Travel Gifts for Kids and Parents

All the best travel gifts for kids and parents who are always on the move – think small gifts to take with them, or travel related gifts to enjoy at home. 

Best Travel Gifts for Families

It’s that time of year again! Christmas is fast approaching and everyone is starting to think about what to buy for their loved ones so we wanted to share our pick of the best travel gifts for kids… and parents.

When considering gifts for people who travel, you need to remember that they often don’t have a lot of space for carrying around large or heavy gifts. So your travel gifts ideally need to be either practical travel gifts or easily portable. But that’s not to say they can’t be fun and unique travel gifts too.

When choosing Christmas gifts for kids who travel, think of them being either small gifts to pack in a suitcase, or travel related gifts that they can use at home.

If you are looking for travel gift ideas for families, then here we give you our pick of this year’s best gifts for travelers.

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Portable Car Booster Seat

We often travel to and from airports in taxis or hotel cars, and whether at home or abroad, we often take a taxi across town at some point. So having a portable booster seat with us is essential for the kids’ safety in the car, and would make a great gift for family travelers.

You can read our article featuring all the best travel booster seats here. Otherwise, we recommend these two options if you are looking for travel presents for families.

  • The Bubblebum is an inflatable booster seat that you can inflate when you need, and easily deflate and store in your handbag or kids backpack when you reach your destination.
BubbleBum Hybrid Inflatable Travel Booster Car Seat | Hybrid Design - Benefits of a Rigid Booster & The Convenience of Portability | Narrow, Backless Booster Seat for Kids | Fit 3 Across - Black
  • The mifold portable car booster seat is one tenth of the size of a regular booster seat, and folds up small enough to be able to fit into your handbag! You can read our full review of the mifold car booster seat here.
New mifold Comfort Grab-and-go Car Booster Seat- 3X Thicker Cushion! Compact and Portable for Every Day and Carpooling, Travel, Taxis etc. Narrow and Lightweight car seat, Royal Purple

Kids Leg Travel Pillow

We love the kids leg travel pillows for helping to make kids comfy on the plane. These ingenious travel products for kids fill the legroom gap on the airplane, allowing kids to stretch out and effectively turning your child’s economy seat into a flatbed.

We have reviewed the 1st Class Kid Travel Pillow. When deflated, the pillow is small enough to squeeze into your hand luggage bag, and when inflated it fills the footwell in front of the seat, allowing your kids to stretch out.

Inflatable Travel Foot Rest Pillow | Kids Airplane Bed | Adjustable Height Leg Pillow | Make a Flat Bed for Kids and Toddlers | Great for Airplane, Train, car(Grey, 2 Pack)

We discovered it is also the ideal solution to stop your kids from kicking the seat in front. We never board a long haul flight without ours now.

Buy this as a gift for someone going travelling with kids on a long haul flight and they will be forever thankful!

Click here to read our recommendations for other travel pillows for kids.

Packing Cubes

From all accounts, packing cubes will change your life as a traveller.

These small lightweight bags come in a variety of sizes (and colours if that matters to you), and often come with a mesh window to allow you to see the contents easily. This makes it easy to organize and compartmentalize sections of your suitcase.

Veken 6 Set Packing Cubes, Travel Luggage Organizers with Laundry Bag & Shoe Bag (Teal)

I have found packing cubes to be particularly handy for a family vacation, as they allow me to separate each family member’s clothing and put an end to the continual rummaging through the suitcase to find my son’s t-shirt or daughter’s pyjamas.

Look for ones that have windows so you can see what is inside, and a selection of colours makes it easy to organise different items. 

Scratch Map

I love the idea of the scratch map. We have both a world map on the wall and a globe at home and my kids love looking at both and working out where we’ve been, where we’re going next and where various friends and family live around the world.

Scratch The World ® Travel Map - Scratch Off World Map Poster - X-Large 23 x 33 - Maps International - 50 Years of Map Making - Cartographic Detail Featuring Country & State Borders

The scratch map starts as a beautiful gold world map, and as you scratch off the layer of gold foil from all the places you have visited, bright colourful countries are revealed underneath.

Perfect for a fun record of where you have travelled as a family, and for getting the kids excited about travelling the world.

Waterproof Camera

A waterproof, shockproof camera is a godsend for travelling with kids. We have the Olympus Tough, which we always take on holiday with us.

OLYMPUS Tough TG-6 Waterproof Camera, Red

We can take it in the swimming pool and the sea for underwater pictures, take it to the beach or skiing and I can happily let my kids run around with it taking pictures without worrying too much about them dropping it.

GoPro Hero Camera

It feels like GoPro cameras have taken over the travel world. Initially the camera of choice for adventure travellers the world over, the GoPro can be strapped to a kayak, car or bike to film yourself in action, or take time-lapse footage and stills.

GoPro HERO10 Black - Waterproof Action Camera with Front LCD and Touch Rear Screens, 5.3K60 Ultra HD Video, 23MP Photos, 1080p Live Streaming, Webcam, Stabilization

Nowadays it seems that every traveler and tourist you see is using their selfie sticked GoPro to take photos of themselves at landmarks around the world. We have one and the kids love using it

Headphones – for both parents and kids

A pair of high-quality, noise-cancelling headphones is almost a necessity for the frequent flier these days. Hushing out ambient sound, you can listen to music, or your inflight movie without all of the distractions of the cabin around you.

The Bose QuietComfort version is widely regarded as the go-to product. Be warned though – I have to resort to throwing things at my husband when he is wearing his on the plane, as he ‘conveniently’ can’t hear me… or my kids.

New Bose QuietComfort 45 Bluetooth Wireless Noise Canceling Headphones - Triple Black

Kids using iPads on planes are all well and good – but if they don’t use headphones, they can be a real nuisance for their fellow passengers. we have tried out a lot of headphones over the years and you can read our full article with all our reviews here: The Best headphones for kids. 

One of our top picks would be the Puro SoundLab Junior Jams. They are lightweight and comfortable to wear, and have a built-in audio splitter making them good for kids sharing a device. They come in a choice of colours and can be used wireless or wired. 

JuniorJams Volume Limiting Headphones for Kids 3+ Protect Hearing – Foldable & Adjustable Bluetooth Wireless Headphones for Tablets, Smartphones, & PCs – 22-Hour Battery Life by Puro Sound Labs, Pink

Trunki Ride On Suitcase

My kids LOVE their Trunkis! These wheeled suitcases come in a range of fun designs, including Ladybirds, Tigers and even the Gruffalo, and help make the journey through the airport more fun for the kids – and easier for mum and dad.

Walking through the airport now usually turns into a race to see who can get to the gate first.

Trunki Baby, Frank Fire Truck (Red)

You can read our full review of the Trunki here to see why we love these kids wheeled suitcases so much.

Full Face Snorkel Mask

Our kids love going snorkelling and looking out for sea creatures. As they are only little though it can sometimes be difficult to find masks that fit them on snorkeling trips, and particularly my youngest has struggled with fitting the snorkel in his mouth.

Recently I invested in a full face snorkel mask for each of them.

QingSong Kids Snorkel Mask Full Face, Snorkeling Set with Camera Mount, 180 Degree Panoramic View Snorkeling Gear Anti-Fog Anti-Leak

These innovative snorkel masks cover the entire face, with the snorkel built in, meaning the wearer can breathe normally while snorkeling, in addition to enjoying 180 degree field of vision. Available in various sizes for the whole family.

Travel Games

My daughter was given UNO as a gift, and she became addicted to playing it while we were exploring Myanmar. It took me back to my backpacking days!

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A pack of cards is always a good thing to have in your bag when you are travelling with kids. But there are plenty of other fun travel games for kids out there.

As well as UNO we also have Travel Connect 4 and Travel Battleships. Other fun looking travel games include Travel Yahtzee and Scrabble Twist.

Little Passports

The Little Passports subscription service is a great idea for travel related gifts that kids can enjoy at home. Every month children learn about a new country via a package delivered to their doorstep.

The packages include souvenirs, stickers, activities and more, with the initial package including an orange suitcase to keep everything in.

Little Passports World Edition - Subscription Box for Kids | Ages 6-10

There are four different subscriptions to choose from, including the Early Explorers for ages 3-5, World Edition for ages 6-10, and a Science Expedition subscription for ages 9+.

A fun and educational gift for kids who love travelling and learning about their world. You can read our full Little Passports review here.

 

Multi USB Charging Hub

I don’t know about you, but these days when we travel we seem to have half a suitcase full of electronics. There’s mine and my husbands’ laptops, our phones, the kids iPads, our camera, our GoPro, our smart watches…. And all of these things need charging!

Charging Station for Multiple Devices, MSTJRY 5 Port Multi USB Charger Station with Power Switch Compatible with iPhone iPad Cell Phone Tablets (White, 5 Mixed Short Cables Included)

This not only means that our suitcase fills up with power cables, but also means we are all fighting for sockets in the hotel room – especially if you are in a foreign country and only have one travel adapter with you!

This is where the multi charging hub comes in – you can use a single power point to charge multiple phones/tablets/cameras. Give this as a present to someone going travelling with the family and tell them you can guarantee no more fighting!

 

Portable iPhone Photo Printer

Polaroid cameras are all the rage again, but I already have enough cameras with my iPhone, my GoPro and my DSLR. So I recently bought a portable iPhone photo printer as a compromise, which allows me to print instant photos from my iPhone, using Polaroid printer paper.

Fujifilm Instax Mini Link Smartphone Printer - Dusky Pink

The advantage of this is that I can choose which photo I like from my iPhone and edit it before printing. It is small enough to carry in your handbag and the photos are great for sharing with friends we meet along the way when we are travelling, and for sticking in travel journals.

 

Travel Drone

We all have a bit of geek in us and the drone is the ultimate way to let out that inner geek. If you are looking for travel gift ideas for someone going travelling that will win you maximum brownie points on Christmas Day, then look no further than a drone.

There are so many drones on the market to choose from, but we particularly like the look of the DJI mini, a portable mini drone featuring a camera with incredible image quality and intelligent flight control options.

DJI Mini SE - Camera Drone with 3-Axis Gimbal, 2.7K Camera, GPS, 30-min Flight Time, Reduced Weight, Less Than 0.55lbs / 249 gram Mini Drone, Improved Scale 5 Wind Resistance, Gray

Looking for more travel gifts for families? Check out our product reviews for more of the best gifts for travel lovers. Feeling Festive? 

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Best Travel Gifts for Families

 

4 thoughts on “Travel Gifts for Kids and Parents”

  1. Great list! I love the gifts for kids they are so cute. My nephew is only a few months old so I can’t wait until I can start buying some of these gifts for him.

    Reply
  2. Very nice! We do bring several gadgets for several reasons especially a camera – a waterproof one’s very clever. Thanks for these tips!

    Reply
  3. The travel Drone is really the perfect choice if you are a travel & photograph lover. I am going to gift myself someday. Hahaha. Thanks for sharing such ideas.

    Reply

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