Send Them Off With the Perfect Gift. photo courtesy of The Shane H.

They rarely sit still. They love jetting off to new locations. They’d rather be traveling than doing just about anything else. Looking for the perfect gift for the travel buffs in your life? Here are some great options.

Passport Cover

Help them protect their most valuable possession– their passport. Neiman Marcus has great leather passport covers in a rainbow of colors. And their on sale for just $21.90. Pick up a coordinating luggage tag for just $19.90.

Travel Book

Not only does the travel buff love to experience adventure, they like to read about other people’s adventures too. Pick them up a book or two that will keep them traveling even when they’re at home. Author Bill Bryson has some great travel books including The Lost Continent: Travels in Small Town America or Notes from a Small Island.

Travel Pillow

Help your loved one find rest wherever they end up with the NAP Wedge Travel Pillow from Brookstone. At just $25 it’s a great going away gift for a friend or family member. It’s perfect whether they’re hitting the road on a bus or taking to the skies on a flight.

GPS

This isn’t just any GPS unit. The Sony GPS-CS1KASP helps you organize, search and share photos with this portable GPS unit. It will record the time, date and location of your travels and let people track your moves through Google Maps. It’s an especially great gift for friends who travel by bike or motorcycle.

Travel Game

Help your friends and family members stay entertained during long trips with a fun travel game. Barnes and Noble has a great selection of travel games for players of all ages. Popular games include Boggle, Family Feud or Loaded Questions.

Journal

Encourage the avid traveler in your life to write down the stories of their adventures in a travel journal. Select one that reflects their personal style or the locations they love the most. Make sure it’s lightweight enough so they can take it with them wherever they go.

For more gift ideas for the travel buffs in your life, please visit Vera Bradley, Travelers Choice Collection from Luggage Online, PersonalizationMall or Things Remembered.

There is nothing more personal then your family photos and memories captured.  Why not make them into a special gift for the whole family to enjoy and remember those special moments?  You can by creating a coffee table or photo book with your own photos!  By going to Picaboo you can create any photo book using your own digital photos.  This makes great gifts for recent Grads, family vacations, and newborns. No need for scissors & glue, and stop spending hours uploading your photos to an online photofinishing site.  This is the new way of album making.

Push the button

Simply click the “Create Book” button, and then choose from over 15 stunning themes or start from scratch.

If you select Auto-Create, Picaboo will automatically populate your book in seconds with the photos you choose.

StoryFlow

StoryFlow is a whole new way to create photo books, making it easier, faster, and more fun. With StoryFlow, you group your photos onto pages before your book is created and then StoryFlow auto-creates a perfectly conceived book based on the theme you’ve selected.

Simply drag-and-drop your photos until they are grouped onto the pages in the order you want them. Once your book has been created, you have complete control to edit your book as you wish.

Custom covers

Customize the front, back, and spine of your book’s cover. Simply drag-and-drop your photos, add a title and you’re done.

Fully customizable with any Picaboo page background and layout, custom covers are case-bound on striking glossy laminate board.

What’s your background?

You can customize each page of your book with unique backgrounds. Select from hundreds of pre-loaded designs, choose from thousands of images from a free Background Community, or simply drag-and-drop any photo onto your page.

Layouts galore

With a wide variety of over 240 layouts, making each page of your book truly unique is as easy as a single click.

Whether you’re creating a baby album, travel journal, portfolio, or even a family cookbook, you’ll find the layout that works just right.

Fabulous fonts and corners

Say it like you mean it with over 40 unique fonts. Whether you’re adding a caption, telling a story, or journaling your memories, you’ll find the font that fits.

Frame your photos with a selection of over 50 corners and add the perfect finishing touch to your pages.

Photo tools

With Picaboo, it’s slider simple to crop, rotate, adjust brightness & contrast, remove red eye, and add/remove white borders and shadows.

Best of all, see the changes to your photos in real-time right on the page of your book.

Check it out!

Check out Picaboo for inspiring ideas, samples, tips, and more.

What's In Your Suitcase? photo courtesy of kthread

The world seems to be shrinking. These days you can easily get the special chocolate, wine and accessories in America that once required a trip abroad to purchase. While it’s great for convenience sake, it makes coming home with unique, special and hard-to-find gifts very difficult. No one wants to lug home a special treat, only to find it at their local World Market or specialty grocery store. To find a truly unique gift, try these suggestions:

Go Off the Beaten Path

To find the most unique gifts, ask the locals. Where do they shop for one-of-a-kind items? What can’t they live without? Likely they’ll send you off the beaten path– way off it. Shop in locally owned antique stores or boutiques. Your loved one will appreciate the uniqueness of their gift from your travels.

Buy Art

Art is one of those things that can’t be simply recreated, or shipped to every chain store. Pick up prints, pottery or handmade items crafted by local artisans. When you bring these items home you are truly bringing a piece of your experience back with you.

Stay Out of Souvenir Shops

Instead of picking up souvenirs at souvenir shops, visit local garden centers, grocery stores or markets. Things that locals may not see as very special, actually are because they use them so much. You might find some great tea, candy or local flower seeds to grow in your own garden.

Give Photos

If you’re passionate about photgraphy, why not give some of your snap shots as gifts? Turn them into mugs, mousepads or notecards and give them as gifts. That way you can definitely count on the fact that they are one-of-a-kind and unique because you are the one that created them.

Christmas Gifts

Millions of Americans will head to an airport this holiday season and many of those air travelers may be thinking about how to bring along Christmas gifts for the ride. I’m heading to a family gathering this week and since I won’t see these relatives again before Christmas I thought I’d bring their gifts with me. Here are some tips I’m using to make sure my gifts arrive safely.

Think Ahead

If you know you are going to try transporting your gifts in your luggage, try buying items that aren’t big and bulky. You’ll be thankful for the extra room in your bag. Also, try to avoid very fragile items that might not survive a bumpy ride. And don’t buy any sharp items that could be mistaken as weapons.

Try Gift Bags

Unfortunately airport security doesn’t like wrapped presents and if they are suspicious of what you’re carrying they may be forced to unwrap all of those gifts you’re carting around. Rather than take the chance of having that hard work ripped apart by someone other than your friend or family member, try using gift bags instead. That way if you’re asked, you can easily unwrap it to reveal the contents.

Use Ribbon and Boxes

If you have an item that you really want to put in a box, instead of wrapping it just use a pretty ribbon. Crate and Barrel has beautiful tinsel ribbon that will add sparkle to any plain box.

Wrap the Top and Bottom

If you must use wrapping paper, wrap the bottom of the box separately from the top. Be sure to use plenty of tape to secure the paper to the inside of the box. Then use a ribbon to keep the top and bottom connected. If asked, you’ll be able to open the box and put it back together once the security check is complete.

Buy Bubble Wrap

You don’t have to travel much to know bags can take a big beating. If you’re putting fragile gifts in a checked bag, be sure to wrap items in thick layers of bubble wrap. They’ll have a better chance of surviving the airplane trip.

Expect a few Wrinkles

No matter how careful you are, chances are your beautiful gift bags are going to get a little wrinkled and your boxes may have a few dents. But at least your gifts aren’t going to get lost in the mail.

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If you have any other ideas on how to wrap presents when traveling on an airplane, please share!