The scenario: With just days until Christmas, you realize that you’ve forgotten to get a gift for someone on your list. (We’re not judging, it’s happened to all of us.) Instead of joining the scrum at the mall for something they don’t need or buying online and crossing your fingers that it gets there on time, get them something they’ll actually use next year. These hiker-friendly gift certificates are a more personal idea than a Visa or Amazon card, and you can schedule them for delivery on Monday in just a few clicks.
National parks get all the glory, but state parks pack a lifetime’s worth of trails and quiet vistas with a fraction of the crowds. And unlike national parks, most of us live near one. A variety of state parks systems, from Colorado to Missouri, offer gift cards, which recipients can use for anything from camping reservations to fishing licenses. (Good news for our Canadian friends, too: You can get gift certificates to a handful of different provinces’ parks.) With fees going toward maintaining trails and managing wildlife populations, you’re kind of giving a gift to nature, too.
Hitting the trail or tying in with a guide can be a fun, safe way to push your limits, but getting professional help can be pricey. Help cut down the cost of their next big adventure with a gift certificate to 57Hours, a platform that connects users with licensed guides and trip leaders from around the world. They want to go trekking in New Zealand, eat their way from village to village in the Alps, or delve into the Costa Rican cloud forest? There’s a guide for them. Caveat: With trip prices handily reaching into the four figures, you’ll have to drop a lot of coin to make a dent.
REI may be the biggest name in the industry, but if your giftee is trying to plug the holes in their ultralight kit then it’s hard to think of a better place to send them than Garage Grown Gear, the online marketplace that peddles shelters, packs, quilts, accessories, and more from the some of the most respected brands in the game. Whether they’re prepping for a long trail or just trying to stretch their weekends a little further, it’s a quick way to make sure they have the gear they need to do it.
America’s prototypical long trail will never stop being cool, and you can help your friends and family capture some of its swag with a gift card to the AMC. They can spend it on the retro-styled swag in the club’s store (don’t be surprised if you see us rocking that Delaware Water Gap tee in 2024) or on something more practical, like a map or a trail guide. Want to get them a gift certificate to an AMC program instead? It can be done, but not online—per their website, you’ll have to call.)
Pardon the self-promotion, but when it comes to great outdoor deals, we personally think we’re at the top of the heap. An Outside+ subscription gets your giftee full access to everything Backpacker has ever published, old and new, not to mention Outside, Ski, Climbing, and the rest of our sibling publications. There are other benefits too, like our personal favorite, a subscription to Gaia GPS Premium, which comes with offline access to our entire map catalog.
From 2023
