Five gift ideas for your adventurous man

That are just as much for you as they are for him!

Top 5 Gift Ideas

Shopping for him can be hard…we’ll make it a little bit easier

With these five gift ideas that are just as much for him as they are for you. Perfect, right?

#1: The ExPed MegaMat: A Mattress Pad as Comfortable as Your Bed

Don’t leave home without it. Seriously, this is as comfortable as a bed mattress, even more comfortable than some of the hotels we stayed at! We were able to fit it into our (very) large duffel on the plane along with the three sleeping bags and a few other miscellaneous items. We fit two into our 6 person Halo tent. It made for a better night’s sleep for all of us. And when you’re well rested, it’s much easier to adventure all day long (and get along while you’re out there).

Why does a good camping pad matter? I’ll give you three good reasons why you’ll BOTH love this one:

It’s a self-inflating pads, which means you only need to give a few foot pumps to get it nice and plump before bed.
If you are camping in colder evening temperatures, it will be good insulation between you and the cold ground.
If you sleep on your side, the thickness will keep your hips and shoulders comfortable (even if you don’t, the thicker pad is still better).

#2: A Gas Cookstove

We use a very small gas burner, but this is the one my daughter used for a 2 week kayaking trip in Canada. If the teenage girls could make pancakes and eggs on this, imagine what your breakfasts and dinners could look like? And imagine if you don’t have to cook?

Cooking over the fire is great, the seared flavor of the corn or hot dog brings back so many wonderful memories. But you’ll love this gas stove because:

It’s easy to light, even when the wood is wet (and the wood is often wet at campsites for some reason…).
It cooks your food evenly and on a flat surface. So you can have those pancakes!
It’s waterproof so even when it’s raining outside you can have a warm dinner.

#3: A Black Diamond Headlamp

Make sure you have a LED headlamp with a beam that you can adjust/tilt. At least one of you will be glad you have it for that middle of the night bathroom run. It works great around the house too – working on the car, walking the dog at night, etc.

Why we chose this one:

Red light mode that lets your eyes stay adjusted to the dark by not causing your pupils to shrink the way white light can, so it’s good for nighttime use.
Water resistance because sometimes it’s raining on your parade
Tilt to let you position the beam exactly where you want it. You won’t shine your light in someone else’s eyes on a hike and it’s really nice for reading by headlamp.
Brightness up to 400 lumens, that’s powerfully bright. You’ll see what you need to (and something you wish you didn’t, like those eyes from the creature in the woods looking back at you…)

#4: An ENO Hammock

Honestly, they make cheaper hammocks and we had one of these and one off-brand. They were both fine, but we usually picked the ENO first. Be sure to get the Atlas Hammock Suspension System to go with it. This makes for easy set-up and take-down at the campsite.

Why we chose this one:

Stability: ENO hammocks are more stable than traditional spreader bar hammocks because they combine the benefits of a spreader bar with the steadiness of a gathered end hammock. No one likes to dump out or feel all squished up in a hammock.
Ease of use: ENO hammocks are easy to set up and move around, and don’t require any knot tying. They also come with an attached stuff sack for easy storage. You’d be surprised at how small they stuff – you can bring this anywhere!
Durable: ENO hammocks are made from durable nylon taffeta. We’ve had ours from almost ten years with no snags or rips.

#4: A Suunto Adventure Watch

Not only does it look pretty cool, but it is packed with features! While traveling, we saw someone with the same watch needing help with the features but it was in Dutch. Luckily, the menus still go in the same order and we were able to help out. The kids liked checking the altitude and showing us when we were at sea level. I liked knowing we weren’t going to get lost in the mountains.

Why we chose this one:

Offline maps: We were able to download trail maps to the watch and follow along on GPS so we didn’t get lost. It even tracked our route so we could return the same way if needed, even without a downloaded map. We found it to be quite accurate.
Battery life: When you’re camping and hiking you’re not sure when you’ll be able to charge next. We didn’t have any problem with this watch!