Travel Gifts for Nephews?

[VillainV]

My sister and BIL are taking their boys (12 and 9) to Thailand the week before Christmas (it’s a work thing and the family is going along). I’d like to get them Christmas gifts that I can give them early so they can enjoy them on their trip. It’ll be some long-haul flights, then maybe a week in Thailand (exact itinerary tbd) then back home.

Any ideas? I’d like to keep it to $50 per nephew. I could potentially give them cash, or prepaid Visa cards or something… but I don’t think those would be easy to use on their trip unless I can get the cash exchanged into bhat.

[blondemoment123]

Poloroid camera?

[isabel]

Do they have a Switch? Maybe a new game to play on the flight?

[bee20]

If they are pro-electronics:
-Noise cancelling headphones
-Bluetooth to headphone jack adapter so they can watch the in-flight movies with their earbuds
-As an add-on $10 to either the apple store or android store so they can pick up an offline game (Stardew Valley? Terraria? Monument Valley?), book or movie?

If they are anti-Electronics:
-Madlibs
-magnetic board games
-rubix cube
-magic tricks book with cards
-travel journal, maybe with colored pencils so they can draw

[mrsGreeko]

We took our kids to Thailand this past summer and my youngest was 11. He would have preferred cash. He loves exchanging his money in a foreign country and “getting rich” when the exchange rate is in his favor, like in Thailand. You can give them US dollars and they can exchange at the airport or whatever (we always stop at a money exchange basically first thing to let our kids change their money), even with the exchange fee they will still end up with a lot of souvenir spending power in Thailand.

I am assuming the family must travel at least some and this isn’t their first trip ever so I would assume they already have travel essentials like headphones and such taken care of. Also, all of the planes we took to Thailand had Bluetooth connectivity for the seat back entertainment, no converter needed.

I will also say I wish we had brought less stuff to Thailand specifically. We don’t usually buy a ton of things on vacation, but we did in Thailand and had to actually buy another suitcase to bring stuff home with us. The shopping there was so fun, the markets are just so incredible.

[wanderingback]

I feel like at that age cash would be fun.
Even though they might lose money with exchanging it I feel like that would be a fun process for a 12 and 9 year old, so you wouldn’t need to exchange it ahead of time. Then they could have their own spending money on the trip.
You could write a nice note to them and give them the cash and I think that would be lovely.
I feel like travel stuff is so specific plus everyone’s packing style is different.

[nicolewi]

AirPods
Snorkel equipment?
Some kind of activity book/riddle book for the plane, plus cash to spend on souvenirs!
Travel journal plus cash
Honestly I don’t think you can go wrong with cash for souvenirs.

[joy]

If you’re going to give cash then I would just convert it before you give it to them.

[waverly]

Do they already have suitcases/ backpacks to take? Maybe mini toiletries to stay under that 3 oz limit for traveling and then something fun to add to that. A book for the plane if they are readers. These are very long flights, and I remember watching 4 movies and still not being there, so any entertainment for the plane.

[quesyrah]

We recently were able to start traveling with our kids and for Christmas last year before our first trip I gave them each their own toiletry kit. It was a toiletry bag, toothbrush case, small container for my daughter’s hair ties, and small bottles for my son’s skincare stuff.

It was a big hit with both of them.

[Poppy]

Can you ask your sister? She might already have some things (eg toiletries, headphones) covered.

I like the video game idea. Cash is a safe bet. Maybe they would like a book about Thailand or a map or something, though this depends greatly on the kid.

[6fsn]

Power bank and cash