What do you buy a minimalist traveler for a gift? Shopping for someone who needs to fit all their worldly possessions in one backpack can be challenging. Luckily, we have come to the rescue and devised the following Ultimate Traveler's Gift List for you!
Contents
Collapsible 1 Litre Water Bottles
Collapsible Water Bottles are very handy when traveling. Instead of constantly buying plastic water bottles that pollute the earth even more or lugging around hard plastic or metal water bottles that add weight and take up space a Collapsible Water Bottle provides the best of both worlds for your traveler. When in use a collapsible water bottle can hold anything from 400mls to 10 litres of water (depending on the bottle). We recommend purchasing the 1 litre varieties. Anything smaller than that and it will be empty before you know it. When empty the bottles fold up to next to nothing. They typically either fold up and thread through a hole provided in the bottle itself or they roll up and you can use an elastic band to hold it together. We always travel with two one litre water collapsible bottles.
Wedge-It The Ultimate Door Stop
Wedge-It The Ultimate Door Stop could possibly be one of the best security items you could take with you when traveling. At present, we have a similar door wedge that we use when we are in our room no matter where we stay. The added peace of mind that comes from knowing that a little bit of plastic / metal / rubber can hold baddies on the other side of the door while we sleep (even if they have a key to our room) is priceless. We're not saying that if you use one of these that nothing horrible will ever happen but its an extra layer of security for the cost of a few dollars and a few grams in your pack! The Wedge-It Ultimate Door Stop gets our vote for brightness (you won't lose it in a hurry) and for being able to be used in multiple ways. In fact, we may buy one for ourselves for Christmas.
Travel PowerBoard with USB Ports
Where would be be without our electrical devices? Even while we're on the road we need to charge laptops, cameras, iphones, ipods, kindles, video cameras… the list goes on! A Travel PowerBoard with USB Ports with surge protection is a handle little device that can make charging all those devices less painful. The addition of surge protection could potentially save all of your devices if there are problems with the local electricity supply. As we have Australian electrical equipment, we use the a Jackson 2 Port Powerboard with 2 USB ports (surge protected) which you can buy from a number of places in Australia and New Zealand online and in store. For those in the Americas, Belkin have a surge protected 3 port powerboard with 2 USB ports that I have read a number of really good reviews about (see here). Size of the powerboard is the key here. Power boards and adapters can get pretty bulky. We can certainly vouch for the Australian Jackson version.
Travel Clothesline and Accessories
When you travel the world with only three tops, five pairs of undies and two pairs of pants you need to wash your clothes – often! Every night we wash what we wore during the day and hang our washing on a travel clothesline in either our bathroom, bedroom, or on a balcony. There are many different types of travel clotheslines out there. We prefer the designs like in the picture as you have a choice of either wrapping around poles and using the hooks to tighten the clothesline or use the suction cups in the bathroom between two walls. As for accessories, we are still on the hunt for the perfect travel fold up coat hanger. We use coat hangers not to hang our clothes in a wardrobe, but to air dry our clothing when all there is is a hook. You can easily find inflatable coat hangers online or instore. However, we are still searching for the ultimate collapsible, lightweight travel coat hanger. If you know of a place in Asia that sells them, please let us know… like this or this would be awesome!
Pacsafe Stainless Steel Bag Mesh
At a weight of 500 grams a Pacsafe Stainless Steel Mesh Bag is worth its weight in gold! It consists of a steel wire bag that you can also attach to a fixed object. That way it is extremely difficult to get into your bag and virtually impossible to carry off your bag without the use of some reasonably serious tools.. The Pacsafe can be used outside the bag like in the picture or, as we do when we are on public transport, inside the bag. We put our laptops inside it then inside a pack and you can't tell that they are there. That way its all set up to be attached to something when we arrive at our destination. If someone really wanted to get into your bag or to steal the whole thing, given enough time, they will eventually find a way. The Pacsafe is, however, a great deterrent and prevents hotel staff or anyone else with access to your room from being able to quickly and quietly make off with your valuables. The Pacsafe Stainless Steel Bag Mesh come in various sizes depending on what size backpack / bag you have. They really are that good. Even for a minimalist carry on luggage traveler.
Any traveler would be happy to receive one or all of the above items (if they don't have it already). Happy shopping!
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