There are so many ways you can give the gift of travel without just paying for someone’s flights – though that is a pretty good gift – hint hint!

From inspirational books to practical gear to actual experiences near and far, there’s a wealth of gift ideas out there for those who love to wander.

We’ve put together a quick list of ideas perfect for sating the travel bug as part of our awesome Christmas gift guide Hint Magazine:

Click here for your free copy of Hint Magazine 2021

14 gifts for travel fanatics

We’ve split this list into 3 parts to make it easier to navigate. Click each of these headings to go straight to the section:

1. Things to Read – inspiring travel books

2. Things to Bring – useful travel kit to pack

3. Things to Do – amazing travel experiences

6 Things to Read

1. Welcome to Country: a travel guide to Indigenous Australia – Marcia Langton

Welcome to Country is not only a guide book of Australia; it’s an insight into what this land means. Sectioned into two parts, its second part is a travel guide in the traditional sense.

Broken down state by state, there’s information on things to do, places to visit and tours to experience, all of which are “Indigenous-owned and operated, or genuinely engage with traditional owners and the culture of First Peoples.”

But part one of this book is profoundly more useful. Marcia has created a translation of Indigenous Australia.

Going deep into pre- and post-colonial history, bravely addressing issues, and knowledge and awareness gaps many non-Indigenous people have, Marcia clarifies, educates and puts to right things that should be known by all.

$50.00 RRP

2. Great World Wonders: 100 remarkable World Heritage Sites – Michael Turtle

Friend and fellow member of the Australian Travel Writers’ Association, Michael’s passion for World Heritage Sites has led him to author this fascinating travel book.

Detailing 100 of the most significant natural and cultural parts of the planet that have been inscribed onto the UNESCO World Heritage List, Michael shows how the list is “a museum of places” that describes not only our world but our humanity with it.

A sign of how fascinating this book is: flip it open at any page at random and you find yourself still reading 20 minutes later.

You can find more of Michael’s adventures on his blog timetravelturtle.com.

$45.00 RRP

3. The Travel Book: a journey through every country around the world – Lonely Planet

The ultimate compendium for any travel addict, Lonely Planet’s Travel Book takes you to all 200 countries on our globe. Each nation has two pages dedicated to it; one with beautiful photos, the other with background, and iconic things to see and do.

The Travel book not only paints a picture of this amazing world, it inspires. As you leaf through the pages, you feel something stir inside of you: the travel bug awakens and calls to be free.

$60.00 RRP

4. Lonely Planet’s Armchair Explorer: discover the best music, film and literature from around the world

Whenever we can, we travel; when we can’t, we dream. And this unusual take on a classic Lonely Planet travel guide helps us do just that.

Bringing the destinations from your dreams into your own home, Lonely Planet’s Armchair Explorer gives you a list of the best books, movies and music from 120 different countries to inspire your next trip and to entertain you in the meantime.

$34.99 RRP

5. Ultimate Weekends: Australia – Emma Shaw

This easy-going guide created by travel blogger couple Emma and Thom Shaw takes you around Australia state by state.

Showing off 60 of the Shaws’ favourite spots to visit from their year-long Big Lap around Australia in a vintage caravan, Ultimate Weekends: Australia is the perfect companion for anyone planning (or dreaming of) daytrips, weekends or longer journeys around this beautiful country.

$39.99 RRP

6. Around Australia at 80ks: two humans, one dog and a bright yellow kombi on the road trip of a lifetime – written and photographed by Meredith Schofield

Following the epic van-life journey of Meredith and Sean Schofield and their rescue dog Bandit, Around Australia at 80ks is full of handy insights and tips on a multitude of out-of-the-way destinations.

From Coober Pedy to the Red Centre to the Top End to the Kimberley, this is as much a useful guide to travelling Australia as it is the Schofields’ story of exploring the vast Outback in a vintage yellow kombi called Etta.

$35.00 RRP

5 Things to Bring

1. The Great State Skin Balm

Making skincare while you travel a thousand times easier, The Great State Soothing Skin Balm helps with everything from chapped lips and insect bites to eczema, sore feet and fly-away hairs.

Made from 100% natural ethically sourced ingredients, this balm is heat stable, so it will never go runny and leak and because it’s not a liquid or paste, it won’t trouble you going through airport customs.

The balm’s beeswax base forms a protective barrier on your skin while jojoba, avocado and cherry seed oils moisturise, and fragrances of honey and coconut relax and sooth.

$32.00 RRP

2. Chilly Towel

Trying to stay cool while you’re travelling, especially in the tropics, is a challenge. But whether you’re in a room with no air-con, in a hot bus with no windows or walking in the midday sun, this towel will chill you out.

It’s also a saviour for hot flushes.

Chilly Towel founder and cancer survivor Tara Lock created this product to help with overheating during chemotherapy. After ringing out with cold water, the Chilly Towel will stay cool and yet dry to the touch for hours.

Duo pack $50.00 RRP

3. Bon Maxie Mighty Mini Wallet

Designed in Brisbane, QLD, this palm-sized wallet has so much going on under the hood.

Made from full-grain sustainably-sourced leather, the outside has 6+ RFID-protected card slots with more space inside for less-used cards. There’s also a magnet-fastened coin section and more space inside for notes.

There’s also a free app Bon Maxie has partnered with – Stocard – that lets you put all your loyalty cards on your phone.

Available in Milk Tea, Lilac, Snake Print and Black, the Mighty Mini is made to fit inside the surprisingly voluminous Sidekick Crossbody bag.

$89.00 RRP

4. Bon Maxie Sidekick Leather Crossbody Bag

If Mary Poppins and Doctor Who thought they had storage solutions sorted, they obviously hadn’t seen the Bon Maxie Sidekick bag.

Perfect for everyday life and even better for travel, this handbag fits a surprising amount – from an A5 pad to a 600ml bottle to a DSLR camera and spare lenses with room to spare.

Made from full-grain sustainably-sourced leather, the Sidekick has a large main section with two smaller pouches on one side (one of which fits the Mighty Mini wallet perfectly), a zippable section on the other and a self-closing back pocket that easily fits a phone.

Its optional extra-long strap means you can wear the Sidekick across your body for extra comfort and security, and the little metal feet on the bottom protect it from wear and tear.

Available in Milk Tea, Lilac, Khaki, Black and Tan.

$249.00 RRP

5. Melissa Allen Mood Essentials travel fragrances

Creating four central scents using natural essential oils, these unisex fragrances are aimed at boosting the positive moods we experience every day – confidence, calm, focus and joy.

Our sense of smell is strongly connected to memory and mood, so when we’re travelling, being able to harness that sense to realign our energy is brilliant.

In handy 7ml sprays, these travel-size bottles fit in a pocket or bag easily and won’t be a problem going through customs in your carry-on.

$24.95 RRP each 7ml bottle

3 Things to Do

1. Teleportal submarines – exploring the Great Barrier Reef from home

Australia’s Great Barrier Reef is a wonderland of underwater life many of us dream of visiting just once, but here’s a way to get there whenever you want.

Naturalist and documentary filmmaker Adam Cropp has created a way for anyone with a computer to drive a real-life submersible drone around the reef, finding Nemo and experiencing what life is like beneath the waves.

Normally reserved for marine scientists and professional recon teams, these underwater robots can dive over 100m down and is on a 100m tether, so you have a pretty big area to explore. And as these robots are solar powered, they’re environmentally friendly too.

Check out what we got up to when we had a go on Teleportal.

It’s amazing how close you can get to the wildlife and what you can see on the reef. It’s so much fun. You can even do night dives using the submersibles’ 4000 lumens lights.

Gift certificates available from $30, or you can set up an account in your loved one’s name and add credits that way!

2. Glenayr Farm, Mudgee – stay near town away from everything

Awarded Australia’s Best Tourist Town 2021, Mudgee in NSW is about to become the premier destination for everyone who loves amazing food and wine, beautiful landscapes and the friendliest locals you’ll ever meet.

Glenayr Farm, just outside town, has two luxury villas at the heart of its 320-acre property with everything you need for a digital retreat. Including a fire pit, gas barbecue, kingsize bed, rain shower and best of all a wood-fire heated outdoor hot tub on the veranda, each villa offers the perfect country escape in absolute comfort.

Also on the property are four super-luxe bell tents with queen beds, and a homestead for bigger groups, so whether it’s luxurious romance in your own villa, high-end glamping or a party for you and your friends, this is the way to see the real Mudgee.

Book your stay here.

3. My Sydney Boat – romance on the water

There’s no better way to experience the Harbour City than from the water. My Sydney Boat offers a range of experiences around Sydney Harbour aboard their beautiful 12-metre cruiser that can hold up to 10 guests.

From a 90-minute Champagne cruise to a 6-hour day of fun on the water exploring the waterways around Sydney with SUPs, kayaks and a floating lilypad at your disposal.

Check out the different itineraries and options here.

There are lots more gift ideas in Hint Magazine, our free e-guide to Christmas gifts. Check it out here:

The post How to give the gift of travel for Christmas appeared first on Mr and Mrs Romance.

Cuba has been heralded as making the finest cigars in the world for centuries. Its rich, dark volcanic soil, tropical climate, and traditional farming and production methods produce beautiful cigars that are more like works of art – a point of consternation every time I light one.

When would you normally set fire to artwork that you love?

On our last trip to Cuba, we visited the Partagas factory in Havana. It was incredible to see the rollers (known as torcedores) carefully crafting each cigar.

The finishing touch is gluing the label around the cigar with a traditional plant-based adhesive.

Check out our video from Cuba, where we took to the Cuban cigar trail around Havana:

Click here to watch this video on YouTube.

My favourite cigar brand, Montecristo, gets its name from Alexandre Dumas’ The Count of Monte Cristo. It was the torcedores’ favourite story, read to them by a ‘lector’ to entertain them as they worked.

This cigar company (and others like Romeo y Julieta) pay homage to its literary roots in its label. The royal fleur de lis on Montecristo cigar bands and the crossed swords on the box logos are both nods to the book.

But these beautiful labels on premium cigars do more than merely decorate or talk of heritage and provenance.

They have other functions too.

Spotting a fake Cuban cigar

Other than price, the packaging is probably the best pointer to a fake cigar.

Check out our story on spotting fake Cuban cigars here.

So apart from marketing and branding purposes, cigar companies developed evermore elaborate designs to reduce counterfeits.

But in spite of labels being increasingly more difficult to copy, re-labeled fakes are rife throughout the world.

By the 1950s, the owner of Cuban brand Cabañas reckoned: “for every one of the two million Cuban cigars I ship to Europe, six million are sold there.”

It’s another reason to only buy from reputable companies or – if possible – from sanctioned shops in Cuba itself.

The downside to this of course is that the Cuban government owns and controls all the cigar shops and even the factories, so you’re giving money to a corrupt power.

Every silver lining has its cloud, I suppose.

How old is your cigar?

In this on-going battle against fraudulent cigars, brands update the labels regularly. Some, like Cohiba – the most expensive, prestigious and therefore most copied cigar brand – dink their cigar bands almost every other year, or so it seems.

Changes like this are both a worry and a joy to cigar enthusiasts.

Firstly, when your band looks different to what you’re used to, you fret that you’ve bought a fake cigar. On the other hand, it makes dating your cigars relatively easy.

Aged cigars can be very valuable. And like high-quality wines, well-kept fine cigars develop and mature over time.

As you can see, these three Montecristo cigars each have a slightly different band and are from very different ‘vintages’.

If you have one that doesn’t look like any of these, it could be from anywhere between 1940s to 2003. Or perhaps a special edition.

With plain packaging laws covering up cigar bands, it’s hard to even see the branding. Or to tell if what you buy is real. Most of the time, the ugly brown stickers can come off revealing the original label beneath.

But pealing off a label isn’t going to go down too well with the shopkeeper.

Check out the Cuban Cigar Website – an impressive depository of many Cuban brands’ labels through the years – if you’re not sure.

As for my three examples, the ageing process is going well. Keeping them in a relative humidity of 70% in a temperature-controlled cedar-lined humidor has done wonders.

The oldest smells completely different to the other two – richer, deeper and more fragrant. I’m looking forward to finding out how it tastes!

The post Cuban culture, chronicles and counterfeiting – the secrets behind cigar labels appeared first on Mr and Mrs Romance.