The Best Men’s Travel Gifts

Lightweight, compact, and quick-drying, the travel towel is an essential item for backpackers. Not only are they perfect for stuffing into his backpack for days out at the beach, but they also solve the issue of whether or not his $5 per night hostel provides towels (hint: they probably don’t).

We suggest trying the Big Jim extra-large Microfibre Towel. It’s the size of a large beach towel while remaining compact when rolled up and the quality is great for the price.

Yes, we know, it’s a bit of an obvious choice. But when you require an inexpensive yet genuinely helpful gift, you really can’t go wrong with a good guidebook. This holds particularly true if you know he’ll be spending an extended amount of time in one place. 

You won’t be short on options for travel guide books, but we highly recommend Lonely Planet for the completeness of their guides. With the right Lonely Planet book, no matter where he is in the world, he won’t have any trouble finding hotels, hostels, guesthouses, bars, or restaurants.

I was gifted a Lonely Planet guide before backpacking South East Asia, and its value to me far exceeded the 20-ish pounds that it cost. Before arriving in any new town, village, or city I already knew the safest and most backpacker-friendly places to eat, drink and sleep!

When you travel a lot, or when backpacking, you get your sleep any place you can. That might be on a plane with a crying baby behind you, or a 10-hour bus ride sat next to the guy who wants to tell you all about his time hiking in the Andes. Either way, you’ll want something to help cancel out all that noise.

A pair of noise-cancelling earplugs make for a great low-budget. They are something that he might not think to buy for himself, but which he’ll be eternally grateful for when the time comes to use them!

There are tons of options available, starting with basic foam plugs costing just a few pounds. However, these tend to only last for a few uses, so we suggest a mid-range option such as these reusable silicone plugs from WUTAN.

For those of us that can’t quite grow a full enough beard to rock the unshaven traveller look, a beard trimmer is essential.

If he travels often or is backpacking for an extended period of time, he’ll want something small, lightweight, and rechargeable. We suggest something like the Remington B5 which ticks all of those boxes, and benefits from a stylish design and adjustable length setting.

Another handy little travel device – the universal power adaptor. No more arriving at his hotel room only to discover that he has forgotten his power adaptor or that he brought the wrong one. This is a really handy device that makes travel prep a little bit less stressful. 

We suggest the hyleton Worldwide Travel Adapter, which has international plugs covering you for more than 150 countries, and includes 4 standard USB ports plus 1 type C charging port. These have thousands of positive Amazon reviews and are an absolute bargain at only £22.98.

I used to put all of my toiletries into a plastic bag, which would soon get discarded, leaving me with stray tubes of toothpaste and leaky shower gels stuffed into my backpack. That was before my girlfriend bought me a nice faux leather wash bag to keep it all in – revolutionary. Now I don’t have to empty my entire backpack to find my floss, and my shorts don’t smell like shampoo.

Check out this nice looking Faux leather bag from the Printing Corner, which lets you add his initials for a personal touch.

When travelling, no matter how action-packed his adventures, he’ll frequently find himself with time to kill. Enter the Kindle. All the books he could ever read in one tiny, practically weightless device!

We suggest the Kindle Paperwhite – it’s the perfect travel companion. For a start, it’s waterproof, meaning he can confidently read while floating around the pool on an inflatable ring. The brightness is adjustable, so reading in the dark won’t be an issue, and it doesn’t reflect any light, so he’ll have no problems with glare when reading outdoors.

When buying, you have various storage and other options which affect the total price. At the lowest end, you can pick one of these up for as little as £99.99.

As the old Chinese proverb goes – if you didn’t take a picture, were you ever really there?

Most of us have mobile phones that are more than capable of taking pictures to satisfy the needs of the amateur photographer, but we don’t want to take them snorkelling, or kayaking, or risk dropping them down a rocky slope. The good news is, we don’t have to – there are plenty of affordable little cameras available that can handle all of that and more.

Though there are some very good cheaper options, sometimes when it comes to tech, it’s worth paying a little extra. We suggest the FUJIFILM FinePix XP140, which is shock-proof, freeze-proof, and waterproof up to 25 metres.

Wireless earphones are a godsend when travelling! Whether relaxing by a pool or rushing through a busy airport with your luggage, the last thing you need are wires that keep tugging the earphones out of your ears every time you move! 

Depending on how much you want to spend, these can get quite expensive, but there are some quality budget options on the market. I recommend the JLab Audio JBuds Air True Wireless Earbuds. I’ve had a pair of these for more than a year, and for £49.99 they are brilliant! I mostly use them for running, so they’ve endured rain, sweat, and numerous drops to the ground! In terms of audio quality, you get exactly what you’d expect for the price – a well-balanced and clear sound that won’t blow your mind but doesn’t warrant any complaints either!

This item tops our list because to any serious traveller, it is probably the most useful! These things are not a gimmick. A decent water filter bottle will genuinely make water safe to drink from almost any source. Of course, this is within reason. You shouldn’t go seeking out filthy ponds to test this on, but if you needed to fill up from any rivers or lakes while hiking, you’d most likely be safe to do so. 

Natural water sources aside, as a backpacker you’ll frequently find yourself in countries where it isn’t even safe to drink tap water. In such scenarios, a filtration bottle will be your best friend! If you’ve ever woken up in a hostel with a hangover only to discover that you’ve forgotten to stock up on bottled water, you’ll know that the tap in the corner of the room can start to look rather appealing. If only you had a handy little bottle to instantly filter out any nasty stuff that might make you sick.

We recommend the WaterWell™ Travel Ultra 2 Stage Filter Water Bottle. People that use these swear by them and at just £30.99, they make for an excellent inexpensive gift that he’ll really value.