Holiday Shopping Guides for Hikers and Backpackers: Explore Our Top Gear Picks and Gift Guides

Holiday Gift Guide for Hikers: Trail-Tested Gear, Merchants We Trust, and Opt Outside Deals

We hope you have spent Black Friday chasing views instead of doorbusters - our kind of adventure!

Now, while you’re warming up and scrolling, we pulled together our favorite trail-tested gear, hiker gift guides, and curated collections to help you find what actually belongs in your pack (and under the tree) this season.

Our Favorite Hiking Gear Guides

• Our Favorite Gear for Under $30

• Our Favorite Hiking Gear Guide and Recommendations

• Our Day Hike Backpack Recommendations

• Our Recommended Gear Available on Amazon

Our Favorite Hiking Gear Reviews

• Garmin Instinct, Our Favorite (indestructible) Smartwatch for Hiking

• Goodr Sunglasses are the best hiking sunglasses

• Sawyer Squeeze is the best water filter for hiking

Hiking Essentials

• The Ten Essentials for Day Hiking

• Day Hiking Checklist

• Snowshoeing Essentials: A Complete Winter Hiking Checklist

Where We Actually Shop

When you are ready to swap muddy boots for a little online browsing, we pulled together our short list of shops that make gear that actually holds up to hiker-trash levels of use.

• Altra Running

• Black Diamond Equipment

• Campmor

• Cotopaxi

• Darn Tough Socks

• Enlightened Equipment

• Garage Grown Gear

• Gossamer Gear

• Hyperlite Mountain Gear

• Injinji Socks

• Kahtoola

• REI

Some deals we have found (and may have already enjoyed):

• Kahtoola has some steep discounts on microspikes and trail crampons (we invested in the K10 trail crampons to try them out)

• Altra Lone Peak 8’s are 30% off (we always stock up when we find them on sale)

• 10 to 30% off of select ultralight gear at Garage Grown Gear

• 25% off everything at Cotopaxi