Inspire Our Christmas Gift – Outdoor Enthusisasts

In our series of Christmas gift list ideas for people that like to travel, we have now reached the issue for the outdoor enthusiast in your life.

We have already published issues with gift ideas for the technology loving traveller and great travel gifts for globetrotting kids and their parents. Still to come are lists for ladies who travel and a miscellany issue for people who really are impossible to buy for.

Christmas Gift List Ideas for Outdoor Enthusiasts

1. The Christmas fleece

This is much more useful than a Christmas jumper. Light, warm, easy to wash and quick drying. Lacks the amusing knitwear angle, but some may consider this a good thing. Our favourite mid layer fleece is the North Face Glacier range which comes in a range of colours.

Women’s 100 Glacier 1/4 Zip Fleece
Men’s 100 Glacier 1/4 Zip Fleece

2. Christmas socks

Always a perennial favourite, but instead of the usual choices we have some slightly different ideas.

Hunter do a great range of welly socks. We particularly like the Navy Brit Cuff version pictured as well as the Furry Cuff version. Toasty!

Strangely we can only find these for women and kids, but if you are trying to solve the problem of cold male feet, there is a Hunter Unisex Adult Socks option, or you could go with a Peter Storm version.

We love Bridgedale socks for comfort, fit and durability. For hiking we like Men’s Woolfusion® Trekker Socks or Women’s Woolfusion® Trekker Socks, depending obviously on the gender of the foot.

For general running around purposes, Women’s CoolFusion™ MultiSport Socks are great as are the men’s version; Men’s CoolFusion™ MultiSport Socks. See, no reindeer, no Santa, no amusing singing socks, but nice warm feet nevertheless.

3. Down Gilet

I am a sucker for down filled items as it is close as you can get to going out with your duvet. We are fans of The North Face down gilet, the Men’s Nuptse 2 Vest and the Women’s Nuptse 2 Vest. Warm, light and not too bulky.

4. Down Jacket

If you have someone properly nesh to buy for, you can’t get much cosier than a down jacket. Again, we like those from The North Face. The Men’s Summit Series Elysium ProDown™ Jacket is a top of the range option. If you are looking to spend a little less have a look at the Berghaus Men’s Scafell Hydrodown™ Jacket.

On the women’s side I have survived several mid west winters with my trusty long, down coast from The North Face, the latest version of which is the Women’s Metropolis Parka. However, Merrell have a really good alternative out this year, the Women’s Isadore Down Coat. Both options are the best I have found in terms of being very warm without doing too much of an impression of Michelin Man. If you want a waist length option my current favourite is the Women’s Heavenly Down Jacket from The North Face. If you want something a little less expensive, again the Berghaus Women’s Scafell Hydrodown™ Jacket is a good bet.

5. Gloves

We assume we are not the only people that dislike having to take our gloves off to use our smart phones. Help is at hand! Please excuse the dreadful pun. We like either Women’s Etip Gloves from The North Face or Sticky POWERSTRETCH® Gloves from Extremities along with the corresponding men’s versions; Men’s Etip Gloves, Sticky POWERSTRETCH® Gloves. All these gloves allow you to use a touchscreen without taking them off.

6. Gadgets

There are many gadgets one can buy for the outdoor nut; bike computers, pedometers, climbing watches, diving watches, I could go on.

One of the big debates of the moment in hiking circles is whether or not handheld GPS devices are necessary when you can load a smart phone with a map and pretty much have the same functionality.

The argument against can be summed up as ‘waste of money’. The arguments for are that unlike smart phones, a good handheld GPS is waterproof, ruggedized, has a long battery life and the screen is easy to see in strong sunlight. If you are thinking of buying someone one as a gift, for me the compelling argument in favour is that they are really good fun to play with and any outdoor gadget nut will have a lovely time programming way points and setting the thing up. They are also useful for someone into geocaching.

There are tons of different devices on the market. Garmin is the market leader and is generally regarded as having the best devices.

At the more budget end of the market I like the Garmin eTrex 30. You can buy cheaper but the colour display on this unit makes the map much easier to read and it has an electric compass which can be handy. Please note that none of the GPS units come with maps already installed so sometimes a bundled map and unit package such as eTrex 30 GPS with BirdsEye Select Download Voucher can work out cheaper.