Not sure what to get the hiker or outdoorsy person in your life?
Start with this list of the Top 5 most popular hiking gifts and gear – based on purchases by our readers. If you need even more inspiration, try our big list of Hiking Gift Ideas or our favorite hiking pants, layers, and jackets.
#5 – Trekking Poles
We hike frequently and over rugged terrain and we’ve found trekking poles invaluable to reduce impact on joints, for cranky knees that hate downhills, and for stream crossings.
They give me more confidence on slippery terrain and have saved me from injury on many occasions. We favor Black Diamond, generally with shocks and flicklock. Read our trekking pole review.
For a train travel trip that required packing light I just opted to get new poles (my beloved-but-ancient Black Diamonds don’t fit in smaller luggage and I don’t care for Z-fold poles). I sprung for Black Diamond’s Alpine Carbon Cork poles (Women’s version). I’m really happy with them – super lightweight and comfortable, and they were fantastic for our trip.
Good trekking poles might not be something a hiker splurges on for themselves, so they can make a nice gift.
#4 – Buff
Buffs have always been a popular item on the list, and we’ve been using our Polar Buffs for years. We also have lightweight and UV-protective Original Buffs for our summer adventures.
This versatile tube of fabric can be easily configured into a hat, neckerchief, hairband, balaclava, and more.
It comes in original and warmer fabrics for winter plus a wide variety of colors and patterns. There are even ones for dogs! This video shows how a Buff is used: Original Buff Demo.
#3 – Hydration Backpack
A backpack is a key item for any hiker, and a hydration backpack simply has an inner sleeve to insert a water reservoir with a hole in the top of the pack to thread a drinking tube out. This is an alternative to using bottles and makes it easy to keep hydrated.
The Osprey Talon 22 is a popular daypack for a reason. It’s a solid bag with all the right features – roomy but not too big, top zippered pocket for snacks or sunglasses, easy access outer pocket, inner mesh pocket with key-clip, padded shoulder straps, and handy hip-belt pockets.
It also features trekking pole and bike helmet attachments. It has a sleeve for a reservoir but there are pockets on both sides for water bottles instead of or in addition to a reservoir. Several larger/smaller sizes and a women-specific version, the Tempest, is available.
Tom replaced his trusty but 15-year-old Kelty with this backpack in early-2022 and has been really happy with it. The Talon also does double-duty as his carry-on bag.
I’ve been using the ever-popular CamelBak M.U.L.E since 2014 and it’s still perfect for me. See our full CamelBak M.U.LE. review.
#2 – Winter Traction Devices
Winter traction is always a popular item on our site. These are like adding snow chains to your feet and totally increased our winter hiking when we started using them years ago.
The most popular are MICROspikes followed closely by YakTrax.
Runners up are Hillsound Crampons (very similar design to Kahtoolas but has a top strap), YakTrax Diamond Grip (multi-sided metal studs), and STABILiciers (metal pegs instead of spikes).
Check out our review for a comparison of Kahtoolas vs YakTrax.
#1 – Monocular
We like this compact, lightweight (6 oz.) alternative to binoculars and it appears others do too, as it is consistently popular with our readers.
A monocular is not the same as a good set of binoculars – but it’s not meant to be. This answers “hey! what’s that over there?” without much fuss.
It’s very light and comes in a soft case which I keep handy attached to the shoulder strap of my backpack. And I can’t count the many times I’ve used this to quickly make sure that dark shadow down the trail is actually just a bear-shaped tree stump.
It’s good to casually view wildlife while hiking, and was especially nice to have with us when we spotted a family of bobcats (got them on video too – visit our bobcats page to see the cuteness).
We chose this model due to its balance of function, size, and price and have been using it since 2014. Read our full review of the Vortex Optics Solo Monocular.