Tech Gifts for Travelers: What They’ll Actually Use in 2026

Jess and I have travelled full time since 2010, and we’ve spent that whole time buying, carrying and giving away travel tech. So: do you have a travel loving tech enthusiast in your life? Someone who loves to travel, but also loves to have all the latest technology toys and gizmos?

Well, we have the gift guide for you. I love to travel and I love technology, so putting together our idea of the perfect tech gift guide for travelers seemed like a very logical idea. Everything on this list is something Jess and I own and travel with, have given as a gift ourselves, or have looked at closely and decided against, and where it’s one of the last two, I’ll say so.

If you just want the short answer: the best tech gifts for travelers right now are the things they won’t buy for themselves. A Bluetooth transmitter for seatback screens, a multi-port GaN charger, and a set of luggage trackers top our list, and none of them costs more than a nice dinner out.

The rest of this guide is organised by budget, because that’s how most of us shop for gifts. The other question to ask before you buy is whether the person already owns one, so the table below flags that for every headline pick and lets you compare everything at a glance.

If you are looking for a more general gift, we recommend also checking out our general gift guide for travelers for more inspiration.

 

Who Are You Buying For?

Not every traveler needs the same things, so before we get to the gifts, here’s how we’d match them to a few common types of traveler.

For someone who flies every week for work, look at the AirFly Pro 2 transmitter, the Anker retractable charger, and a magnetic power bank. These are the small quality-of-life upgrades frequent flyers never quite get around to buying for themselves.

For a backpacker heading off on a long trip, the LifeStraw filter bottle, a rechargeable head lamp and an INIU power bank will all earn a place in their bag, and none of them takes up much room.

For someone who takes one big cruise or package holiday a year, a set of AirTags for their checked luggage, a Kindle Paperwhite for the pool, and noise cancelling earbuds for the flight are all safe bets.

And if you’re buying for a photographer, that’s a subject we know a bit about. The camera, tripod and photo editing sections below are a good start, and we also have a whole separate guide to gifts for photographers.

 

Travel Tech Gifts at a Glance

Here are the main picks in one place. The last column is the one to check before you spend anything: whether the person probably owns one already.

Product	What it’s for	Price band	Do they already own one?
EPICKA 45W Travel Adapter	Plugs and charging in any country	$	Likely, but probably an old slow one
BESTEK Car Power Inverter	Charging laptops and cameras on road trips	$	Unlikely
Lepro Rechargeable Head Lamp	Hands-free light off grid	$	Depends
Travel eSIM plan	Data abroad without roaming fees	$	Unlikely, it’s per-trip
Anker Nano Retractable Charger	Charger and cable in one, nothing to forget	$$	Unlikely
Anker Soundcore 2 Speaker	Waterproof music anywhere	$$	Depends
GL.iNet Travel Router	Better, safer hotel Wi-Fi	$$	Unlikely
Manfrotto PIXI II Mini Tripod	Steady shots from a phone or compact camera	$$	Depends
Twelve South AirFly Pro 2	Wireless earbuds on seatback screens	$$$	Very unlikely
Apple AirTag 4 Pack	Tracking checked luggage and keys	$$$	Depends
INIU P63 Power Bank	Charging everything away from an outlet	$$$	Likely, but a smaller one
Anker MagGo Qi2 Power Bank	Snap-on cable-free phone charging	$$$	Unlikely
EarFun Air Pro 4 Earbuds	Noise cancelling for flights	$$$	Likely, check theirs still work
Shokz OpenMove	Open-ear audio for running and cycling	$$$	Unlikely
Logitech MX Anywhere 3S	Working comfortably from a laptop	$$$	Depends
Frameo Digital Photo Frame	Travel photos for the people back home	$$$	Unlikely
Epicka Pulse Duo 140W	One brick that charges everything, anywhere	$$$$	Very unlikely
Kindle Paperwhite	A holiday’s worth of books in one device	$$$$	Depends
SanDisk Extreme Portable SSD	Backing up photos on the road	$$$$	Unlikely
DJI Mini 3 Drone	Photos and video from the air	$$$$$	Unlikely

Price band key: $ = under $25, $$ = under $50, $$$ = under $100, $$$$ = under $300, $$$$$ = over $300.

 

Tech Gifts Under $25

These are the stocking fillers of the tech world: inexpensive, practical, and used on every single trip.

 

Travel Adapter

One of the best value and most practical tech gifts for a regular traveler is a good travel adapter. Obviously, a tech loving traveler is going to be travelling with a lot of gadgets, and all of these are going to require charging via some sort of electrical outlet.

Unfortunately, there is a huge variety in the size and shape of electrical outlets around the world, which means that keeping a gadget charged is not as simple as just plugging it into the wall socket.

This is where a travel adapter comes in. These devices are designed to plug into multiple types of wall outlet, and then offer a variety of output sockets into which most devices can plug. As well as standard AC outlets, many also come with a variety of USB outputs, which is really handy as most devices charge over USB these days.

Our current pick is the EPICKA 45W universal adapter, which we like because as well as covering the wall sockets of most countries, it has four USB-C ports with power delivery. That 45W output is enough to fast charge a phone or even keep a laptop going, which older adapters can’t manage.

The only thing to be aware of is that most travel adapters don’t convert voltage. So if the person you’re buying for is travelling from a country like the USA, where there is a 110V electrical system, to a country like the UK, where there’s a 240V system, they will need to check that their devices are going to be compatible.

Most gadgets like laptops, cameras and smartphones are designed to work across voltage ranges from 110V – 240V, however, higher power items like hair dryers and curling irons might not work.

There are a lot of travel adapters on the market, and we’ve written a complete guide to the best travel adapter to help you choose. The main thing you will need to know is which countries the adapter will be used in, as not all adapters cover all countries.

Special knowledge required: An idea of which countries the adapter will be used in.
Check Price and Buy Here

 

Car Power Inverter

Do you know someone who loves to take road trips? It’s one of our favourite ways to travel and explore a country.

A device that we love for our extended road trips is a car power inverter. This takes the 12V DC power output from any car’s cigarette lighter port, and converts it to an AC power outlet as you would find in your home.

Whilst many cars these days come with USB sockets, these are only useful for charging lower powered devices like a phone. An inverter lets you charge more powerful items, and we’ve used ours to charge our laptops, drone, and cameras.

There’s not a great deal to choose from with a car inverter. Most car outlets support an output of between 120W and 200W, depending on the fuse. So an inverter that supports this many watts will work. This will suffice to charge most portable electronics, but isn’t going to be suitable for high powered devices like a tea kettle or hair dryer.

Many inverters, such as this BESTEK model, also include USB outputs. Since many devices also charge via USB, we think this is a worthwhile addition.

We’ve used BESTEK power inverters over several years of road trips with good success.

Special knowledge required: None
Check Price and Buy Here

 

Head Lamp

Light! If the person you are buying for likes to head off grid and into the back country, they will definitely appreciate the gift of a head lamp.

A head lamp is, in our experience, much more useful than a torch for travel, as it can be used hands free. We find our head torches come in useful for camping trips, night photography expeditions, and any time we’re travelling anywhere where the electricity supply might not be totally reliable.

There’s a huge range of head lamps on the market. Our tip would be to get a head lamp that includes a red light, which will help save night vision for photography at night. A rechargeable head lamp is also a good idea as it will save on having to carry and buy extra batteries.

We’d recommend a model like this Lepro rechargeable head lamp, which has a red light mode that we find useful for low light photography.

Special knowledge required: None
Check Price and Buy Here

 

Travel eSIM

If you know someone who is travelling to a specific country or region, one of the most useful gifts you can give them costs less than a paperback: a travel eSIM plan, or credit towards one.

An eSIM is a digital SIM card. Instead of swapping a physical chip in and out of their phone, the recipient buys a data plan online, scans a QR code, and their phone is online at local rates the moment they land. No roaming fees, no hunting for a phone shop at the airport.

Most recent smartphones support eSIM. In fact, if the person you’re buying for has a recent US-market flagship phone, there’s a good chance it doesn’t take a physical SIM at all. We compare our recommended providers in our best travel eSIM guide, and you can also read our review of Airalo, which is the eSIM service we’ve used the most ourselves.

A physical SIM card still makes sense for older and mid-range handsets, and you can buy SIM cards online for various countries around the world. One note if the recipient is British: Three’s free EU roaming now only survives on Pay As You Go and older plans, so anyone who has joined or upgraded recently pays a daily charge unless their plan bundles roaming.

Note that using a local SIM or eSIM does require an unlocked phone. If they don’t have one of those, there are other options for getting online, including mobile hotspots. See our guide to getting online when travelling for more ideas.

Special knowledge required: Destination they’re travelling to, and confirmation they have an unlocked phone

 

Tech Gifts Under $50

A step up in budget opens up some of our favourite gifts in this whole guide, including a few things that solve problems the recipient probably doesn’t know have solutions.

 

Retractable Cable Charger

Cables are the thing every traveler forgets. They get left in hotel walls, tangled in bag pockets, and borrowed by family members never to return.

The Anker Nano retractable charger deals with this by building the cable into the charger itself. The USB-C cable pulls out of the body when needed and winds back in when it’s not, so there’s nothing separate to pack, forget or tangle. At 35W it will fast charge a phone or keep a tablet going.

This is stocking filler territory, and it’s one of those gifts that ends up being used every day of every trip. We’re big fans of this style of charger for short trips where a full charging kit is overkill.

Special knowledge required: None
Check Price and Buy Here

 

Waterproof Bluetooth Speaker

Music! Who doesn’t enjoy listening to a bit of music when they travel? Of course, headphones are a great option for when you want to enjoy some music in private, but from time to time it’s also nice to be able to entertain others.

To do that, a Bluetooth speaker is the answer. These connect over Bluetooth, a short range radio standard which is supported by most smartphones and laptops on the market.

We’ve had great results with the Anker Soundcore 2. It pushes out surprisingly big, well-balanced sound for its size, is IPX7 waterproof, and runs for up to 24 hours on a single charge, all at a very wallet-friendly price.

Special knowledge required: None
Check Price and Buy Here

 

Travel Router

A good Wi-Fi signal is an important part of any trip. Unfortunately, our travels have taught us that strong Wi-Fi signals aren’t always available everywhere we go. Sometimes for example we’ll be staying in a hotel or other accommodation, and the Wi-Fi won’t quite reach our room, or if it does reach, the signal keeps dropping out.

This can be frustrating if we want to work, or even if we’re just planning on catching up on our favourite TV shows over our favourite streaming services.

Thankfully, there’s a solution to this problem, and it’s a travel router. A travel router is a small device which is used to extend an existing wireless network and provide a stronger Wi-Fi signal that your device can find.

Travel routers also offer a number of other benefits. For example, sometimes a hotel will only allow us to connect one or two devices to the network. Given that we all travel with multiple Wi-Fi enabled devices these days, this limitation can be quite frustrating.

With a travel router, the travel router appears to the hotel network as one device, and then we can connect all our devices to the secure network the travel router creates.

Speaking of security, a travel router also offers significant security benefits compared to connecting directly to public networks. Essentially it creates a barrier between itself and the devices you connect to it, offering an additional layer of security to keep browsing data safe.

We have a complete guide to the best travel routers on the market. One of our current favourites is the GL.iNet Mango, which is super portable and inexpensive.

Special knowledge required: None
Check Price and Buy Here

 

Tripod

If you know someone who loves to take photos when they travel, then a travel tripod would make for a perfect gift.

We never travel anywhere without our tripod. They open up a world of photography possibility, including long exposure photography and astrophotography. They also let us get better photos of ourselves when we travel.

If you’re still not convinced, check out our guide to why you need a tripod for travel photography.

There’s a huge range of travel tripods on the market today, at a range of price points. The main things to consider are the weight of the tripod (no-one likes to carry a heavy bit of kit around with them when travelling), and the size of the camera it needs to support.

If the person you are buying for primarily uses a smartphone or compact camera, then a mini tripod like the Manfrotto PIXI II will probably suffice.

If they have a larger camera, like a mirrorless or DSLR camera, then you will likely want to get them a sturdier full size travel tripod like this Amazon Basics model. And if you want to spend considerably more on a photographer you love, the Peak Design Travel Tripod is the one I personally travel with, and I’ve used Peak Design products since 2015. See our guide to the best travel tripods for more ideas.

Special knowledge required: Type of camera they have

 

Tech Gifts Under $100

This is the band where the most giftable tech lives: things people admire when someone else has them, and rarely buy for themselves.

 

Twelve South AirFly Pro 2

Seatback entertainment systems still have headphone jacks, and almost nobody carries wired headphones any more. The AirFly solves that.

It’s a small Bluetooth transmitter that plugs into any headphone jack and beams the audio to wireless earbuds or headphones. The Pro 2 version can pair two sets at once, so a couple can watch the same film on a flight without sharing a set of earbuds between them. It also works on gym equipment, hotel TVs, and anything else with a headphone socket.

This is our favourite kind of travel gift: it solves an annoyance every flyer has had, and almost nobody thinks to buy one for themselves. If you only need to connect one listener, the cheaper AirFly SE does the same job for a single set of earbuds.

Special knowledge required: None, it works with any Bluetooth headphones or earbuds
Check Price and Buy Here

 

Location Tracker

Losing your luggage or other personal items when on a trip is the worst experience. It’s something that can happen to anyone, and even the most reputable airlines can lose your luggage.

The good news is that you can easily keep track of the whereabouts of your luggage (and any other personal items), by using a Bluetooth tracking device. We compare the options in our guide to the best luggage trackers for travel. The most popular of these are the Apple AirTags, and the four pack works out cheapest per tag if they check bags regularly.

Other versions exist for other phones, such as the Samsung SmartTag2 for Samsung devices.

The way the devices work is pretty simple. They just use nearby smartphones Bluetooth signals to update their location. As there are billions of smartphones in the world, they tend to be pretty accurate in most populated locations. It can be a real peace of mind to see your luggage moving through the airport whilst waiting at the arrivals belt.

They’re also handy when not travelling – you can keep one in your car, or on your keys for example, so you never lose these.

Special knowledge required: Type of phone, Android or iOS
Check Price and Buy Here

 

USB Battery Pack

All of us travel with a great many electronics these days, and that means we have a lot of devices to keep charged.

When we’re on the road, we don’t always have access to a wall outlet to charge our devices, which can be an issue for keeping essentials like our phone charged, not to mention all our other devices.

To get around this issue, we travel with a USB battery pack. The one that lives in my bag every day is the INIU P63, a 25,000mAh pack with 100W output, which is enough to fast charge a laptop as well as phones and is small for its capacity.

For most people though, the best trade-off between weight and capacity comes at around the 10,000mAh size, which will charge a typical phone roughly twice over. In that size we’d suggest the INIU P50, which is small enough for a jacket pocket.

One airline note: power banks travel in your carry-on, never in a checked bag, and both of these sit under the 100 watt-hour threshold that would otherwise need airline approval. US airlines tightened up on quantity in 2026, with Southwest now down to one per passenger, so check who they fly with before buying a pair. Most carriers also want the pack kept within reach instead of in the overhead bin, and won’t let you recharge it from the seat outlet.

Special knowledge required: None
Check Price and Buy Here

 

Magnetic Wireless Power Bank

If the person you’re buying for has an iPhone or another phone that supports magnetic wireless charging, a magnetic power bank is a small upgrade that changes how they charge on the go. It snaps onto the back of the phone and charges it with no cable at all, and the phone stays usable while it charges.

Our pick here is the Anker MagGo, a 10,000mAh pack that’s Qi2 certified for 15W wireless charging. Qi2 is the magnetic wireless charging standard, where magnets snap the phone into alignment so it charges efficiently and stays put. It works with iPhone 12 and later out of the box, and with Android phones that have built-in magnets or a magnetic case. Faster Qi2 25W chargers exist now too, so treat 15W as the dependable baseline and not the top of the range.

Check which phone the recipient has before choosing this one, as an older phone without magnetic charging support will only be able to use it as a normal power bank over a cable.

Special knowledge required: Their phone needs to support magnetic wireless charging (iPhone 12 and later do)
Check Price and Buy Here

 

Noise Cancelling Bluetooth Earbuds

During some parts of travel, blocking out the background noise can be essential to an enjoyable trip. This is especially true on airplanes and other modes of transport.

With this in mind, we think noise cancelling Bluetooth earbuds make for a great gift for any travelling tech enthusiast. As well as blocking out sounds in the environment, they can also be used for listening to music, watching movies, and taking calls.

The pair we actually travel with is the EarFun Air Pro 4. They’re the reason our big over-ear headphones stopped coming on trips with us: the noise cancelling is strong enough for a long-haul flight, the sound quality is excellent for the price, and the case is small enough to disappear into any pocket. For the money, we haven’t found anything we’d rather carry.

Special knowledge required: None
Check Price and Buy Here

 

Open-Ear Headphones

Noise cancelling earbuds are the right call on a plane, but they’re the wrong call when you’re running along a canal path in an unfamiliar city, or cycling to a viewpoint for sunrise. For that, you want the opposite: headphones that leave your ears open.

Open-ear and bone conduction headphones sit outside the ear canal, conducting sound while letting you hear traffic, announcements and everything else around you. For a traveler who runs or cycles in new places, that situational awareness is a safety feature as much as a convenience.

Shokz is the best known name in this category, and the Shokz OpenMove is the model we’d pick as a gift. If the person you’re buying for is a serious runner, the Shokz OpenRun Pro 2 is the upgrade they’d choose themselves.

Special knowledge required: None
Check Price and Buy Here

 

Travel Mouse

If the person you are buying the tech travel gift for regularly travels with a laptop, and uses it to catch up on work, then they will likely appreciate the gift of a portable travel mouse. Whilst laptop trackpads have come a long way, for more delicate tasks like photo editing, our experience has taught us that a dedicated mouse makes life a lot easier.

There are a lot of travel mice out there. Usually they come in a more compact form factor than a traditional mouse. Our tip would be to buy one that uses Bluetooth technology so a USB port is not wasted with a radio receiver, as well as one that is rechargeable so batteries don’t need to be bought.

Our favourite travel mouse, and the one that we always travel with, is the Logitech MX Anywhere 3S. We love Logitech’s mice – the infinite scroll wheel alone saves real time when working through hundreds of photos, and this mouse uses what Logitech calls a darkfield sensor, so it works on pretty much any surface.

It works over either Bluetooth or infra-red (an IR receiver is included), can pair with up to three devices, and is chargeable over USB.

Special knowledge required: None
Check Price and Buy Here

 

Electronics Organizer

The problem with travelling with a lot of tech gear is that we generally end up with a giant tangle of cables in our bag. This can be frustrating, and worse, improperly packed cables can easily get damaged.

The solution to this is to get an electronics organizer. This is a case which is especially designed to handle a variety of cables, as well as other tech accessories like hard drives, memory cards and USB drives.

We personally use and love our leather cord organizer. It looks great and comes in a variety of sizes, depending on how many cords are being carried. In our case, it’s a lot of cords, so we went with the largest option!

If you’d rather keep this as a smaller gift, there are also plenty of simpler zippered organizers that cost very little, like this compact case.

Special knowledge required: An idea of how many cables they travel with
Check Price and Buy Here

 

Digital Photo Frame

We take a lot of pictures when we travel. Unfortunately, digital files aren’t quite as handy as film prints, meaning that we don’t get to look back on all our photos as much as we might otherwise like.

The solution to this (other than starting a blog and sharing your life online!) is a digital photo frame. These look like normal picture frames, but, you guessed it, they display digital photo files!

Modern Wi-Fi frames like this Frameo frame let you send photos to the frame directly from a smartphone app, wherever you are in the world. That makes this a lovely gift for the family of a traveler as much as for the traveler themselves: they go on the trip, and the photos arrive on the mantelpiece back home.

My in-laws have this exact frame, so it has survived real-world grandparent use.

We’ve gifted a number of digital photo frames to friends and family over the years, and they’ve always been received well.

Special knowledge required: None
Check Price and Buy Here

 

Tech Gifts Under $300

These are the centrepiece gifts: the ones that get unwrapped last and used for years.

 

GaN Fast Charger

The biggest change in travel charging over the past few years has been GaN, short for gallium nitride. Without getting too deep into the physics, GaN wastes less energy as heat than the silicon it replaces, which is what lets manufacturers shrink a charger without it overheating. In practice, that means one small brick can fast charge a laptop, a phone and a pair of earbuds at the same time, replacing the bag of chargers most of us used to travel with. The ports share the total power instead of each getting the full rating, so with all three plugged in the laptop typically draws around 65W and not the headline number.

The one I own is the Epicka Pulse Duo, which combines a 140W GaN charger with a universal travel adapter in one unit. It has two AC sockets and four USB ports, so it covers the wall sockets of pretty much any country and charges a full kit of devices at once.

It’s a pricey bit of kit, and that’s part of what makes it such a good gift: it’s the sort of thing you hesitate to buy for yourself, and then use every single day once you have it.

Check price on Amazon

If that’s over budget, a plain GaN wall charger still makes a great smaller gift. The Amazon Basics 65W dual port charger will fast charge a laptop or two phones at once, and costs about what a couple of ordinary phone chargers would.

Special knowledge required: None
Check Price and Buy Here

 

E-Reader / Tablet

Jess and I both love reading, and it’s a passion we enjoy when we travel. Unfortunately, books are not always the greatest travel companions – they can be heavy and bulky, meaning most travelers will only be able to pack one or two books into their bag.

These will likely cover a part of the journey – perhaps some time at the airport and some transit time, but it won’t do for a whole holiday. Especially if that holiday involves lots of time lying poolside and relaxing!

Thankfully, technology has come up with a solution to the problem of carrying enough books to cover a whole holiday – an e-reader! Whilst we still prefer the feel of a real book, we can’t argue with the fact that you can fit hundreds, if not thousands, of books onto an ereader. This means your gift recipient will be able to take as many books as they want on their travels, and not have to worry about luggage weight restrictions!

There are quite a few e-readers on the market, and as well as dedicated devices you can also get apps for tablets and smartphones that let you read. However, our recommendation would be to get a dedicated e-reader. This is because they are specifically designed for reading, with screens that look similar to actual paper, and battery life that will usually last for weeks. They are also designed to be read even in bright sunlight, where tablet and smartphone screens often struggle.

We own an Amazon Kindle, and recommend the Amazon Kindle Paperwhite. This has a built in light for reading in the dark, and is even waterproof – perfect for those poolside reading sessions!

Special knowledge required: None
Check Price and Buy Here

 

Portable SSD

When we travel, like many people we take a lot of photos. Keeping these backed up when we’re on the road is tough as the internet is usually not fast enough for us to upload them to our cloud backup solution.

Our solution is to travel with an external drive. This means that we can back up our photos onto both our laptops and the external drive, so if something should happen to one or the other of these devices, at least our photos will be safe.

Traditionally, external hard drives have been mechanical, with a disk that physically spins inside the drive. Whilst this allows for large capacities, it is also prone to damage, especially if it is dropped. This is definitely an issue for travel, where our devices are subject to quite a bit of rough and tumble.

Solid state drives (SSDs) work much like USB flash drives, with no moving parts, which makes them a far better fit for life in a bag. They’re not the bargain they were a couple of years ago, because the 2026 memory shortage pushed storage prices up hard, but for a travel backup drive an SSD is still the only kind we’d recommend.

Our current pick is the SanDisk Extreme Portable SSD, which is compact, fast, and built to take some knocks. We’ve travelled with portable SSDs for years now, and they’ve handled the abuse of life on the road far better than the spinning drives they replaced.

We’d suggest a capacity of at least 1TB for anyone who takes a lot of photos. If the person you are buying for also creates video content, consider a 2TB option.

Special knowledge required: None
Check Price and Buy Here

 

Smart Watch

If you know someone who is into fitness and loves to have their technology available at the tip of their fingers at all times, then consider buying them a smartwatch.

Smartwatches come with a range of capabilities, depending on the brand and price point. Basic functionality should include the ability to synchronize with a smartphone to display notifications and messages.

Most smartwatches also include fitness tracking features like heart rate monitoring and activity tracking. Some are also water and sweatproof.

We’d suggest that the type of watch you purchase will depend on the type of smartphone the person you are buying for owns. If they have an iPhone, then look no further than the current Apple Watch. The standard Series model is the mainstream pick, and the cheaper Apple Watch SE covers everything most travelers will use it for.

Android owners have quite a choice, but we’d suggest the Samsung Galaxy Watch series is the best option for them, particularly if they have a Samsung phone.

Special knowledge required: Type of phone they own
Check Price and Buy Here

 

Tech Gifts Over $300

For the really special occasions. Every gift in this band is something we own or have owned in some form ourselves, and they’ve all survived years of our travel.

 

Portable Projector

I’ve already talked about how much we love watching movies and TV shows to relax and unwind after a day of travel. However, sometimes a laptop or smartphone screen doesn’t quite cut it, and our accommodation options don’t always come with a big screen TV.

The good news is that you can actually have a big screen TV experience when you travel, just by using a portable projector. These little devices can project media from a smartphone or laptop, and if you have a large enough wall to project onto, can produce quite a large picture, usually equivalent to around 100 inches.

The majority of these devices are also battery powered, so you don’t even need an outlet to run them.

A portable projector would make a great gift for any movie lover who wants that big screen experience but at a minimum weight. There are a few options on the market, but for image quality and portability, our current pick would be the Nebula Capsule 3, a soda-can sized projector which runs Netflix and the other major streaming platforms natively, so it doesn’t even need another device to play from.

Special knowledge required: None
Check Price and Buy Here

 

Drone

If you know someone who loves to take photos or videos, then a drone will make the perfect gift.

We love our drone. It lets us get photos and videos from angles that would be all but impossible without it. Ok, we could hire a helicopter, but that would drain our travel budget a bit too quickly for our liking!

There are a huge range of drones on the market, and of course, you’ll want to be sure that the person you are buying for is aware of the legality around flying drones in the destination they are heading to.

For someone looking to get into drones, we’d recommend the DJI Mini 3. This won’t break the bank (great for a new drone operator), but offers great video and photo performance in an incredibly compact package.

We’ve used a DJI drone for a number of years and haven’t had any problems, and are happy to recommend this well known drone brand.

If the person you are shopping for already has a drone, then instead consider picking up one or more of these drone accessories for them instead.

Special knowledge required: None
Check Price and Buy Here

 

Camera

A camera makes for the perfect tech gift for any traveler – even if they’re not necessarily into technology! After all, who doesn’t love to capture great photos of their travels, which will turn into lifetime mementoes that can be treasured forever?

Whilst many travelers these days will likely have some kind of smartphone that will likely be capable of taking reasonable photos in a range of scenarios, we think that a dedicated camera is still worth investing in.

They will usually get better quality photos, open up more photography possibilities, and being a standalone device, will usually last longer. You can also get cameras that work across a variety of situations, such as cameras that work underwater, or cameras that are well suited to hiking and backpacking.

In the compact class, our long-time pick has been the Sony RX100 VII, and it comes with a footnote these days. Sony hasn’t replaced it since 2019, and newer compacts have landed that beat it on paper: Canon’s PowerShot V1 has a bigger sensor, and Panasonic’s ZS200D reaches a lot further at 360mm. What none of them matches is the combination that makes the RX100 VII work as a travel camera, which is a 24-200mm zoom, a pop-up viewfinder and autofocus that holds up, in something small enough for a pocket. It stays our pick, but it’s no longer the only serious option, and with no successor, do check the price you’re being asked to pay before buying.

The camera market is pretty huge beyond compacts, and which camera you decide to buy as a gift will depend on your budget, as well as the level of photography interest the person you are buying for has.

To help you decide, we’d suggest reading through some of our camera buying guides. We have a general guide to the best travel cameras on the market, as well as specific guides to the best compact cameras, best mirrorless cameras and best DSLR cameras.

We’re sure that between these guides you should find the perfect travel camera for your gift recipient.

Special knowledge required: How complex a camera you think they will be happy using

 

Unlocked Phone for International Use

A smartphone is pretty much a necessity for travel these days. We use ours to stay in touch with loved ones, plan what we’re going to see, find our way around, book accommodation and activities, take photos – pretty much everything actually!

Unfortunately, getting online when travelling can be a challenge, and internet access is pretty much key to most of the uses I described above. One of the easiest ways to get online when travelling is to use a local SIM or eSIM for the destination, which lets you use locally priced data instead of the often mind-bogglingly priced roaming fees that many phone operators charge.

To use a local SIM does however require a phone that isn’t locked. A locked phone is usually sold by the networks on a multi-year contract, and by locking the phone the carriers ensure that it can only be used on their network.

Thankfully, there are lots of phones on the market that are not locked, that you can buy outright for a fixed price. Our recommendation for an unlocked smartphone for travel would be the Google Pixel 8 Pro.

This is a very capable smartphone with one of the best cameras you’ll find on a phone. It also has some of the fastest security updates available on a smartphone, which is essential for a traveler.

Special knowledge required: Just be sure they don’t already have an unlocked smartphone
Check Price and Buy Here

 

Laptop

A laptop makes for a fantastic gift for a tech-loving traveler. This is especially the case if they plan on doing any kind of work or even writing as they go.

We find that even writing e-mails is a lot easier on a laptop than on a smartphone, and the same of course goes for more intensive tasks like editing photos, backing up our photos, and so on. Of course – it’s not all about work. Watching TV shows and movies on a laptop is far more pleasurable than a small smartphone screen.

As with many of the gifts in this guide, there’s a huge range of laptops on the market. The main decision points are going to be around budget, as well as whether or not the person you are buying for prefers a Mac or a Windows PC.

If it’s a Windows machine, we think a great portable option for travelers is the Microsoft Surface Pro. This features a detachable keyboard so it can also be used as a tablet, a touchscreen, and enough performance for the majority of tasks. It’s also the only tablet-shaped machine in our guide to the best tablets for photo editing that runs desktop Lightroom at all.

For Apple lovers, we’d suggest the current 13-inch Apple MacBook Air. This is an excellent portable Apple laptop with outstanding battery life for long travel days.

For more demanding tasks, you’ll want to invest in something a bit more powerful. I’d suggest reading our complete guide to the best laptops for photo editing, which will equip you with all the information you need to make an informed choice as to what to look for in a laptop.

Special knowledge required: Preference of laptop type, Windows or Mac
Check Price and Buy Here

 

Subscriptions and Digital Gifts

Not every tech gift needs wrapping paper. These are the gifts that arrive as an email and get used all year.

 

VPN Subscription

When we travel, security is often something we think about. However, many travelers focus on physical and personal security. Obviously, these are important, as keeping ourselves and our possessions safe is definitely key to a happy trip.

However, virtual security is something that many travelers forget about, even though so much of our lives happens online these days. From the contents of our e-mail through to our bank accounts, the thought of this information becoming publicly accessible is a worrying one.

The bad news is that it isn’t that hard for an attacker to intercept and access data, especially when connecting to unsecured wireless networks like those often found in hotels, airports, and cafes. The good news is that it is possible to protect our data, using what is called a VPN.

A VPN is essentially a service that creates an encrypted connection between a device and the internet, securing all the data that passes through it. VPN stands for “virtual private network”, and a VPN subscription would be the perfect gift for any traveler looking to keep their private data, well, private.

We have a full guide to why you need a VPN, as well what we think are the best VPNs for travel here.

There’s a wide range of VPN software products out there. Usually you can purchase a subscription for a period of time, ranging from a month up to multiple years. They are not particularly expensive, although we think data peace of mind is worth the price anyway! Here are some VPN subscriptions we recommend.

• Private Internet Access – one of the best value and well reviewed VPN services on the market
• NordVPN is one of the most highly reviewed and respected VPN services in the world. They offer competitive pricing, especially on their multi-year plans, and by connecting through their VPN software on your devices you’ll know your sensitive data is safe from prying eyes. We also have a NordVPN discount code. If you enter “travelcats” at checkout you can save 65% on the 2 year plan.

Special knowledge required: None, will work on any device

 

Backup Subscription

The photos and videos we take on our trips are often the most precious and important mementos that we have of our adventures. Which is why it is so important to keep them backed up.

A great backup solution should take two forms – a local backup, and an offsite cloud backup.

This two-location approach keeps data safe should the worst happen, and one of the backup solutions fail.

There are a lot of cloud backup providers, but we have found the services of Backblaze to be the best. They offer unlimited backups for a very reasonable annual fee, with a slight discount if you purchase a two-year subscription.

Giving the gift of data backup may not seem like the most fun gift in the world, but trust me, if you are the person who bought the solution that saves someone’s photos and files, they will definitely be forever thankful!

You can buy a Backblaze subscription as a gift here. Note that this is for computers like Macs or Windows devices only, and not for smartphones. You can also read our guide to the best backup options for photographers for more ideas.

Special knowledge required: None, will work on any Windows or Mac laptop or desktop computer.

 

Photo / Video Editing Software

I’m a professional photographer who teaches an online photography class. One of the things I teach folks when I’m teaching them photography, is the art of photo editing. For me, there are three main parts to mastering photography – learning how to use a camera, learning how to compose a great photo, and learning how to edit a photo.

All three of these are really important. Which is why I believe any lover of photography (or video!), will be delighted to receive a copy of either some photo editing software, or video editing software, depending on their preferred medium.

There is a wide range of photo and video editing software on the market. We don’t do a great deal of video, but for photo, we have tried a wide range of photo editing software to see which is the best. We’ve written a full guide to the best photo editing software too.

There are two main models for buying photo editing software. You can pay a one-off price for a product that will just work for life, or you can pay a subscription fee. The advantage of the latter is that you will continue to receive updates to the software, the disadvantage is that you are locked in, and if you stop paying the fee, the software will stop working.

As a gift therefore, a standalone one-off purchase might be best. In that case, we recommend either On1 Photo RAW or Skylum’s Luminar software, both of which offer a great feature set and ease of use at a compelling price.

We actually use the Adobe Lightroom product for our photo editing, which is only available as a subscription. It’s the industry standard for photo editing, and we think the subscription is worth the price. A one-year subscription would make a great gift, and then if the recipient likes it they can choose to extend themselves.

Special knowledge required: None, will work on any Windows or Mac laptop or desktop computer.

 

Not Tech, But They’ll Thank You

These three aren’t really technology, but they’ve survived every rewrite of this guide because they keep being some of the most appreciated gifts we’ve given. Consider them honorary tech.

 

Travel Coffee Maker

Who doesn’t love coffee? Ok, so some people don’t love coffee. But let’s just assume for now that the person you are buying a travel tech gift for loves coffee.

Well, why not buy them a coffee maker that will travel with them, and let them make great coffee wherever they are?

If you just want a simple answer, the AeroPress coffee maker is the one we travel with, and it makes coffee good enough to skip the hotel machine entirely. You can read our full AeroPress review for why we like it so much.

If the person you’re buying for is more of a K-Cup household, a compact powered machine like the Keurig K-Mini Mate packs down small enough for a suitcase and works anywhere with a wall outlet. For more inspiration, see our guide to the best travel coffee makers.

Special knowledge required: What sort of coffee they prefer
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Water Filtration Bottle

Everyone needs water when they travel, but access to safe drinking water is by no means universal.

The main option available to travelers is to buy bottled drinking water as they go, which has a real environmental cost in single-use plastics. Thankfully, there is a better way. You can buy a water bottle with a built-in filtration system that makes safe, clean drinking water from most sources of water around the world.

We use and travel with a LifeStraw water filtration bottle, and have used it around the world to create safe drinking water. It’s no larger than a standard water bottle, and there’s not much of a price premium.

You can read more in our guide to safe drinking water when travelling, and we also have a guide to the best water filters for travel.

Special knowledge required: Destination being visited
Check Price and Buy Here

 

Quick Dry Clothing

Doing laundry when we travel is definitely a chore, but it’s a necessity, especially on longer trips. One thing we’ve found that really helps, especially without access to a dryer, is quick-dry clothing: wash it in the evening, and it’s dry by morning.

It’s also more comfortable in hot countries, as it’s designed to wick sweat away from the body rather than getting damp the way cotton does.

You can get quick dry versions of most popular items of apparel, including t-shirts, button-up shirts, polo shirts, dresses, long pants and underwear.

Of course, clothing can be challenging to buy for someone else, as you’ll need to know exact sizing and an idea of style. But get it right and it’s a gift that will go on every trip they take.

Special knowledge required: Size and style preference

 

Travel Tech That Used to Be on Every List

This guide has been running for years, and some former regulars no longer deserve a place on it. Here’s what’s gone, and why.

Smart luggage. Suitcases with built-in batteries, GPS and digital scales were on every tech gift list a few years back, ours included. Then in January 2018 the major US airlines banned bags with non-removable lithium batteries, and the category collapsed with remarkable speed: Bluesmart and Raden, the two best known brands, both shut down that May. The final word came from Away, the category’s best funded survivor, which discontinued its ejectable battery in July 2023; its own site now states that the current design “does not accommodate adding a battery.” To be precise about it: luggage with a removable power bank in a pocket still exists and is fine to fly with. But the connected smart suitcase as a tech product is gone. Buy a quality normal suitcase, drop an AirTag in it, and add a power bank, and you’ve built something better than smart luggage ever was.

Standalone travel SIM cards. Physical travel SIMs haven’t vanished, and they remain useful for older and mid-range handsets. But for anyone with a recent US-market flagship phone, they’re simply not an option any more: US-market iPhones have been eSIM-only since 2022, and Google’s latest Pixels have followed. If you were going to gift mobile data, gift an eSIM plan instead – see the eSIM section above and our best travel eSIM guide.

Boxed language software. Rosetta Stone is still going, now subscription based, and you can still gift a subscription, so this one isn’t dead so much as changed. The bigger shift is that live translation has moved into devices people already carry. Recent AirPods can translate conversations in real time, although there’s a catch a gift guide should state plainly: the feature needs AirPods 4 with noise cancelling or AirPods Pro 2 or later, paired with an Apple Intelligence capable iPhone running iOS 26 or later, and it covers a fairly short list of languages. So the earbuds alone don’t unlock it. But if the person you’re buying for has a recent iPhone, a set of AirPods is now also a translation device, which would have sounded like science fiction when we first published this guide.

 

Frequently Asked Questions About Tech Gifts for Travelers

Here are answers to the questions we get asked most often about buying tech gifts for the travelers in your life.

 

What is the best tech gift for someone who travels a lot?

If we had to pick one, it would be the Twelve South AirFly Pro 2. It solves an annoyance every flyer has (using wireless earbuds with seatback screens), and almost nobody buys one for themselves.

If you have a bigger budget, a 140W GaN charger like the Epicka Pulse Duo is the gift a frequent traveler will use every single day.

 

What are the best luggage trackers for travel?

For iPhone owners, Apple AirTags are the best option, and the four pack is the better value if they check bags regularly. For Samsung owners, the Samsung SmartTag2 does the same job within Samsung’s network.

We compare all the options, including trackers that work across both platforms, in our full guide to the best luggage trackers for travel.

 

Do luggage trackers work with Android phones?

Yes, but you need to pick the right one. Apple AirTags only report their location through Apple devices, so they’re not the right choice for an Android owner. The Samsung SmartTag2 works with Samsung Galaxy phones, and there are cross-platform trackers that work with any phone.

The key is to match the tracker to the phone the recipient carries, not the phone you carry.

 

What travel tech do people usually already own?

In our experience, most regular travelers already have some form of earbuds, a basic power bank, and possibly an e-reader. Those are the risky gifts.

The things almost nobody owns are the quiet problem-solvers: a Bluetooth transmitter for seatback screens, a travel router, a multi-port GaN charger, and luggage trackers. Those are the safest gifts in this guide precisely because they’re the things people never get around to buying for themselves.

 

Can you take a power bank on a plane?

Yes, but in your carry-on only. Power banks and spare lithium batteries have never been allowed in checked bags, and that hasn’t changed.

What did change in 2026 is how many you can bring and what you can do with them in the air. The FAA sets no limit on power banks under 100 watt-hours, but individual US airlines now do, and Southwest has gone down to one per passenger. Several carriers also want the pack kept within reach instead of in an overhead bin, and none of them will let you recharge it from in-seat power. On international flights, an ICAO rule in force since March 2026 caps most passengers at two.

Every power bank in this guide sits under 100 watt-hours, so none of them needs airline approval. If you’re buying more than one, though, the person opening them might only be able to fly with a single pack.

 

What is a GaN charger and why is it better for travel?

GaN stands for gallium nitride, a material that wastes less energy as heat than older silicon designs, which is what lets a charger of the same power be made much smaller. The practical benefit for travel is consolidation: one GaN brick can fast charge a laptop, phone and earbuds at the same time, replacing several individual chargers in a bag. The ports share the total power, so the laptop won’t draw the headline number with everything else plugged in.

For a traveler who carries a laptop, a multi-port GaN charger is one of the biggest quality-of-life upgrades money can buy.

 

What is a good tech gift for a traveler under $25?

Our top picks at this budget are a good universal travel adapter, a rechargeable head lamp with a red light mode, or credit towards a travel eSIM plan for their next trip.

All three are light, practical, and get used on every trip rather than sitting in a drawer.

 

Can AirPods really translate languages?

Yes, with conditions. Apple’s Live Translation works on AirPods 4 with noise cancelling and on AirPods Pro 2 or later, but it also requires an Apple Intelligence capable iPhone running iOS 26 or later, and it supports a limited list of languages.

So the earbuds alone don’t do it: the recipient needs a recent iPhone too. If they have one, it’s one of the more useful travel features to arrive on a phone in years.

 

Is smart luggage still a good gift?

No. The category effectively died after the 2018 airline bans on non-removable lithium batteries, and even Away, the biggest surviving brand, dropped its battery entirely in 2023.

A quality normal suitcase with an AirTag inside and a power bank in the pocket does everything smart luggage promised, with no airline complications.

 

Further Reading

We hope you enjoyed our guide to tech gifts for travelers, which we put together based on our personal experiences as long-time travelers and tech enthusiasts.

Before you head off, we also wanted to share some more resources that we think you will find useful in your quest to find the perfect gift for the traveler in your life.

• We have a complete gift guide for travelers, which has over 75 awesome gift ideas for the travel lover in your life
• Looking for something more specific? We also have a guide to the best travel themed jewelry, and the best travel home decor products.
• We have a guide to gifts made in the USA, and gifts made in the UK
• Packing-focused? Our guide to the best packing cubes covers our favourite way to keep a bag organised, and they pair well with several gifts in this guide
• If they do most of their trip planning on a phone, see our guide to the best travel related apps
• We also have specific guide to some of the best travel apparel items out there, including the best travel shoes for men, best travel shoes for women, and best travel wraps and shawls for women
• Looking for something more technology focused? See our guides to the best travel adapter, best travel router and best travel camera.

And that’s it for our guide to our favourite technology themed travel gifts. As always, we’re happy to hear your feedback and comments about this post.

Just pop them in the comments below, and if you have any questions, we’ll answer them as soon as we can!