Through the year, they entertain you with tales of their exotic voyages. Show them you’re not filled with envy by picking out something useful for the hard-core traveler on your Christmas list. You could start with the clever City Notebook series ($27.95 each), in which popular Moleskine pocket journals come with extra pages (maps, conversion charts, transportation info) tailored to a single city. Their maps are licensed from Lonely Planet, who of course make some of the most helpful and down-to-earth travel resources around. In addition to comprehensive region- and city-specific guide books (prices vary), they also have a new line of pocket-sized Encounter guides that strip popular destinations down to the see/stay/do essentials. Between Lonely Planet and the budget-minded Let’s Go imprint, whose Map Guides make lovely stocking stuffers at $8.95 apiece, your world traveler should be able to get around without looking like a tourist. In our travel experience, a single map is never enough, so it’s comforting to know you can load extras onto a PDA with Delorme’s Street Atlas USA, a $59.95 set of software boasting nationwide maps that can be transferred to smartphones, laptops, and GPS devices; the company also offers standalone GPS tools like the waterproof Earthmate, available in a $369.95 bundle with enough topographical maps to bury a sherpa. Maps aside, the long plane trips to and from these destinations are a lot more bearable with a good set of noise-canceling headphones. In the full-sized, over-ear category, Audio Technica’s $219.95 QuietPoint model performs as well as higher-priced competitors, and boasts a really comfortable fit. For on-the-go types who travel light, an in-ear version like these from Panasonic ($79.99) are compact enough to squeeze into an iPod pouch.