91. 10 Wanderlust-Worthy Travel Gifts for the 2024 Holiday Season

Welcome to Point Me to First Class, the only show for employed professionals, entrepreneurs, and business owners who are looking to optimize their higher-than-average expenses to travel the world. I'm your host, Devon Gimbel, and I believe that your expenses are your greatest untapped asset if you know how to leverage them. Ready to dive into the world of credit card points and miles so you can travel more, travel better, and travel often? Let's get started.

Hi everyone. Welcome back to another episode of the Point Me To First Class podcast. If you're listening to this in real time, it is the last week of November, 2024, which means a couple of things. If you are based in the US like I am, then you know that we are in the thick of holiday season with Thanksgiving later on this week and then all of the various holidays that take place in December coming up pretty quickly after that.

Now, thanks to our consumerist and capitalist culture here, this also tends to be the time of year when gift purchasing, gift giving and holiday sales are about to peak. And separately in the world of podcasting, weeks where there are major holidays like Thanksgiving tend to be ones where folks have a little less time available to enjoy long podcast episodes.

So I have something a little different for you all this week. I wanted to keep today's episode pretty short and pretty sweet. And today focus on sharing with you all 10 travel related gift ideas. So whether you're shopping for friends, loved ones, or just for yourself, I want to share with you all 10 products or services that can help make travel easier or help you enjoy the world even when you're stuck at home.

Even better, the majority of the products and services that I want to highlight today are from small business owners, so your dollars can make a huge impact in supporting these mission-driven businesses. Also in the interest of full transparency and disclosure, I don't have any specific relationship with any of the businesses or products that I'm going to be recommending today, beyond just the fact that I have used and loved them all.

The only exception is one of the specific products that I'm going to be telling you about is the Japanese snack box subscription service called Bokksu. If you want to sign up for that and you want to use the referral link that I'll put in the show notes, you'll get a discount on your first order and then I also get a discount. But other than that, I don't benefit at all if you buy any of the products or services in today's episodes. Again, other than just knowing that you're gonna have something in your life that I think is pretty incredible and these are items that I just really like giving for myself and for other people so I wanted to share them with you. So links to all of the companies that I mentioned today or all the products that I mentioned today are gonna be in the episode show notes so that you can easily find them anytime. So with that being said, let's just dive right in.

The first two products that I think make great gifts for the travel lover in your life, again whether that's you or someone else, are the Cincha Travel Belt and the Klipsta Flex Clip. So let's start with the Cincha Travel Belt. Cincha is a brand based in Oakland, California. It's run by a couple named Ash and James. And I first learned about their company and their story when I saw them pitch investors on the show Shark Tank, it was fantastic. I'll also link to that episode in the show notes for anybody who wants to watch and learn more of the backstory of this company.

But the one product that I really love from this company, Cincha, is their travel belt. So I know now a lot of bags, a lot of purses have that like flap in the back where you can easily slip them over the handle of your rolling luggage. So you know, you can set a bag, you can set a purse on top of your rolling luggage and it's not going to fall off. But there are a lot of bags, purses, other things that don't have that really convenient flap.

And then what happens, right? You try to stack it on top of your roller bag, you're running through the airport, you're trying to navigate around things and it's constantly falling off. This happens to me all the time with my kids' suitcase. We're trying to encourage our children to be, you know, independent travelers and to be responsible for their own carry ons. And that works up into a point until they kind of poop out and don't want to carry their own luggage anymore.

And my daughter specifically has this like Disney princess little roller bag which has a handle that is the perfect height for a five-year-old. It is not the perfect height for a 43-year-old woman to be dragging through an airport. And so I have found that something like the Cincha Travel Belt basically turns any bag, you know, any small suitcase, anything that you want to attach to your roller bag carry-on so much easier.

This Cincha travel belt just slips over the handle of your roller bag and then it just kind of hugs whatever you stack on top of your bag and clips it into place. It's adjustable so it can fit basically any sized thing you want to stick on top of your roller bag. It's so convenient. They have a lot of great different colors. I actually ordered over a hundred of these Cincha travel belts as part of the welcome bag gifts for our Point Me to First Class conference attendees. And I was so impressed just with the company, the quality of their product that I'm just recommending it to anybody who will listen to me because again, I think it makes travel so much easier.

So at $40 a piece, these are not the cheapest things ever, but they're such high quality. I've already gotten a ton of use out of the one that I've had for only a couple of months. I just think they're fantastic.

But another product that can be really helpful to help you stay organized, especially when you are navigating through airports or you know you're just carrying stuff with you, is this second product on my list, which is the Flex Clip from the company called Klipsta. So Klipsta is spelled K-L-I-P-S-T-A. And the Flex Clip is a really handy little device.

So you can attach it again to a luggage handle or to the handle of a carry-on bag or a purse, and it kind of loops around the handle. And then at the end of it, it has a magnetized clip. And so this is perfect for carrying things like baby stuff, water bottles, clothes, hats, headphones, basically anything that you cannot stuff into your bag, but you can hang.

So this is a universal carry clip. It can be attached to almost anything and essentially it gives you an extra set of hands. And so again, I know personally when I'm navigating through an airport, I hate having to carry anything in my hands just because I've overstuffed my bags. It's a huge pet peeve of mine and so having something that can act like a little extra set of hands for you that you just attach to your bag can be so helpful. The Flex Clip, I think it runs around $30 per item. Again, I don't know any of these companies personally, so I haven't been able to figure out or to get any insider information about what their holiday sales may look like. But if you go directly to their website, if they are having a holiday sale, then I think this wonderful little item will be even less expensive than $30.

Moving in to the next item on the travel gift list are some travel related gifts that you can use year-round. So whether you're on an international adventure or you're just exploring more locally, And that's a fantastic pair of sunglasses. And of course, there's millions of places that you can get sunglasses, but a company that I have recently fallen in love with after learning about them is called Tribal Eyes.

Tribal Eyes is an emerging eyewear brand. It was actually founded by a physician, Dr. Ona Utuama, and she is really changing the narrative that eyewear is a one size fits all or monochromatic accessory. So Tribal Eyes Eyewear has a mixture of neutral and ethnic pieces. It's created by infusing patented ethnic designs into neutral material. And what really sets them apart is that their glasses are unisex with an emphasis on nasal bridge fit, meaning they can be worn by everyone.

I love the story behind this company. I actually reached out to Dr. Ona and asked her if she could record a conversation with me where she talks about the background of this brand, why she created it, the gap that she noticed in the sunglasses and eyeglass market, and what Tribal Eyes is really doing to fill that gap. So I'm really excited to bring that conversation to you all as a bonus episode on the podcast coming up soon. But if you are looking for a really statement piece of eyewear, go and check out Tribal Eyes. Their glasses are just beautiful.

Okay, the next two gift ideas are for when you want to feel like you're traveling even though you might be stuck at home, and specifically with food. So first, let's talk about chai. I don't know about you, but if you have ever experienced the glory that is real, authentic chai, you know that this is a culinary masterpiece. You also probably know that if you've ever tried to buy chai in the United States, especially if you're somewhere like a large national food and beverage chain, that the chai is absolutely disgusting and resembles nothing about the beauty that is chai.

And so to say that I was thrilled when I found this company recently is actually an understatement. The company that you all need to know about if you are a chai lover or if you've only ever had chai that tastes disgusting, please believe me when I say, chai is incredible. So this is also for you. If you want to begin your love affair with chai, you need to check out this company. It's called Kolkata Chai.

This company was founded by brothers and first generation Indian Americans, Ayan and Ani Sanyal, and their goal is to bring authentic chai first to New York City where they opened up an actual brick and mortar shop. But now, luckily, those of us who don't live in New York can access their amazing chai by ordering it online.

So what sets their chai apart? They have a couple different products. You can see all of them on their website, but they have actual chai concentrate. So if all you want to do is something really easy, you want to add chai concentrate to your favorite milk or non milk based liquid product. So easy to make your chai that way.

They also sell chai blends. And so if you want to make your chai the traditional way where you actually brew the tea, you know, in boiling water, you add in any sweetener that you want, you add in whatever milk or non-milk based product you want, you can go either way. So you can get concentrate that's super easy to use or you can get one of their tea blends and they have amazing tea blends that you can pick from.

Their chai is brewed with real tea. It's all sourced from India with whole spices, so it's not extract-based. The other thing I love about their chai is that you get street-style chai in seconds. So none of this overly sweet, weak-tasting, disgusting stuff that maybe you're familiar with if you've ever tried to buy chai again in the United States.

So their tea brings together bold black tea, cardamom, ginger, spices. I mean, it is literally perfect. I love this stuff so much. I wish that I was financially incentivized to talk about it because I feel like I would be rich if I got any sort of commission for people who buy chai once they hear about it from here, but that's not the case.

I'm just sharing with you my genuine love of all things chai and if you have been desperate to find a delicious chai that's easy to make, you can do it in your own home, check out Kolkata Chai. I do think they're having a 20% off sale for Black Friday, so if you're listening to this episode in time, hopefully you can take advantage of that. I love both the concentrate. I also love the rose chai that they have and they had a new holiday flavor that just released a cardamom chai, which I've already bought, I don't know, like seventy pounds of it hasn't arrived yet. So I can't tell you for certain if it's amazing, but based on how good all their other products are, I expect it to be.

Okay, moving on to the next gift idea on the list. Now, I think for so many people, traveling to Japan is an absolute wish list travel item. I don't think there's another country that I have received more requests in terms of learning how to book awards, how to find awards, you know, how to get great flights using points than to Japan recently. And that's not going to be possible for all of us, including me. I'm not able to travel to Japan in the next year or two, probably, but the only thing that's better than traveling to Japan is having Japan come to you.

So this next company is called Bokksu. It's spelled B-O-K-K-S-U. And this is a company that was founded by a man named Danny Tang who fell in love with delicious local snacks he discovered when he was living in Japan. So what happened is that this guy Danny, who I wish I know but I don't know personally, was living in Japan and then came back to the US with a suitcase full of snacks to share. And I think this is something that a lot of us can relate to as we travel somewhere and we try to bring home all of the amazing snacks with us.

So Danny came home with all of these snacks to share. His friends and family also thought the snacks were amazing, but no one could find them in the States. I think this was back in 2015, so certainly maybe some of our options have increased since then, but nothing compares to sourcing snacks directly from the place where they originated.

And what he noticed is that many of the snacks, especially that he loved, that he brought back from Japan, that his friends and family loved, were all local specialties that were made by family businesses that didn't sell overseas. And so Danny saw that as an opportunity to change that. And so he launched Bokksu and I think initially they launched with their snack box, which is a brilliant idea.

So the Bokksu snack box is a monthly subscription of curated authentic Japanese snacks and tea that are only found in Japan. So what happens is you can sign up for like one month or six months or 12 months of this snack box subscription service and then once a month you get this beautiful box delivered to your door containing authentic Japanese snacks, candies and teas that are sourced directly from centuries-old family makers in Japan. So every box that you purchase supports family-run businesses in Japan and helps keep their traditions alive.

But even better than that, these boxes are incredible. This is not some little janky cardboard box that comes with a couple of packaged processed snacks. I actually learned about this because my family found this and this was the gift that they gave to me last year during the holiday season. And I don't think truly I've ever been given a more thoughtful, better gift than this subscription box and the fact that I didn't just get it once but it showed up monthly on my doorstep was amazing.

These boxes have so much intention and curation put into them. They each have kind of a monthly theme inside of this box. I mean, it is packed. Sweet snacks, savory snacks, teas. You also get this really, really beautiful booklet that tells you about every single snack in your box, where in Japan it's from, tells you the story behind a lot of these family-owned companies, great description of kind of the ingredients of everything.

So if you have any allergies, then you can choose carefully what you want to eat and don't eat. If you only want to eat the sweet snacks or the savory snacks, you don't have to guess, you know, like what is in each one of these packages. I just love this idea, this company, so much. Again, I think this is such a fun gift to give anyone who's either been to Japan and loved their experience or someone that you want to share some of the tastes of Japan with who maybe can't get over there, you know, anytime soon.

So Bokksu also has a bunch of other products that you can buy. They have a boutique on their website where you can shop specific collections of snack foods or lifestyle items. They also have a market section on their website where you can access everyday Asian grocery essentials for cooking and eating. But I think as far as gift giving goes, the Bokksu snack box subscription is such a fun idea.

The other thing that I love about gifting authentic kind of food and snack items is that ideally this is not stuff that's just going to sit around and become another thing in your life or your house. I think for those of us who are really, really looking to minimize the amount of material stuff in their living space, sharing something like a really high quality snack box, you know, subscription service is such a wonderful gift to have that's not gonna stick around for years and years and years, kind of cluttering up your home.

So moving on from gifts that you can eat, the next gift idea on today's list is great if you have someone in your life who values, again, experiences over receiving things. I think that this could be a particularly great for gifting a recent grad or someone with a milestone trip coming up like a honeymoon or birthday trip. And that's the gift of a global experience. And specifically a Global Experiences gift card.

So if you haven't heard of this before, the Global Experiences gift card is powered by Viator, which is a TripAdvisor company. This gift card is redeemable online through their website for over 350,000 tours, activities, experiences, just things to do worldwide in over 120 countries. So this has the largest inventory that I know of any gift card for tours.

So it includes things like tours and sightseeing, attractions and theme parks, food, wine, and nightlife, classes, cruises, sailing, water tours, transfers and ground transport. You know, if you arrive in a country and you wanna book transport from the airport to a hotel, cultural and theme tours, even like spa, yoga and wellness. So basically if you want to give a gift for someone, you know they're going to be traveling and you want them to have a lovely experience, a unique experience while they're traveling, but you don't know exactly what they want, the Global Experiences gift card I think is a fantastic option.

So you can purchase one of these gift cards through the website giftcards.com. The reason I really like this option is because oftentimes giftcards.com is offering bonus points when you navigate to their website through one of my favorite online shopping portals, Rakuten. So you can go to Rakuten, then go to giftcards.com, you can buy a global experiences card for someone in your life and then you're going to earn some extra American Express points on the purchase of that gift card. So to me, that's a win-win.

The other great thing about the Global Experiences card is you can purchase them in varying amounts. So you can purchase them I think in increments anywhere from around $20 to $250. So this gives you a lot of options in terms of the gift that you want to give to someone in your life.

Now moving on, the next two gift ideas on today's list are perfect for the kids in your life, if there are any. So if you don't have kids, you don't know kids, you don't want to know kids, or you don't anticipate giving gifts to any kids, then go ahead. Just skip this part. It'll only be a couple of minutes long.

But for those of you who are looking for great gifts for kids, I love the educational crates from a company that's called KiwiCo. So what this company does is they have, again, this is a subscription service so you can sign up for designated periods of time. We've done this for our kids before for I think either 6 months or 12 months as a gift for them, but they have a subscription service that's called KiwiCo World. And this is a monthly geography club specifically for kids around ages 6 to 12.

What happens is that every single month a box arrives on your doorstep. This box includes an educational geography crate. Oftentimes the month is focused around one specific country in particular and within that box is everything you need to journey around the world. You can explore cultural history, you get detailed instructions for building themed projects that have to do with some aspect of that country and their culture. They have projects in them that help kids embark on new adventures. I love these crates, especially because they are focused each month on a specific country.

This really helps get kids engaged in learning more about the world, learning more about what makes each country really unique in terms of their culture. It's very hands-on, you know, there's projects that they can build. And so this is a great thing for kids to do in terms of learning that isn't screen-based.

You know, for any of you who have kids in your life, you know the constant struggle of trying to rip them away from those screens. And so I love these geography crates for really getting kids engaged. We've also had KiwiCo crates that come, you know, with little books that have stories about each of the countries that they're originating from. And these are things that our kids have asked for. You know, when our subscriptions have ended, my son actually had asked me a couple months after that, like, why aren't we getting those boxes anymore? And he really liked them. And so I think these are great gifts for the kids in your life.

Now the ones from KiwiCo World, again, I think are probably best for kids ages around 6 to 12. So if you've got kids younger than 6 and you like this idea of helping kids to discover the world, to explore the history, art, music, and food of other cultures, there's another kind of similar service that you can look into and this one is from a company called Little Passports.

So you can go to their website, it's just https://www.littlepassports.com and they also offer a subscription box service. These started around $20 per month but the one that's from https://www.littlepassports.com is really great because they start gift boxes or gift crates for kids as young as three years old. And so if you do have younger ones in your life or in your family, looking at the https://www.littlepassports.com subscription boxes can really help get them involved and engaged in the world and in a love of travel from a very, very young age.

So finally, the last travel related gift idea is the gift of an around the world trip on points that you don't have to book yourself. Now, if you got episode number 86 of this podcast with Devin Sullivan of the points sisters, you will know that ANA airlines offers an absolutely incredible points deal where you can book an around the world trip using points, specifically American Express points transferred to ANA Airlines.

So this can be booked in either economy or business class, but the business class around the world ticket is quite possibly the best value in premium award travel that is available on the market right now. Not to mention, I think one of the most fun ways to use points to see the world. You can take anywhere from three up to like 12 flights around the world. Again, all for a ridiculously low points price. But kind of the trade-off is that while the ANA around the world ticket is, again, a screaming points deal, you will have to pay for it with time and patience because there are a lot of rules that you have to follow in order to book one of these awards and finding and confirming award availability can be incredibly time consuming.

So thankfully you don't have to do this yourself unless you would genuinely enjoy that process because that is where Devin and her sister Kelsey come in. For $500 per person, Devin and Kelsey will help you plan and book an ANA around the world ticket through their award booking service. Not only do they have years of experience booking these specific awards, but they really take all of the legwork out of the process for you. So you get to do the fun part, which is put your points to an amazing use and take an incredible trip, but you don't have to spend the hours or days navigating building one of these itineraries or having to book it over the phone with ANA. Kelsey and Devin take care of all of that for you.

And so if you have a couple hundred thousand Amex points and a desire to circle the globe, again, without having to spend hours or days constructing the itinerary yourself, check out their award booking service.

All right, everybody, that's it. 10 travel-related gift ideas for the travel lovers in your life, whether you're looking for something to make travel easier, more fashionable, more memorable, or you just want to share the world with folks at home. I think there's something on this list for every travel interest and hopefully for most travel budgets.

And so I hope this has given you some ideas for some great travel related gifts to include on your holiday shopping list for this year. Have a fantastic holiday for those of you who are celebrating Thanksgiving or any other holidays coming up in the next couple of weeks depending on when you listen to this episode and I'll see you again next time on the Point Me To First Class podcast.

Thank you for joining me for this week's episode of Point Me to First Class. If you want more tips on turning your expenses into travel, visit pointmetofirstclass.com to learn more. See you next week.