19 Small Travel Gifts That Do BIG Things

[Updated December 2020]

It can be difficult to bring everything you need traveling sometimes when space is at a premium. Luckily, there are some awesome, useful small travel gifts out there that do a lot bigger things than they look capable of.

More and more people are choosing to travel nowadays with carry on baggage only since airline baggage fees just keep increasing. That makes it even more thoughtful of you to give practical small travel gifts, that can easily find a place in their carry on.

In saying that, lots of airlines have a carry on baggage weight limit, so when the small travel gifts you give are lightweight it’s even better.

These travel gift ideas are mostly inexpensive, (with a couple of pricier small gift ideas) and are things that travellers will like, use and want!

Read Next: Carry On Bag Size & Weight Guide For Airlines In Southeast Asia here.

Pin for later

This post contains some affiliate links. That means I may earn a small commission (at no extra cost to you) if you click though and decide to make a purchase.

Here Are 19 Awesome, (Mostly Lightweight) Useful Small Travel Gifts That Any Traveler Can Appreciate

1) Mini Bluetooth Portable Speaker

Everyone likes music (don’t they?), and this mini bluetooth portable speaker packs some powerful sound and is perfect for travel.

It might look small – and it is, but believe it or not, the sound quality you get from this is pretty impressive!

This speaker is super portable thanks to its protective travel case and can hook onto your bag while still allowing you to play music. It’s also waterproof so you can pretty much bring it anywhere. When fully charged, you’ll get up to 12 hours of playtime from this compact speaker.

2) Foldable Travel Tote Bag

This Tumi foldable tote bag is generously sized but packs down small into its own zippered pouch when not in use. Packable tote bags are a travel must for me and I highly recommend for everyone to have one.

They come in so handy for times like: when you bought too many souvenirs and need a larger personal item. Or when you need a bigger bag at your destination but don’t want to use it on the plane. Foldable travel tote bags are great to double as a beach bag too!

They’re also great for instances like this one, when this happened to us.

Not only is the Tumi foldable tote bag stylish, but it’s nylon too so it’s easy to keep clean. It’s zippered which is kind of important, and has a sleeve to slip it over your luggage handles so you can roll it with your suitcase.

These are some other great foldable travel tote bag options. There’s also the packable, flat-folding Tumi backpack and of course, the classic foldable travel tote bag – the Longchamp Le Pliage. Any of these would make perfect travel presents.

3) Portable External Hard Drive

If you know someone who travels with their camera and laptop like I do, a slim, portable external hard drive will be invaluable to them.

It serves as an important backup incase anything happens to their computer, but also to unload all those huge photo files off of their devices.

Spare external portable hard drives are always great to have. You need to make back ups of your backups too after all, these drives might fail eventually like everything else.

I use these Seagate Backup Plus Slim hard drives, they’re super easy to use and connect and smaller than an iPhone 7. One of the best portable external hard drives out there, in my personal opinion. And they’re Mac and PC compatible.

4) Comfy Noise Cancelling Headphones

There’s nothing worse than being stuck on a long flight with crying babies and loud snorers.

Not only that, but watching movies and listening to music with regular earbuds starts to hurt the inside of your ears after awhile. They don’t usually cancel out the annoying noises either.

These beats headphones are wayyy more comfortable since you don’t have anything inside your ear and they cancel out noise really well. They’re also a lot better for your hearing, because you’re not having to crank the volume so loud to hear over the airplane sounds.

Ok, so they’re not as compact as earbuds but they do fold down smaller and trust me – if you know someone who travels a lot, they will get a lot of use out of these.

For small travel gifts these noise cancelling headphones are a bit higher priced, but they really are something that someone who travels will appreciate. Plus they come in lots of great colours (I love any of the ones with gold or rose gold accents, so luxe looking).

There’s some other great noise cancelling headphones options here too, with some less expensive options that have awesome reviews as well.

5) Portable Power Bank Travel Charger

A portable battery charger is ALWAYS handy to have, especially for travellers on the go who need to recharge their devices.

The battery capacity of this portable travel charger (or this one that ships to Canada) is enough for you to fully recharge your phone or tablet more than once. It has a battery power indicator too, so you always know how much is left.

The portable power bank charges your phone fast and the USB-C port makes it incredibly easy to charge up your macbook or other devices that use it.

Another great option for the traveller or outdoor adventurer is a solar power portable charger like this one. It’s waterproof and comes with a built in compass and LED flashlight – they can just clip it onto their bag and go.

6) Collapsible Water Bottle

I don’t know about you, but I’m one of those people that ALWAYS needs to have a water bottle with me. It’s like my child. I’m probably on the extreme end of things, but I like to make sure that I can hydrate myself wherever and whenever I want.

Reusable water bottles are super handy to have – not to mention they’re so much better for the planet.

So why not gift your favourite traveller with a collapsable water bottle that they can take everywhere with them? Plus, when it’s empty, it doesn’t take up nearly as much space as a regular one.

Some you can roll up or accordion out, there’s lots of different options for collapsable water bottles available online. (You can get collapsable coffee mugs too! Awesome for hikers and campers.)

7) Travel Cord Organizer

I still need to get one of these travel cord organizers! They are super helpful.

You can keep all of your cords, chargers and small things like memory cards and usb sticks all in one place – but organized. Perfect way to carry around your portable hard drives and power bank too. It really beats digging around your bag blindly for what you need, that’s for sure.

Also, I think it’s a pretty perfect solution to keep your stuff organized and in one place at home too. Travel accessories that have more than one use are my favourite kind of travel gift.

8) Travel Toiletry Bottles

Perfect for anyone who travels but especially for carry on only people. These reusable travel toiletry bottles come in an assortment of sizes for your shampoos, lotions, creams and what have you.

They are all under 100ml so they’re TSA approved sizes, they come with labels and they come in a TSA sized clear carry bag.

It’s always nicer when you can bring your own products from home that you know and use daily. Not to mention that you’ll help lower the demand for travel size products being produced, which in turn will prevent some from getting to the landfill.

You can find lots of other kinds of travel toiletry bottle sets and loose bottles too, mix according to your needs. I think they make perfect, practical small travel gifts.

9) Image Stabilizer Gimbal For Smartphones

Portable and super affective, smartphone gimbals are a game changer for anyone who films videos on their phone.

Ever watched a video where someone’s walking and the video is all shaky? (Usually me.) Gimbals totally fix that problem though, so they’ll only be recording smooth video after you get them this awesome gift.

Personally, I like DJI’s products and this DJI Osmo Mobile gimbal is a fantastic one. But there are lots of other phone gimbal options too at all different price points.

10) Convertible Selfie Stick Tripod

Okay so I just talked about phone gimbals for video, but we can’t forget about the good old selfie stick can we?

I still remember years ago when I saw a guy at a park attach his phone to an actual stick. Like, from a tree and use it to take a selfie. I thought to myself, hmm… that’s kind of weird but also… kind of genius. And then honestly, within the year they were coming out on the market.

So anyway, I probably don’t need to explain why selfie sticks are a great present for someone who travels. There’s a high possibility that they already own one, but if they don’t – it’s one of the best small travel gifts you can buy.

This selfie stick even has a tripod so there’s options to make it even more useful, even if they don’t like the whole “selfie” situation.

11) Travel Jewelry Organizer

My necklaces always get tangled unless I use something to separate them like these. This small travel jewelry organizer is the perfect size for travelling – it’s just 4″ x 4″ and can fit quite a bit.

Especially if you’re travelling carry on only, you really need all the space you can get. It’s also better to keep your valuable jewelry in your carry on bag anyway, just in case.

Looking for something bigger? There’s tons more jewelry organizer options here.

12) Resistance Bands For The Fit Traveller

Lots of people like to be able to work out while travelling so why not help make it easier for them right?

Resistance bands are lightweight and take up hardly any room in their luggage. They can be used in so many different ways and anywhere – no gym required. So it’s really the perfect piece of workout gear for someone who travels a lot.

You can also get the tubular resistance bands that have handles or loop resistance bands for more specific exercises.

But it’s probably best to make sure the person you’re getting this for actually likes to work out… you might end up offending them otherwise lol.

13) Phone Camera Lenses

If you know a traveller that mostly uses their phone to take photos, then this is one of the best small travel gifts for them. Up their camera phone game with a phone lens kit that comes with different types of lenses.

They can get more creative with their photography by using the fisheye and macro lenses that usually come with sets. The telephoto and wide angle lenses are great for far distances and getting more in the photo. The lenses are tiny, so they’re really perfect for travel and are one of the best travel accessory gifts to buy.

14) Lightweight Travel & Camping Hammock

A fun, small gift for the outdoorsy traveller is a lightweight, portable camping hammock.

They don’t take up much space in a pack and lightweight versions only weigh around 1-2 LB, so it isn’t much. They can be big enough for two people and are equally fantastic to bring on hikes or to the beach.

15) The Lazy Cosmetic Bag

Okay these bags are such a great idea first of all, and they hold A LOT.

You just throw all your makeup into one of these drawstring makeup bags. Then, when you get to your destination – you open it right up so that it’s a flat circle.

Because it’s opened right up they can see everything they need clearly and when it’s time to go, you just cinch the drawstrings back up. Super easy to use and convenient to have for the on-the-go traveller.

16) The Personal Emergency Alarm

This is a useful, small travel gift for the solo traveller in your life – but also anyone who walks alone at night. It’s also useful for elderly people if they need help, joggers, hikers, kids, etc.

These personal emergency alarms come ready to use out of the package so they’re easy to gift and just attach to your keyring. When the pin is pulled it sounds an annoyingly affective, very loud alarm and can keep going for almost an hour – or until the pin is put back.

This particular version also has a built in LED light to help you find your way in the dark. Helpful for those scary times when you can’t use your phone light because you only have 2% battery left. (Another reason why a portable power bank is one of the best gifts ever!)

17) For The Adventurous Traveller

A GoPro camera is definitely one of the top small travel gifts for the adventure traveller. Super portable, many people use these as their main travel camera too and they’ve improved a lot since the first few versions came out.

There’s tons of great things about these GoPro cameras and other action cameras. They’re super compact, and you can get attachments to use them basically anywhere, on anything. Take it underwater, record video and sound, and lots of other features depending on the brand and model you go with.

Obviously GoPros are the OG, but there are lots of other action camera brands now too. They will have similar or even better capabilities at different (and less expensive) price points.

18) An RFID Blocking Wallet

In this day and age, an RFID blocking wallet is smart for both travel and regular daily use. Keep your ID and credit card info safe from digital theft and still look good.

RFID blocking wallets and travel organizers are available for both men and women and have thoughtful added functions.

This Bellroy travel wallet can also hold a standard sized passport inside so you can keep all your important documents safe.

19) Packing Cubes To Change Your Life

I’m not even joking though, packing cubes are seriously life changing. Definitely get some for yourself as well – you won’t be sorry!

They make packing sooo much better and easier because it’s organized and everything fits nicely into your bag.

They look big and some sizes are – but they are excellent small travel gifts because they are so lightweight and foldable. When not in use they hardly take up any room but you could just store them in your luggage anyway.

In your bag they don’t take up space, but they create more space! Packing cubes not only help you stay organized but they compress your clothing a bit so you get more space.

These Hynes Eagle Travel Compression Packing Cubes are even better too. They do all the above, but also have an extra zipper that compresses your clothing even more. That extra compression means maximum space in your luggage. (Which means you might overpack? So maybe a luggage scale is a good gift idea too.)

We use packing cubes every time we pack for both camping and travel. And honestly, once you use them, you’ll wonder how you ever went through life without them!

So there you have it – 19 fantastic small travel gifts that anyone who travels will appreciate receiving!

Did you find this travel gift guide helpful? If so please pin it and share, and let me know what you think in the comments below.