Gifts for hikers: 12 ideas for a GR trail walker

A long-distance hiker carries everything on their back for days. They weigh their kit, count the litres of water between two huts and know exactly what they were missing last time. That’s the way into the gift: what they don’t have yet, or what they’ve kept for ten years rather than replacing it.

Here are twelve ideas for someone who walks the GR trails (France’s waymarked long-distance paths), the Tour du Mont Blanc or the Camino routes, with prices seen at French retailers at the end of October 2026. The models named are pointers: ask them quietly what they already use.

Things that lighten the pack

1. A pair of poles (€35 to €110)

On a mountain GR, poles take the strain off the knees on the way down and help with balance on scree. Decathlon sells its adjustable Forclaz MT500 pole one at a time, €16.99 each, so about €34 a pair. The Black Diamond Trail, adjustable and lighter, costs between €75 and €110 a pair depending on the version and the shop.

Adjustable poles avoid the sizing problem of fixed-length trail-running poles. A detail for anyone walking in Brittany or on Belle-Île: on some coastal paths metal tips are banned and rubber tips are required. They cost a few euros and make a good extra.

2. A light down jacket (€60 to €280)

In the evening at a hut at 2,000 m, it’s cold even in July. A down jacket that packs into the bottom of the rucksack is one of the most useful things on a trek. Decathlon’s hooded Forclaz MT100 down jacket costs €59.99 and weighs just under 300 g. Specialist brands’ jackets, like the Patagonia Down Sweater, have a list price of €280, often discounted.

3. A rechargeable head torch (€64 to €71)

Pre-dawn starts to beat the heat, dormitories without lights, a walk outside to the toilets: the head torch gets used every day. The rechargeable Petzl Actik Core costs between €64 and €71 depending on the shop. For walking, there’s no need for a 1,000-lumen trail-running torch.

4. Merino wool clothing (€25 to €55)

Merino holds on to smells less than synthetics do: you can wear the same top for several days, which matters when you wash your clothes in a gîte sink. At Decathlon, the MT500 range runs from a €24.99 vest to a €54.99 long-sleeve T-shirt.

5. A water filter (€35 to €45)

On long stages, you fill your bottle at springs and streams. A filter bottle like the Katadyn BeFree 0.6 L (about €36 to €45) lets you drink on the way without carrying three litres of water. It fits in a pocket.

6. A sleeping bag liner (€10 to €100)

In many huts and gîtes (walkers’ hostels), you sleep under blankets, and a liner is often asked for, for hygiene. A polyester one costs around ten euros at Decathlon, the MT500 silk liner €45.99. Sea to Summit’s lighter silk liners cost between €55 and €100 depending on the model and the discount.

Things that plan the next one

7. The topo-guide and maps of their GR (€15 to €40)

The major GR trails have FFRandonnée topo-guides (the French hiking federation’s guidebooks, in French), which describe the route, the stages and the places to sleep. They cost around €18 each (€18.40 for the Le Puy – Figeac volume of the GR 65), and a long GR often needs several. For more detail, the IGN TOP 25 map at 1:25,000 costs €14.30, or €17.50 in the rain-resistant version.

Check before buying that the edition is current: some topo-guides are being reprinted, like the GR 20 one this autumn.

8. Their FFRandonnée licence (€31 to €46)

The French hiking federation’s licence costs €31 on its own, €33 with personal accident insurance and €46 with multi-activity insurance for the 2026–2027 season. You get it by joining a club. For those who walk alone there’s the RandoPass, €35 a year, which includes insurance and assistance. Both are in the holder’s name: give them as a promise, and let the person sign up themselves.

9. Some of their nights (€20 to €90 a night)

Few huts sell gift vouchers, but nothing stops you paying for some of the nights on their next GR. The figures vary a lot: on the GR 20, a bed in a hut run by the Corsica regional nature park costs €20 a night in 2026, meals not included. Around Mont Blanc, half board in a hut costs far more: €80 to €90 a night at the Refuge de Miage, for example, in 2026.

Watch the dates: GR 20 hut bookings open in January and fill up fast. If you’re giving them their summer nights, tell them at Christmas so they can book in time.

10. A guided trek (€1,150 to €1,700)

For someone who has never done a long route, or wants to do one without organising anything, agencies run group treks with a mountain leader. For the Tour du Mont Blanc, Terres d’Aventure lists 2027 departures of 7 to 10 days at €1,150 to €1,690 per person. It’s the most expensive gift on the list, often one several people chip in for.

Things that stay afterwards

11. A book (free to €15)

Robert Louis Stevenson’s Travels with a Donkey in the Cévennes tells the story of the 1878 journey that the GR 70 follows today; in English it’s widely available, and free as an e-book from Project Gutenberg. For a reader of French, Sylvain Tesson’s Sur les chemins noirs crosses France on foot by its back paths (€15 in hardback from Gallimard, also in paperback). A good book for the winter, between two walking seasons.

12. A poster of their GR

A GR is days of walking, and a route people like to find again on a map. On Map My Life, you pick their trail from the big GR trails in the catalogue: the GR 20, the Tour du Mont Blanc, the GR 10, the GR 34, the GR 65 and some twenty others. If they walked another route, you can import their GPX file.

The poster draws the trail on the map, with the trail’s name and, as you choose, the number of days walked or their dates. Every stage end is marked with a dot. If they only did part of it, like the northern GR 20 or a stretch of the GR 34, you pick the piece between two stage ends. And a trail wider than it is tall, like the GR 10 from Hendaye to Banyuls, turns to landscape.

The A4 PDF is free. A print costs €40 in A4, €50 in 30 × 40 cm and €60 in 50 × 70 cm; framed, €75 in A4 and €85 in 30 × 40 cm. Delivery €4.90 for prints, €7.90 with a frame, once per order, to the whole European Union, Monaco, Switzerland, Norway, Iceland, the United Kingdom, the United States, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, Japan, Singapore, La Réunion, Guadeloupe and Martinique.

To choose their next trail, or find the one they did, there are also the best GR trails in France, the GR 20 stages and the Tour du Mont Blanc stages. For a trail runner rather than a walker, see our gifts for trail runners.

How not to get it wrong

Look at where they walk. A high-mountain GR calls for a down jacket, poles and a head torch. A Camino route or a coastal path mostly calls for feet that hold up, clothes that dry fast and a liner.

Be wary of sizes and weight. Clothes, shoes, rucksack: everything is chosen by size, and a long-distance hiker turns down anything a hundred grams too heavy. If in doubt, a gift card at a specialist shop.

Give what they don’t buy. They replace their shoes without a second thought. They keep their old head torch, don’t buy the topo-guide for their next GR before spring, and hardly anyone buys themselves a poster of the trail they walked.

Getting it in time for Christmas

Map My Life posters are printed to order. Ships within 4 working days, delivered within 8 working days in mainland France, 8 to 16 elsewhere in Europe, 8 to 15 in the rest of the world and 15 to 27 in the French overseas territories. For 25 December, order by early December at the latest, earlier still for the Netherlands, Spain, Italy and Ireland. And if you’re giving hut nights or a trek for the summer, slip the promise under the tree: next season’s bookings often open during the winter.

FAQ

What do you give a hiker who has everything?

What you can’t buy in a sports shop: some of the nights on their next GR, a guided trek, or a poster of the trail they’ve already walked, with their days or their dates.

What’s a small gift for a hiker, under €30?

The topo-guide or IGN map of their next GR (about €14 to €18), a polyester liner, a merino vest, or a walking book like Stevenson’s.

What do you give someone who has done the GR 20 or the Tour du Mont Blanc?

Something that keeps a record of the trail: a poster of their route, with every stage end marked and their days of walking. They already have the kit.

Can you give a night in a mountain hut?

A few huts sell gift vouchers, but most don’t. The simplest is to pay for some of their nights when they book: €20 for a hut bed on the GR 20 in 2026, €80 to €90 with dinner and breakfast at the Refuge de Miage, near the Tour du Mont Blanc.

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