Best Gifts for Hikers, Backpackers, Outdoorsy People (2025)

buy gifts for Outdoor enthusiasts are cursed with near impossibility. Your hiking/camping/biking outdoors friends are often serious gearheads, meticulously poring over reviews, guides and the perennial wisdom of ounce-counting Reddit users. The right thing is right.

Don’t stress yourself out trying to pick that exact right thing. Chances of you finding it and getting it as a gift for them are zero. This does not mean that you should push and Buy an REI gift cardAlthough (although they may like it). Instead, get them something they totally didn’t expect—one of those fun, but useful, sometimes whimsical, things that are guaranteed to not only delight them but actually be used outside.

And what about you? While you’re here, do you need to replace your sleeping pad? Be sure to check out the rest of us Buying guideincluding us The Best Sleeping Bag Guideour Best Barefoot Shoes Guideand us The best merino wool Guide

Updated October 2025: We’ve added several new picks and swapped out some picks for things we liked better. But we’re stuck with socks. If you get nothing else, just get socks. Trust us.