by Betsy Young

Created on: August 01, 2007

Great gift ideas for the student traveler in your life.

Travel guides for the places they are interested in going. Lonely Planet, Rough Guides and Let's Go seem to be most popular with students. There are some great hiking and biking trail guides out there too. Travelogue books about the places they are going or dream about going to.

Airfare vouchers can take the price of a ticket down even if you can't buy them the whole ticket. Prepaid debit cards can work as well for that extra bit of spending money that always comes in handy.

Water proof travel clocks can be a lifesaver for any type of travel from backpacking to luxury liner.

Lighted pen is not only great for journal writing in the dark, but can double as a flashlight for searching the backpack for the aspirin bottle late at night.

Journals are terrific items. They come in every size, shape and price range. Add in a couple of pocket sized composition books which maybe more practical for note taking on the actual trip.

A Swiss army knife is invaluable and if in the bottom of your bath kit usually passes through airports with no problems.

Cheap or disposable digital camera is cool and even better is to add a voucher for developing or copying pictures after the trip.

The electronic translator is not as expensive as it used to be. There are now relatively cheap ones to add to PDA's and newer cell phones that are quite inexpensive. Individual stand alone units with just the essentials can be a bargain.

Prepaid phone card. Yep even if they are hiking in Patagonia it can come in handy.

Speaking of Patagonia, there are now handheld GPS locators for under a hundred dollars. If not that age old friend the compass can come in handy. They even help in urban hiking situations and don't take up much space.

Soft sided water bottles are handy. A step up from there is the water bottle with filter system. Literally a life saver in many parts of the world.

Though perhaps not creative money in a card is a welcomed gift to any student with a travel bug. Add a note that they'd better postcard you along the way

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