(Bloomberg) -- There's no greater gift than the gift of travel. But the logistics of actually giving someone a trip to go on are complicated. How do you gift a vacation when the particulars can be so incredibly personal?
The answers to that question vary. You can absolutely book a surprise trip for someone after sneaking a look at their calendar and passport number—assuming that falls within the approved boundaries of your relationship. But such a move comes with a lot of pressure to get it right.
Gifting a trip can also be a conversation, presented as a sort of voucher that gets redeemed by its recipient when they're ready to get packing. Or it can be a commitment for the future, to be hatched together.
Whichever direction you go in, presenting the idea with an inspiring physical object—something you'll use on the road, for instance, or a trinket from your planned destination—can be a perfect gesture.
Here are 11 ideas for how to create travel magic for someone. They're fit for life partners, children, and good friends alike—be they travel buddies or plain-old travel lovers.
An epic treasure hunt in Indonesia
A weekender with personality
Influencer-approved photography gear
The tablet made for travel
A Swiss adventure on skis and rail
A spa vacation, near or far
Tickets to the Olympics
There are many ways to procure tickets to next year's Olympics in Paris, including as part of extravagant VIP packages with the sporting events company On Location. But the simplest way—buying them through the official Paris 2024 website—is still effective, even with only a few months left before the games. You can still get tickets to plenty of medal qualifying events, from gymnastics to beach volleyball, both in Paris and in other French destinations where the Games are being held. And if you're not picky, you can find seats so reasonably priced that you'll have extra to spend on accommodations at a Palace hotel.
Inspiration for globetrotters-to-be
When minting little travelers, there's no better place to start than with a spark of inspiration. This fetching series of travel books for kids by Juniper books will ignite the wanderlust in little ones who've yet to locate Hong Kong or Venice on a map—not with kid-forward narratives but with images, descriptions, and painterly illustrations of each city's cultural draws.
Culinary training with Italy's best
The world's best hotel bathrobe
If you can't make it to the best hotel in the world—which this year was Passalacqua in Lake Como, according to the inaugural World's 50 Best Hotels list—at least you can ship a piece of it home. Its bathrobes are embroidered with the hotel's very chic logo, which consists of three lake fish, and have gold piped trim; the subtle branding is very if-you-know-you-know.
A martini master class
Sit at an iconic hotel bar like Bemelmans at New York's Carlyle Hotel and you'll wish the walls could talk—though what's even better is spending time with the bartenders who really can share the best stories. During the holidays, the Carlyle is selling precisely that kind of access, albeit disguised as a master class in martini making. Learn to shake up the stiff drinks, and you might just get them served with tales of old (and new) Hollywood glamour.
(Corrects name of sporting events company On Location in the 12th paragraph.)
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