Stuck for what to buy the frequent flier in your life? Condé Nast Traveller UK's editors have tested their way to a list of 15 travel gifts, all under £50, and the standout thing about it is how unglamorous most of the winners are. No neck pillows shaped like animals, no novelty passport stamps — just small, cheap gadgets that solve very specific in-flight problems.
The hero product, according to several editors, is the Twelve South AirFly Pro (£30ish), a Bluetooth transmitter that plugs into the plane's headphone jack so you can watch inflight films on your own headphones instead of the crackly airline pair. At £12, the Zucklight phone holder is the budget champion: a clamp that attaches your phone to the seatback in front, a train table, even your suitcase handle. One senior writer used it to watch downloaded shows on a 14-hour leg to Australia — and noted her shows didn't pause every time the captain talked, unlike seatback entertainment.
Sleep is the other big theme. Loop Quiet 2 earplugs delivered six hours of sleep in an economy seat on a flight to Dubai, and their case clips to a keyring so they don't vanish into your bag. The Lilysilk Ideal silk eye mask (from £20) earned similar praise — one tester slept two extra hours on a 5am flight to Turkey thanks to its full blackout design.
Beyond the flight itself, the list covers packing and luggage. Apple's AirTag is the pick of the trackers, with a louder speaker, longer range, over a year of battery life and a location-sharing feature so family can follow your bag's progress. Nere's five-piece packing cube set costs £19.99 and comes in 13 pastel shades, though it's worth knowing they're organisers rather than compression cubes.
A few clever clothing and washbag solutions round things out. Paire's "Lipstick" knickers roll down to the size of a lipstick tube, dry quickly after a sink wash and survived a three-flight schlep to Indonesia. ByMatter's Liquid Iron wrinkle-release spray (£24 for 90ml, carry-on compliant) relaxed creases in a summer dress in under two minutes and doubles as a fabric refresher, smelling of sandalwood and pink pepper. There's also the Ever Vessel Multi water bottle — 500ml, insulated, with a tea strainer and optional whisk — plus a Whistles croc-embossed passport holder, a Katie Loxton jewellery case, a Gaiatop handheld fan, rollable underwear multipacks, a silk sleep mask, velvet pouches and a solid shampoo bar that sidesteps the liquids limit entirely.
Who's this for? Anyone doing Christmas shopping for a traveller without wanting to spend luggage money. Nearly everything here is under £50, most of it under £30, and the value of the guide is that each item has been genuinely road-tested on real trips — Australia, Dubai, Turkey, Portugal — rather than just photographed nicely. If you only buy one thing, the £12 phone clamp and the £30 Bluetooth transmitter together will transform a long-haul economy flight for less than a decent airport meal.
Condé Nast Traveller UK
