Stocking Stuffers For Travelers
Small gifts for travellers are easy to get right and easy to get wrong, and the difference is whether the thing gets used or lives in a drawer. The original list has dated entirely; the categories have not.
Small things that genuinely get used:
- Merino socks. The single best small gift in travel. Warm when damp, do not smell after three days, and nobody spends this much on their own socks.
- A short flat USB-C cable, because the one in the box is long and stiff and everyone needs a second.
- Proper moulded earplugs, which beat headphones for sleeping on a plane and cost a fraction.
- A microfibre towel, medium, not small.
- Chlorine dioxide water tablets, unromantic and the thing that works when the clever purifier is flat.
- A small carabiner and a couple of tree-friendly straps, endlessly useful.
- A solid shampoo bar, which sidesteps the liquid rules entirely and cannot leak into clothing.
- A paper notebook and a pencil, which work at altitude, in the rain and on no battery.
What to skip: anything branded as a travel gadget, miniature versions of full-size tools, and the multi-tool with fourteen functions and no good knife.
One note that has changed since this was written: if you are buying anything with a lithium battery, remember it must travel in the cabin rather than a checked bag, and several airlines now restrict charging them in flight. Worth saying in the card.
Part of the guide to boots, shoes and sandals.