2022 Valentine’s Day Gift Guide (For those who want something beyond flowers and chocolates!)

COVID-19 is still hampering a lot of our travel plans but that doesn’t mean that you should just give up on traveling altogether. Countries are slowly opening up and learning to adapt to this new reality, letting those of us with wanderlust begin to think about (and actually experience!) travel again.

This year, give your Valentine (or your Galentine) a gift that will remind them about travel and the wonderful experiences that you can share together. From small items, to amazing experiences, this year’s guide has something for everyone. And, hey, if you still want to get them chocolates and flowers too, there’s nothing saying you can’t give those too!

Atlas Obscura - An Explorer's Guide to the World's Hidden Wonders

There are plenty of guide books out there that will tell you what you need to know about the popular tourist sites for wherever you are going. This is not one of them. If you are more interested in traveling with your loved one to places off the beaten path (that sometimes the locals don’t even know about,) then this is the book for you.

Packed with interesting tidbits and unusual facts about places from all over the world, An Explorer’s Guide to the World’s Hidden Wonders, is a great source of inspiration to experience something with your partner that only few people do, whether you are heading to your destination next week or it’s a place that’s still on your bucket list.

So sit back together and learn about all the wonders that await you both at your next travel destination.

The Insider Packing Cubes (Set of 6) from AwayMap

Ask ten different travelers about how to best organize your luggage and you’ll get ten different answers. Regardless of who you ask though, every seasoned traveler knows that packing efficiently makes things easier. And if you are sharing luggage space with someone else, well, let’s just say it can get complicated.

Enter these nifty compression packing cubes. Whether you decide to each have your own set for each of you, or separate cubes by day so that you only unpack what you need, this system will make packing, and just as importantly, unpacking, simpler so that you can focus your time on exploring and not on trying to figure out the settings on the iron.

Find other baggage essentials at Away.

Personalized Push Pin Travel Map

Whether you are a young couple just planning for your first trip together, or whether you’ve been together for a while and are working on your next adventure, a push pin map can help you document your experiences together and lay out your travel goals for the future. Plus, the legend is customizable so to make it even more special, you can add a sentence or two that speaks to both of you. You’re limited only by your creativity!

Each map includes two packs of 50 pins each, available in a wide range of colors, to plot your journeys, plus extra add-ons exist for specialty pins like hearts and houses, for those special locations that you’ll want to highlight.

Finally, even though these USA-made maps are ready to hang on your wall just the way they are, if you prefer the look of a frame, there are solid oak frames available to match each style.

Filt French Net Market Bag from Food52

We all do our best to bring our own reusable shopping bags when we go shopping, but when traveling somehow they never get remembered when packing our luggage. As a result when we get to that quaint little town and visit that wonderful market that we just found, we’re no longer our eco-friendly self. Say no more.

These classic bags inspired by creations from French Normandy, are small enough to easily fit in your luggage but expansive enough to carry all of those wonderful items that we couldn’t resist buying.

Now I admit, this item ranks really low on the romance scale for a Valentine’s Day gift guide, but I couldn’t help including it because it seems like the perfect accessory for every traveler.

Urban Map Glass from Uncommon Goods

Available for nearly 40 different cities, these tumblers will let you relive your experiences (or dream about new ones) from some of the United States and Canada’s largest metropolitan urban centers. So pick up a pair with your favorite city and that of your Valentine’s, and sit back, relax, and start talking about your next travel adventure together.

Don’t be a Tourist in Paris by Vanessa Grall

Penned by the brilliance behind the Messy Nessy Chic blog, Vanessa (Nessy) Grall, this is the only book that you’ll need to experience Paris as it was meant to be experienced. I’m not saying that you should skip the Louvre, Eiffel Tower, or any of the other countless famous locations that Paris has to offer, but to make your trip there one that you and your partner will be talking about for years to come, you’ll need to have the inside scoop on where to go. Don’t be a Tourist in Paris will get you there.

Not able to get to Paris quite yet, the bestselling author also has an equally insider-look at New York City.

The Dainty Necklace from The Wander Club

While the  push pin travel map shown above is a great showpiece of all your travels for your home, sometimes you just need to bring those adventures with you. The Wander Club provides a beautiful way to do that. Gift your Valentine one of their necklaces and accessorize it with tokens of all the places that you’ve visited together. They have tokens for cities, countries, even National Parks. And if they don’t have the place you are looking for, or if you just want to gift something unique, they offer custom tokens as well.

And if a necklace isn’t you or your partner’s thing, they also have leather token holders as well.

Passport Stamp Wall Decals

Sometimes it’s the little things that trigger a memory from a great trip, like leafing through an old passport and seeing a stamp from somewhere you had a great experience. Now you can have that same feeling by adding these great passport stamp wall decals to your home.  

With over 200 countries to choose from, you’re sure to find that place that meant so much to the both of you. To top it off, each can be customized with the exact date from your actual passport stamp, commemorating you and your loved one’s trip(s) for all to see.

As a bonus, there are volume discounts when you buy multiple passport stamp decals on the same order. Celebrate your trips together by ordering yours today.

I hope that this guide served as inspiration for you to find something travel-related for you and your partner to share this Valentine’s Day. Conquest Maps is on a mission to help 1,000,000 people travel more than they would have otherwise because we believe that the more people travel and experience places outside their comfort zone, the more they will experience and the better global citizens that they will become. In the words of Saint Augustine “The world is a book, and those who do not travel read only a page.”