'd rather not commit to one brand, a Hotels.com gift card covers hundreds of thousands of properties worldwide. Cards range from $10 to $2,000 and, in the US, carry no fees or expiration dates. Marriott also sells gift cards for stays across its brands.
Tours & Experiences
Sometimes the best part of a trip is one afternoon: a food tour, a sailing day, a hands-on class. The Global Experiences Card Powered by Viator can be used toward tours and activities in destinations around the world, from a day trip near home to an excursion halfway across the globe.
The Gear That Goes With It
The trip is the gift. The right gear makes it easier, and it gives them something to unwrap now for a trip that might be months away.
- Tour Travel Pack 40L: A carry-on-size pack with a weatherproof, duffel-style front compartment and a harness that zips away when the bag has to be checked. It expands to a 44L capacity and works as well for a long weekend as for two weeks on the move.
- Pack-It® packing cubes: Cubes in a range of sizes keep clothes sorted, so living out of a bag doesn't mean digging through it.
- Comfort Bundle: An Exhale Neck Pillow, Sandman Sleep Mask, and Travel Ear Plugs for long flights and overnight trains, plus an extra-small Pack-It® Reveal Cube to keep them together.
- Undercover RFID Neck Wallet: Worn under clothing, it holds a passport, cards, and cash, with RFID-blocking material and a strap that adjusts for vertical or horizontal wear.
- Global Travel Adapter 45W: One adapter for 220+ destinations, with a USB-C and a USB-A port for charging a phone and tablet at once. Note that it doesn't convert voltage and is for non-grounded devices only.
However you give it, the idea is the same: help someone get to the next place on their list. For more ideas, browse our Gift Guide for gifts for wherever they go next.
