国产吃瓜黑料
We’re minimalist travelers here at 国产吃瓜黑料—we don’t want any extra weight slowing us down as we explore the world. What we do like are practical gifts that make traveling easier, more convenient, and more fun. So our travel editors are revealing the items on their wish list this season—and the gifts they’ll be giving to their favorite travelers.
I’m definitely adding that water bottle and the Hipcamp gift card to my wish list. —Alison Osius
Looking for more great travel intel? Sign up for 国产吃瓜黑料’s $100+ at Olympic Spa7. Best Phone-Camera Accessory
Joby GorillaPod Mobile Mini Tripod ($17)

I work with 国产吃瓜黑料 Online’s astrotourism writer Stephanie Vermillion, and this past fall she recommended a tiny tripod that pairs well with smartphones. She uses her mini-tripod when shooting the northern lights and other dark-sky scenes that require long shutter-speed times with no vibrations. But honestly, I’m just tired of long-arming photos of myself and friends in beautiful places. I can tuck this accessory into my daypack—it’s about the size of a large iPhone, and weighs the same as two Hershey chocolate bars—and then set it up, adjust its flexible legs, pop my phone into its rubber jaws, set the timer, and take a snap that’s not a blatant selfie. Just what I’m looking for. —T.Z.
8. Best Gift for Nervous Flyers
Bose Noise Canceling Headphones 700 ($349)

Listening to music while flying helps lessen the anxiety I often feel, especially during takeoff, landing, and periods of turbulence. I was gifted these excellent noise-canceling headphones a few years ago, and they were comfortable over my ears and even looked cool, but, sad to say, I left them in the seat-back pocket on a leg to Paris. I’m going to have to replace them, but I have a plan to avoid paying full price: by going to Bose’s amazing , which sells returned products at a significant discount. The brand’s tech team fixes the defects, and you’d never know the items weren’t brand-new. You also still get a year warranty. The only catch is that the item you’re seeking may not be available immediately. I just checked the shop for headphones, and they’re sold out, but upon the click of a button, I’ll be notified when the next pair comes up—and you can believe I’ll wait. —T.Z.
9. Must-Have for Star Parties
BioLite HeadLamp 425 ($60)

I always travel with a headlamp, and not just for camping and being outdoors. Headlamps are tiny and easy to pack, and I’ve stayed in cabins at the Red River Gorge or in Tahoe where the rooms were so dark I needed a light to find my socks. I still have the original Biolite 330 headlamp from when it was introduced five years ago at an affordable $50: it is super light (2.4 ounces), bright, and functional; is USB rechargeable; and has an integrated design that puts the lamp flush into the headband for simplicity and comfort. It also has a strobe light for rescues and red lights for night missions.
Compared to white lights, low-intensity red ones minimizes pupil dilation, allowing better night vision; red light is also less disruptive to wildlife. Red lights are essential for star gazing, and these days everyone is going to dark-sky parks and peering at the stars, meteors, and northern lights. Recently, looking for a headlamp for my stepsister as she went off to an astrophotography class in the Tucson desert, I picked the 425. —Alison Osius, senior editor, travel

10. Best Travel Pants
The prAna Koen Pant ($95)

When I went to Abu Dhabi to see my nephew graduate from high school, my luggage was delayed for three days out of a five-day trip. So I wore the same mahogany-colored Title IX capris nearly every day as well as on all my flights, and came back loving them more than ever, which is some testament. Sadly, I later lost those red pants. Yet I hit on a match: the Koen. I bought the Koen capris (two pairs), then the Koen shorts (also two pairs), and then the pants: my new fave travel pants and apparently fave anything pants, since I just wore them to the hospital for a finger surgery.
They are lightweight, silky, stretchy, and wrinkle free, and work for anything from hiking to around town. The front pockets are flat and unobtrusive, with hidden zippers, yet deep enough to hold a phone securely if you need a quick stow, like when juggling items in the airport. The pull-on waist is ideal for comfort and upright cat naps, since it lacks zips, snaps, or external ties. The Koen is overall sleek in its lines. I am psyched that it comes in regular, short and tall versions, and am getting the long ones for my older sister, who is taller than I am and travels 70 percent of the time for her work. Don’t tell her, because it’s a surprise.—A.O.

11. Best Gift for Campers
HipCamp gift certificates (starting at $75)

Wasn’t it Clint Eastwood, he of The Eiger Sanction lore, who said, “I would rather wake up in the middle of nowhere than in any city on earth”? No, wait, Steve McQueen. Point is, with digital for booking a campsite on Hipcamp, you can give that experience. A card ushers someone into an expanding community with sites across the country and in Canada, the United Kingdom, France, and Australia. And these sites are not just for a tent in a grassy lot. They are for a yurt in the middle of a flowering meadow; they are for camping, glamping, RV spots, cabins, and canvas. The gift card never expires, nor will you ever run out of places.—A.O.
12. Best Soak With a View
Mount Princeton Hot Springs (gift cards from $50)

The old mining town of Leadville, Colorado, sits way up there at 10,000 feet, and it’s cold. Luckily within an hour you can reach any of half a dozen hot-springs resorts, some of the nicest in the state or anywhere, to warm your bones. My sister used to live in Leadville, and when I visited we often took our young sons and let them play and soak..and maybe even slow down a little. The mountain-ringed Mount Princeton Hot Springs, in Nathrop, has geothermal springs, an infinity pool, natural creekside pools, and a view of the Chalk Cliffs on the 14,197-foot peak the property is named for. It that work for day passes, lodging, and dining.—A.O.
Check availability on Expedia
13. Best Water Bottle for Travel
Katadyn BeFree 0.6 L Water Filter Bottle ($40)

I sure could’ve used this lightweight collapsible filtered bottle last summer for mountain hiking. On one trip with an eight-mile approach followed by a day on a peak and then the dread march out, I filled my bottles time and time again from a stream near camp, thirsty and getting careless when my filtration system took time. (Luckily I got away with it, or rather without giardia, this time.) Filtering at a rate of up to two liters of water per minute, the Katadyn is a fast and light (two ounces) system that would also be perfect for the trail runners and bow hunters in my household who don’t want to carry heavy water bottles. I would like to take the Katadyn hiking and traveling, since it’s light, packable, and makes for safe drinking.—A.O.
14. Best Reading App
Everand Subscription (from $12 per month)

Whether traveling by car or air, I always download a series of audiobooks from my Everand (formerly named Scribd) app before going. With a library of more than 1.5 million ebooks and audiobooks—plus a collection of magazines and podcasts—to choose from, I never run low on options. Often, I’ll base my pick on the destination: Desert Solitaire for a trip to Moab or A Walk in the Woods for a hiking adventure in Maine. Every time I board a flight, I pop in my earbuds and am fully entertained until we land. Or, since I like to sleep on planes, I might set Everand’s sleep timer to 30 minutes, and drift off by the time we finish takeoff. I love the app so much that I’m getting a subscription for my 14-year-old stepdaughter this year, too. —Abigail Wise, Digital Director