Turning a planned family vacation into part of my kid’s Christmas gifts is one of my favorite family experience gift ideas. We’re going to take the trip anyway, and we love getting the kids excited about the trip ahead of time. After all, sometimes we’re going to a place they’ve never heard of! One of our favorite travel tips for kids is to read books about the places you’re going ahead of time. Here are 10 ways to present a trip as a gift for Christmas or birthdays.
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10 Ways to Gift a Trip – Experience Gift Ideas for Kids
Trip Gift: Books
I love books, so naturally I think it’s one of the best options for how to gift a trip to someone! You could purchase a guide book about your destination, a hiking map or trail guide, a photography coffee table book, or a picture book to introduce the location to your children. We spend most of our time visiting the US National Parks and making our way through the 50 states, so here are our favorite recommendations for US family road trip book gifts.
Board Books: Family Experience Gift for Ages 0-4
Good Night Our World – This series by Adam Gamble has board books specifically written for states (like Good Night Tennessee), major cities (Good Night Montreal), and National Parks (Good Night Grand Canyon).
ABC Regional Board Books – A series of board books written for different states, like M is for Montana and Let’s Count Florida. A separate series by Trish Madson includes Let’s Count Canada.
All Aboard! National Parks – This board book walks through different National Parks with bright beautiful pictures and limited words.
Picture Books: Family Experience Gift for Ages 5+
Discover America State by State – This series of 52 picture books is perfect for 6-8 year olds. Books include L is for Lincoln (Illinois) and A is for Arches (Utah).
Scout Moore: Junior Ranger – These are some of our favorite National Park picture books! Scout has only visited a handful of National Parks so far and these books can be a little tricky to find online, but if you see one for your destination, grab it!
National Parks: A Kid’s Guide to America’s Parks, Monuments, and Landmarks – This book moves state to state, sharing lots of great information about National Parks and other prominent landmarks and historic sites.
National Parks of the U.S.A. – I love the illustrations in this book and have checked it out of the library multiple times to get my kids excited about National Park trips we’re taking.
Geography from A to Z: A Picture Glossary – This book explains geographic terms like bluff, erosion, inlet, knoll, lagoon, oasis, sandbar, summit, and tributary, which makes it the perfect gift for any nature trip.
Who Pooped in the Park – This series weaves a story about a family’s visit to a National Park alongside information about local animals and their skat. If you’ve been wondering how to wrap a trip as a gift for a 7 year old boy… this is it!
Chapter Books: Family Experience Gift for Ages 7+
The Campground Kids – Follow along with Isaiah, Sadie, and Ethan as they solve a mystery in each National Park they visit. We have the entire series!
National Park Mysteries – Another popular kids mystery series with books set in Rocky Mountain, Great Sand Dunes, Grand Canyon, Zion, and Yosemite.
Trip Gift: Camping Gear
Have a family camping trip coming up and wondering how to give a trip as a gift? Whether you’re exploring a National Park together or camping close to home, wrap up your new camping gear as the trip gift. If you need some camping road trip gift ideas, here are some favorites that we’ve added to our camping gear: kids hydration backpacks, adult and kids hiking spikes for icy trails, a dry bag for paddling adventures, 12 volt heated blankets for cold nights, this portable hiking chair and folding stools, and a fun campfire pie iron! This year we’re giving our kids hiking pants and trekking poles to prepare for our big Alaska trip.
Trip Gift: Swimsuit or Swim Gear
If you’re going on a tropical vacation in January, the kids might need new swimsuits or maybe you’ll even need extra swim gear like water shoes or kids’ snorkels! If you’ve been looking for experience gift ideas for kids, give them something fun they can use at the beach or pool for your upcoming family vacation!
Trip Gift: Cheap Digital Camera
I saw this idea recently and I loved it! A digital camera like this one is one of the best family experience gift ideas, because it gives the kids something to do while on the vacation. Especially if you’re doing a lot of sight-seeing! Instead of asking to borrow your phone, they’ll have their own camera to record their memories.
Trip Gift: Calendar Countdown
Give them a calendar with the trip marked on it. You could choose the calendar’s theme based on the trip and see if they can guess where the trip will be, like a tropical themed calendar for a beach trip.
How to give a trip as a gift before kids can read calendars? Other fun countdown ideas: paper chains, countdown blocks, or even marbles in a jar!
Trip Gift: Tshirt
Whether you’re picking out matching family tshirts, something with a fun travel vibe, or a shirt themed to a specific National Park, tshirts (and apparel in general) are one of my favorite ideas for how to give a trip as a gift. The Landmark Project has some fantastic National Park and travel shirts.
Trip Gift: Stickers, Patches, & Other Merch
Kids love stickers! National Park and nature enthusiast stickers, patches, and keychains are all great ideas how to present a trip as a gift. And if you’re visiting a big city, international, or even beach destination, these water bottle sticker packs are great experience gift ideas for kids.
Trip Gift: Fake Tickets
Designing and printing fake tickets are a classic idea for how to gift a trip for Christmas. Pretend sports tickets, boarding passes, or concert tickets allow you to gift the experience even if tickets aren’t on sale yet or you need to coordinate a date first. And if designing a fake ticket isn’t in your wheelhouse, that’s ok! This golden ticket scratch-off is your answer! Combine this with the scavenger hunt idea below for double fun family experience gift ideas.
Trip Gift: Christmas Ornament
Another experience gift for kids that I love is pre-purchasing a souvenir ornament. While it is fun to look for an ornament together on your trip, we often forget or have trouble finding one while traveling. Buying a themed ornament ahead of time makes a great trip gift that you can hang on your tree every year.
Road Trip Gift: Car Goodie Bag
If none of these other ideas for how to wrap a trip as a gift jump out at you, or you’re looking for great last minute road trip gift ideas, put together car goodie bags. Find fun little games at Dollar Tree or in the dollar spot section of Target and package them together to keep kids occupied on a long car ride. Or put together a fun snackle box with some of their favorite treats and snacks that you don’t usually buy.
Family Experience Gift: Scavenger Hunt
This idea for how to gift a trip for Christmas might be my favorite, because it’s such a great way to extend the gift giving on Christmas morning. Plan elaborate riddles or rhyming clues if that sounds fun to you, but simple clues work just as well. “This is where you’d look for something cold to drink” or “Look for the next clue where you sleep.” Another fun idea for kids who aren’t reading yet is to re-home random items around your house that all lead to each other. For instance, they unwrap ketchup, which leads them to the fridge, where they find their toothbrush. Then they find a sock on the bathroom counter, which takes them to the laundry room, etc. Eventually these clues might lead to a suitcase with a card announcing the trip or to a wrapped gift using one of these other how to gift a trip ideas.
Looking for a Christmas gift for an RVer? Here are our favorite RV life gifts under $50.
10 Ways to Gift a Trip – Experience Gift Ideas for Kids
