Top Gifts for Van Lifers: Unique Ideas to Enhance Their Nomadic Lifestyle
In This Guide:
Tips for Choosing the Best Gifts for Van Lifers
Do you have a loved one, or a friend, that is a van lifer and you are completely stuck on what to get them? Well, after 2+ years of van life, we have some great gift ideas for you! Before we get started, we want to share some general tips to get you in the right mindset when choosing gifts for van lifers.
- Quality over quantity. The best example here is socks. One pair of nice Alpaca Wool socks is a better gift than a pack of 3 fuzzy socks. Space is limited!
- Consumables & experiences are always safe bets simply because of limited space in camper vans.
- Space & weight are precious resources in camper vans and often are super intentional. It sounds silly but most van lifers have spent hours consciously choosing what makes the cut and what doesn’t based on space and weight. This doesn’t mean you shouldn’t get them anything, but it does mean to be conscious of these two factors.
- AVOID glass or anything that takes up large volume like bulky flannels and sweaters.
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Useful Gifts for Van Lifers < $100
Through talking to our van life friends and polling our Instagram audience, we created the following list of useful gifts for van lifers.
The North Face Insulated Slippers
Van floors can get chilly in the winter, these insulated slippers combat that greatly! In addition, they have traction so van lifers can slip them on easily and go outside.
Rechargeable Folding Makeup Mirror
This is a compact mirror that folds in on itself which protects the mirror from breaking.
Alpaca Wool Socks for Men/Women
You can never go wrong with high quality wool socks for van lifers.
Deep Tissue Portable Massage Gun
Living in a small space and driving a lot take a toll on the body. Show your van lifer you love them with a massage gun!
Two other great brands ( > $100!) are Theragun and Hypervolt.
Road Atlas / Maps / Books
We LOVE have paper maps on board our camper van. In addition to a road atlas, other good map gifts include:
- Favorite states
- National Parks on your van lifers future travels
- If going to Alaska -> The Milepost is a MUST
Collapsible Tea Kettle
This was a “van warming” gift for us from a friend over 2 years ago. To this day, it was one of the best gifts we’ve gotten. We use it everyday!
Fujifilm Instax Mini 12 Instant Camera
These cameras almost always make an appearance at van gatherings. Instant prints are also an excellent way to add character to your van interior. Because let’s be honest… what van lifer makes time to print actual photos?
Useful Gifts for Van Lifers > $100
These items are not included in the 21 items under $100 (obviously 😉 ) but they are items we think would make excellent gifts for van lifers if you have a slightly higher budget.
Kindle eReader
As an avid reader and van lifer, I can vouch to how my Kindle has changed my life! I never had room to have more than one physical book on board; however, now I can fly through books without concern.
BONUS: Preload the Kindle with a couple of books up your vanlifers alley!
Custom Wind Fairings
Wind fairings are great because they can help your van lifer save some $$ on gas by creating better aerodynamics! This can be a tough one to gift, but if your van lifer has a roof rack and nothing in front of it – they need a wind fairing!
Choose the proper size and BONUS add a fun logo or design as a custom wind fairing.
Kelty Loveseat
We recommend this chair for duo travelers, or solo travelers with pets. Our dog loves to sit in this with us. A loveseat is much more compact than camp chairs.
Safety Related Gifts for Van Lifers
There are always items van lifers need to make getting out of sticky situations easier. Whether it be traction boards, simple tools, or satelite communication devices, you can help make your van lifers life easier.
GoTreads Foldable Traction Boards
GoTreads are foldable traction boards that double as leveling blocks. Dual use is the goal for everything in a van. We love how these replaced our leveling blocks and we can confirm they were great in a “stuck” situation.
Basic DIY Tool Kit
Browse our “Complete Van Life Tool Kit” guide for a few essential tools to create a Basic Toolkit for your van lifer. A good place to start is with:
- Cordless Drill
- Socket Wrench Set
- Sewing Kit
- Headlamp
- Tape Measure
- Screw Driver
Potential Upgrades for Van Lifers
If you can figure out what needs upgraded in a camper van, you can gift something that is a 1:1 swap! These are always great gifts for van lifers especially since corners may be cut on van life items when van builds are getting expensive.
Double Walled Stainless Steel French Press
This is the french press we gifted ourselves after an exciting milestone. This is high quality and keeps coffee hot for a LONG TIME.
Backpack Laundry Bag
One time we lost our laundry bag so I went to Target to find a new one. This backpack style was the only option. To this day, we coin this $20 spent as one of the BEST accidental upgrades we have made in the van.
The back pack style not only makes going into the laundry mat a breeze, but also allows you to hang it from the car seat headrests out of the way.
CGear Original Sand Free Outdoor Mat
Laying down a mat when you set up camp? Great. Laying down a mat that doesn’t stick to sand, dirt, or leaves? AMAZING.
We are obsessed with this sand free mat. It was actually a Christmas gift from my Grandma!
Consumable Gifts for Van Lifers
Items that can be consumed are great gifts for van lifers because they bring joy but do not take up space.
Coava Instant Coffee
The BEST Instant Coffee we’ve ever had. The link should add $10 off, if not, use the code “ENGINEERS10”.
Compact Cocktail Kits
Cocktail kits bring the joy of a fancy cocktail without having to have a bunch of specific ingredients around.
Available: Old Fashions, Mai Tais, Moscow Mule, Champagne, Mojito, Manhattan, Sazerac
Gift Cards, Memberships, and Experiences
A great category of gifts for van lifers is experiences. The best route with this type of gift is to gift something inline with their hobbies or along their route.
- Annual National Park Pass ($80)
- Where are they traveling to soon? Pick out a fun restaurant in a nearby city and get a gift card!
- Memberships:
- New York Times
- NYT Games (Eric and I do the NYT Crossword every morning!)
- Harvest Host
- AAA
NOTE: While Amazon gift cards sound like a good idea, it is not always easy for van lifers to schedule Amazon lockers for pickup.
Gag Gifts for Van Lifers [ Bonus ]
No gift list is complete without gag gifts! Here are some fun gag gift ideas for your van life friends, or family, that will make ’em laugh & be useful!
Gift Ideas for Van Lifers
Have you been gifted something awesome as a van lifer? Drop it in a comment below, we’d love to hear!
Thanks for being here! Happy building!
Eric + Colby
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Comments 2
Just bought this for my van and it’s an excellent gift idea. It’s a dish brush that’s compact and holds solid dish soap inside the handle. Means you don’t have to have a bottle of dish soap, one less thing on the counter to tidy away!! And the refills are super compact.
https://nelliesclean.ca/collections/kitchen-bathroom/products/dish-stick
Author
I love that idea!!