“You don’t need magic to disappear, all you need is a destination and a great hostel!”

When you are young, free-spirited and ready to conquer the world you dream of backpacking through this planet. You know…hitchhiking your way through Europe; spending a year in Africa living among numerous indigenous tribes and maybe even going Down Under to learn the bushcraft from the Aborigines.

Dare we say that ‘these are the years when we are most alive!!’

As we get older, we begin to realize that we prefer comfortable travel. First class flights to plush destinations like the Maldives where we get round the clock service from some of the best and highly trained staff; a weekend in Diani where the sands are so white they’ll make you want to slap your dentist or maybe just a 10 day cruise around the Caribbean in a luxury rum-fueled Cruise Ship.

However, there are some of us who simply cannot help but answer to that call; that backpacking frenzy that captures our hearts and draws us in all through our lives. We all probably have that one friend who is constantly off on one enchanting journey after another. That friend who never really fully unpacks; someone who always has a backpack fully loaded and ready to go. You know, the people who have run out of pages on their fourth passport!

Practical gifts for your crazy backpacking friends

Every now and again, you will get the chance to spend the holidays with such a friend. The fact that they have seen so much more of the world than you have means that they probably have very little regard for the kind of material things that we hold dear.

However, they still need things for their travels right? As such, you should probably get them something practical and useful for Christmas or their birthdays…not just a tie that they will never wear. Maybe a new passport with more pages?

If you have such friends (bless your heart) you are luckier than you think. These people can be the inspiration you need to travel the world. Show them you appreciate them by getting them:

Entrance to all the National Parks in Kenya

Kenya has 54 National Parks and Game Reserves strategically scattered all around the country. One shares its borders with the Capital City (Nairobi National Park) while others are so far-flung that you can only get to them by boat after making your way through a desert (Lake Turkana National Parks).

Now, if your friend is the kind of person who loves wildlife and has a thing for touring parks, then you might want to make their lives that much easier by paying for their park entry fees…for at least a year or so. KWS (Kenya Wildlife Service) introduced several cashless payment modes at all the national parks in Kenya.

These modes include Visa, Mpesa, corporate cheques and direct deposits. Loading your friends Visa Card with the money they need to pay for park entry is a practical way to show them that you are all for their wandering ways and that you support green travel. It’s not all about bars and flights you know!!

Exciting scratch off travel maps

Yes…they have their ‘many filled-up passport’ pages to show you where they have been but they can’t lug that around…they have to keep it safe. Plus…they can’t really shade it off as they go (that’s for customs and their stamps!)

Getting a scratch-off travel map is a wonderful way to help them keep track of all the exotic places they have visited. There are scratch travel maps where the scratched off countries or destinations light up on the map. They are easy to carry and are a picturesque way for your friend to brag about all the foreign lands they have visited. Plus, it will make them look as accomplished as those old cartographers when they pull it out to explain to wide-eyed listeners at a party where Kenya is on the globe!

A universal travel adapter

When backpacking, there are some things that will always get lost:

• Your toothbrush
• Your favourite t-shirt
• Your wallet (in some cases)
• Your sense of humour (when the mosquitoes get really bad)

That is just fact. You will lose a lot of these things including your phone charger and adapter. While there is very little you can do about your backpacking friend’s sense of humour, you can help them out with that adapter problem.

Getting them a universal adapter that is calibrated for virtually every country puts them in a wonderful position to get their phones, iPads and cameras charged wherever they go (get them one with several USB ports for convenience).

A travel belt with a hidden money wallet

Remember how we talked about them losing their wallets more often than not? Yeah…that tends to happen a lot! Getting them a travel belt that looks just like any other belt only it has a hidden compartment for a few bills is a great way to help them see the funny side of losing their wallets. The best of these security belts can carry up to 20 notes of different denominations within their inner-facing zipped compartments. The best part is that the belt buckle part is almost always plastics so it does not set off any airport scanners when you travel.

A lightweight parachute hammock

Whether they are spending the night at Campi Ya Kazi or tanning themselves on any one of Lamu’s iconic island beaches, having a hammock with them is a great way to stay self-sufficient. Get them the sturdy kind…the kind that does not break and will not get soaking wet as soon as dusk comes around. You can even throw in a travel pillow and a sleeping bag if you want to go all out.

Backpackers always brag about being self-sufficient. There is a good chance that your backpacking friend probably already has many of these things but trust us when we say, they will not turn down a newer, sturdier or just additional version when offered as a gift. Get creative and try to give them something that will take their backpacking breath away!

Do you have any unique gift ideas for backpackers? Share them with us in the comment section below.