Still wondering what to gift your favorite traveler this year? Passion Passport’s staff shares what they’re giving and (hopefully) getting this holiday season in our Wanderluster’s Gift Guide.
JESSICA – Editor:
Artifact Uprising Photo Product or Gift Card
What better way to reflect on a year of travel than by creating a photo book of memories, or prints of your favorite images? Artifact Uprising offers a range of beautiful items to choose from, including cards, calendars, books, and keepsakes. Not particularly creative or photo-inclined? They also offer gift cards so your friends and loved ones can design products on their own. Bonus: the company is environmentally conscious and strives to make products that have little adverse impact on our world.
APOLIS Clothing, Footwear or Luggage
APOLIS – meaning global citizen – is a socially motivated lifestyle brand founded by brothers Raan and Shea Parton. They work hand-in-hand with cooperatives around the world, co-designing, manufacturing and sourcing all of their products and materials with their partners. This model, termed advocacy through industry, is a revolutionary way to harness the power of business to create social change.
APOLIS has some beautiful pieces, including this men’s sweater and this piece of luggage. You’ll often find me jaunting around town in this t-shirt. You can learn more about APOLIS and their innovative business model by clicking here.
Zeal Optics
Zeal Optics is a boutique line of eyewear created for those with a sense of adventure. They offer a wide variety of men’s and women’s sunglasses and goggles, some fashion-forward, others sporty, all top-quality. Frames are made with plant-based materials (they’re the only company in the world to do that!), and prescription lenses are filled in-house, with any excess material recycled or repurposed. For Zeal Optics, being environmentally responsible is a way of life, and they see themselves as being and leading change.
JACK – Manager, Marketing & Partnerships:
Camps Bay Backpack – ONA Bags
ONA are makers of fine camera bags that exist in that classic place between function in style. This is their top-of-the-line backpack, capable to hold all the gear you could need. A camera bag first and foremost, the Camps Bay has a large section of customizable dividers to support your DSLR and up to seven extra lenses. Coupled with a laptop sleeve and various pockets to keep smaller gear and notebooks organized, this bag will get the job done, whether you’re shooting in the backcountry or pitching your portfolio in the city.
Klettersack – Topo Designs
At Passion Passport, we think the perfect bag is one that can take you from the mountains to the coastline, keeping all your gear warm and dry along the way. Throw in enough style to make your travelling companions ask, “Where did you get that?” and you’ve arrived at Topo Design’s Klettersack. At 22 litres, you can comfortably carry weekend essentials in this daypack. It comes in a color or pattern to suit any taste, and collaborations with Woolrich and Howler offer a spin on the classic.
Hi-Loft Down Sweater – Patagonia
The standard in jackets. It does equally well as an outer layer or an insulator beneath a shell. The hood is big enough to fit over a ski helmet and the neck zips past your chin to block your face from the wind, but it also packs down into the corner of your duffle. The perfect coat for a trip with connecting flights in opposite hemispheres, the Hi-Loft Down Sweater is made with 100% Traceable down, never live-plucked or force fed. You can feel as good about this jacket as you do in it.
Strap it to the nose of your board, the end of your ski pole, the mast of the boat, or your helmet as you sky-dive. The original go-anywhere-do-anything camera is still at the forefront of what’s cool in image capturing, all for as little as $129.99. Not sure which camera and mount the adventurer in your life needs? GoPro lets you browse by activity and get the bundle the right for them.
ÉLAN – Social Media:
3 in 1 Interchange Jacket – Columbia
If you grew up somewhere with cold winters, you might still remember getting your first Columbia jacket. Ask for a Columbia coat for the holidays this year to get that warm feeling again. Columbia has mastered the “3 in 1 Interchange” technology, meaning you’ll have three different coat options for varying weather conditions. Columbia jackets come with a lifetime warranty, so you won’t have to worry about replacing your new coat any time soon.
What’s better than giving the gift of travel? Grab a gift card so the receiver can book their trip whenever they choose. Amtrak also offers quick download and print gift certificates if you’re looking for a last-minute gift idea. My favorite route is the Cascades, which runs in the Pacific Northwest region through Vancouver, Seattle, and Portland.
There’s nothing worse than visualizing the perfect shot in your head, whipping out your iPhone, and finding that your great idea just doesn’t fit in the frame. That’s when you need a Moment lens. Moment makes lenses that improve upon your cell phone’s camera without degrading or distorting your shots. This holiday season, I’m asking for their wide angle lens to experiment with landscape photography. Moment set out to make the phone a better camera, and that’s exactly what they’ve accomplished.
ZACH – Founder:
Nowadays, so many of us are taking fantastic photos with mobile devices but not printing them. Enter Timeshel, a company that sends you thirty photos of your choice each month in a sleek ‘shel.’ Now, you can have a physical representation of the adventures you embark on each month. Or, consider gifting a friend or loved one three or six months of Timeshel so that they can document the New Year!
I’ve ruined one too many iPhones in the past, and this is a case that has managed to keep my phone dry and safe during my travels. For the avid snorkeler or swimmer, the case can be taken up to 6ft (2m) under the water, so it’s perfect for most water-related activities like kayaking, snorkeling and surfing. This winter, take your Optrix case into the mountains, and fear not when your phone slips out of your pocket during an epic wipeout. (It’s okay; it happens to all of us, and that’s why we have Optrix.)
The ideal stocking stuffer for the hungry adventurer: throw in a couple of Clifbars or Lunabars for all of the wanderlusters in your family. These snacks will sustain you through any adventure–even your Aunt’s questionable New Year’s Day feast.
ELLIOT – Social Media Manager:
Who is this a good gift for? Try anyone with a phone! With one of these, you can charge electronic devices on the go it’s the perfect lifeline to phones never again let single-digit battery life be a problem again! Although these chargers are portable and can fit in a pocket (or a stocking), they also pack a punch: no Instagramer is complete without one.
For our community members, we know that the next adventure can be on a whim, so always be ready with a NEMO tent be it a solo escape to nature or a weekend getaway with friends. The tents come in different sizes and materials, perfect for any outdoors person. Also make sure to check out their site for more camping items including a portable shower!
With options for men, women, and children, check out Tretorn footwear for the entire family! From rain boots to hiking boots to shoes for everyday casual, these will keep you feeling stylish and ready to take on whatever the world throws at you with pep in your step!
ELIZABETH – Assistant Editor:
Magazine Subscriptions
A subscription to Afar or National Geographic Traveler is the gift that keeps on giving. Stop by your local bookstore to grab the latest issue, sneak it into someone’s stocking, and keep the subscription card to ensure that issues arrive at their door before hitting newsstands. Afar’s features veer more towards experiential travels than most magazines, while National Geographic Traveler offers the same breathtaking photographs that’s made NatGeo a household name. And $20 for a year of inspiration? That’s a steal.
The perfect stocking stuffer for the adventurous, Rite in the Rain’s journals, notebooks, and pens are waterproof, so you won’t have to worry about losing a month’s worth of notes when you snowboard Mt. Hood in Oregon, river raft the Ganges in India, or explore on a rainy day in London. Bonus: they’re made in the USA.
Designed in Italy, Moleskin Journals are elegant and functional, not to mention trusty travel companions. The company resurrected the iconic black notebook used by the likes of Hemingway, Picasso, and Chatwin. With a range of paper styles, sizes, and uses (including city guides, planners, recipe books, and traveler’s notebooks), there’s a Moleskin soulmate out there for everyone.
Boreas, a San Francisco-based company, create sleek packs and tents for your outdoor (or indoor) adventures. I’ve gone through my fair share of packs, and I now swear by the ultra-light Buttermilk. Boreas’ designs are seemingly simple, yet brilliant: packs narrow at the bottom, so gear doesn’t get lost in the depths, and you have more room up top to conveniently grab what you need. There are a plethora of hidden pockets (I now worry less about pick-pocketing), and a minimal amount of straps and closures, which all have convenient hiding places (I now worry less about baggage handlers ripping apart my bag). Before Boreas, I couldn’t find a pack that fit well into overhead compartments, or had all the bells and whistles and uncomplicated style to boot.
