The best travel guitar is more than just a handy option—it allows for spur-of-the-moment creativity, practice, and even performance. Whether you’re out on vacation, or at a hotel for business, you always have a quality guitar ready for when inspiration strikes.
Acoustic Travel Guitars | Acoustic Travel Guitars Product Image | Product Title | *GEARANK | **Sources | Check Prices |
93 | 500+ | ||||
92 | 190+ |
Acoustic-electric Travel Guitars | Acoustic-electric Travel Guitars Product Image | Product Title | *GEARANK | **Sources | Check Prices |
95 | 500+ | ||||
92 | 40+ |
Popular Option | Popular Option Product Image | Product Title | *GEARANK | **Sources | Check Prices |
91 | 1350+ |
Collapsible Acoustic Travel Guitar | Collapsible Acoustic Travel Guitar Product Image | Product Title | *GEARANK | **Sources | Check Prices |
91 | 275+ | ||||
88 | 15+ |
Electric Travel Guitars | Electric Travel Guitars Product Image | Product Title | *GEARANK | **Sources | Check Prices |
90 | 325+ | ||||
90 | 925+ |
*Gearank = Rating score out of 100.
**Sources = Number of gear owner and user opinions analyzed for these product Gearank Ratings.
Research Process: How Gearank Works
Travel guitars are compact instruments that prioritize portability. They are convenient to carry around as you move from place to place.
To shed some of the bulk and weight of regular guitars, most manufacturers utilize smaller and lighter components. Other travel guitars go for novel, streamlined designs that include having parts that collapse or fold.
Here, we feature the best travel guitars, divided into mini-acoustic, collapsible, and headless electric guitar models, based on the most recent reviews and ratings data.
Each of the featured travel guitars comes with detailed descriptions along with important travel-friendly specifications.
More importantly, we provide the pros and cons of each one, based on our analysis of actual market responses.
The Best Travel Guitar: Acoustic Guitars
Known for their premium regular-size acoustic guitars, Taylor is now doing just as well in the travel and entry-level market, thanks to the likes of BT2.
This guitar is essentially a smaller version of the popular dreadnought shape, albeit with Taylor’s brand of build and sound quality.
While it was initially designed to be a starter guitar for kids, it made its way into the hands of professionals who appreciate its balance of portability and quality.
This guitar features a solid mahogany top and layered sapele for the back and sides, a potent combination that complements the midrangey tone expected of the best small guitar acoustics.
The BT2 came ready to play and sounded good out of the box. Though it doesn’t stay in tune as long as other Taylors, it’s still fun to play.
All in all, the Taylor BT2 is a travel guitar that you won’t be ashamed of carrying around. As the highest-rated acoustic in the list, it is easily the best travel acoustic guitar.
- Body Profile: Dreadnought Baby
- Top: Solid Mahogany
- Back & Sides: Layered Sapele
- Neck: Sapele
- Fretboard: African Ebony Fingerboard
- Scale Length: 22.75″
- Nut Width: 1 11/16″
- Electronics: None
- Bundled with Gigbag: Yes
- Body Length: 15.75″
- Weight: 8.1 lbs
The Martin LXK2 Little Martin acoustic guitar is a nice guitar for people with smaller hands or kids. Its compact size makes it a good travel guitar.
A big reason for this is that the guitar is not made of actual wood. Instead, it is constructed from high-pressure laminate (HPL), which is basically a paper-like substance pressed together to create a material that feels and looks like wood.
This material is used for the body. While the neck is natural birch laminate. To give it a wooden appearance, it is painted with a koa pattern or grain.
This construction makes this traveller guitar resistant to humidity, which is important when moving from one place to another.
Despite its small size, it delivers a surprisingly loud and mellow tone with the high quality you’d expect from Martin.
On top of the guitar, it also comes with a gig bag that is generously padded to protect the guitar from any bumps.
Overall, the LXK2 Little Martin is a great acoustic travel guitar with Martin’s high-quality craftsmanship, but it’s important to note that it’s not a solid wood guitar if that’s what you’re looking for.
- Body Profile: Concert
- Top: HPL with Figured Koa Pattern
- Back & Sides: HPL with Figured Koa Pattern
- Neck: Natural Birch Laminate
- Fretboard: FSC® Certified Richlite®
- Scale Length: 23”
- Nut Width: 1.68″
- Electronics: No
- Bundled with Gigbag: Soft Gig Bag
- Body Length: Not specified
- Weight: Not specified
The Best Travel Guitar: Acoustic Electric Guitars
The Taylor GS Mini-e is a scaled-down version of Taylor’s Grand Symphony design. It offers a comfortable playing experience without being too small or fiddly, making it the best mini guitar.
It produces a surprisingly loud sound, thanks to its solid top and curved back design. This mini travel guitar features a bright but warm tone with nice overtones. It’s an ideal travel guitar due to its laminated back and sides.
The body and neck have a satin varnish finish for that smooth feel.
As an acoustic-electric guitar, the Taylor GS Mini-e is fitted with Taylor’s ES2 preamp system. It features behind-the-saddle sensor pickups, which produce a warm, organic, more acoustic sound compared to undersaddle pickups.
Additionally, it has an onboard tuner, a tone, and volume control, with up to 300 hours of battery life from a 3-volt battery. The GS Mini-e traveling guitar also comes with a high-quality Taylor gig bag.
Although it can benefit from a setup, the Taylor GS Mini-e is still a fantastic travel guitar. It also comes with a high price tag, so you may want to consider buying a premium hard case to give it better protection.
- Body Profile:
- Top: Hawaiian Koa
- Back & Sides: Layered Koa
- Neck: Neo-Tropical Mahogany
- Fretboard: West African Crelicam Ebony Fingerboard
- Scale Length: 23-1/2″
- Nut Width: 1.6875″
- Electronics: ES-B
- Bundled with Gigbag: Structured Gig Bag
- Body Length: Not specified
- Weight: Not specified
Takamine is known for stage-ready yet reasonably priced acoustic-electric guitars, so when I saw the GY11ME at our local store, I immediately checked it out.
I was initially drawn to its classic aesthetics, especially its nice-looking square tapered slotted headstock, which matches its “New Yorker” parlor style body. This was a big deal to me because Takamine usually employs their regular headstock shape in their acoustics. The top, back, and sides are crafted from mahogany, wrapped in a natural satin finish that showcases nice wood grain patterns.
Overall
The Takamine GY11ME scratched my parlor guitar itch with its classic appeal, smooth action, and bluesy tone, highly recommended if you’re into similar musical styles and guitar aesthetics. It can also be a great starter or second guitar for students who are looking for an easy-to-play and reliable stage-ready travel acoustic guitar.
Given its tonewood configuration and shape, it produces a warm, midrange-focused tone that suits my preferred playing style and music, which include blues, gospel, rock, and the like. For plugging in, Takamine equipped it with a TP-4T pickup and preamp system, which has essential controls including 3-band EQ and gain, as well as a nifty built-in tuner.
Another factor that made me decide to get this travel guitar acoustic is its easy playability, thanks to its beginner-friendly specs, including a short scale length, flat fretboard radius, and narrow nut width. At the time, I was looking for a good pickup-equipped acoustic that was easy enough to play for my son, whom I trained to play on a 3/4-size nylon string guitar. So it made perfect sense to get the GY11ME—my son gets a student-friendly acoustic, and I can finally get a nice-looking parlor guitar as a beater instrument at home.
Thankfully, the transition into steel string went smoothly for my son, and we both ended up using the GY11ME for practice and even on stage.
Fast forward to today, the GY11ME is still our go-to guitar at home, surviving hours and hours of practice, and it has seen action in many church services, school events, gigs, and home recordings.
Note that while this version of the GY11ME is still available, Takamine has a new version with a sapele body, slightly different specs, and a regular (not-slotted) headstock.
- Body Shape: New Yorker Parlor
- Top: Mahogany
- Back and Sides: Mahogany
- Finish: Natural Satin
- Bridge: Laurel
- Neck: Mahogany
- Neck Profile: Soft-C
- Fingerboard: Laurel
- Fingerboard Radius: 12″
- Number of Frets: 21
- Frets to Body: 14
- Scale Length: 24.8”
- Nut Width: 1.67″
This will give you an idea of how the GY11ME sounds in recordings – I layered the parts ‘live’ using a Boss RC-300 Loop Station.
The Best Travel Guitar: Popular Option
With its odd compact body shape, the Backpacker easily stands out from among the many traditional types of acoustic guitars of C.F. Martin & Co.
The odd-shaped body is stripped of much of its depth and width, having a long triangular shape, resulting in a lighter and smaller acoustic.
And while it looks different from the usual Martin guitar, it does retain Martin’s penchant for build quality and even sports a solid spruce top.
More importantly, the Backpacker is quite affordable for a Martin-branded acoustic travel guitar.
Its compact, lightweight design and solid construction can endure bumps and rough handling. It stays in tune well, making it great for fingerpicking or playing in places where a full-size guitar isn’t practical.
It’s hard to go wrong with a Martin acoustic, well worth checking out if you’re not too keen on traditional body shapes. This travel size guitar embodies the meaning of a traveling guitar.
- Body Profile: Backpacker
- Top: Solid Sitka Spruce
- Sides: Tonewood
- Neck: Tonewood
- Fretboard: Not Specified
- Scale Length: 24″
- Nut Width: 1.6875″
- Electronics: None
- Bundled with Gigbag: Yes
- Total Length: 33″
- Weight: 2.125 lbs
The Best Travel Guitar: Collapsible Acoustic Guitars
Here are a couple of acoustic travel guitars that fold up nicely and conveniently.
The Silent Guitar from Yamaha is a steel-string acoustic guitar with a detachable body frame.
It doesn’t have an actual body from which to project acoustic sound, but it has frames in the shape of an acoustic body to support your arms.
This way, it can be as portable as possible while still providing familiar acoustic playability. It’s an ideal choice for travel or quiet practice in noise-sensitive spaces.
Note that its acoustic volume is very low, so it works best when plugged into an amp via its onboard pickup and preamp system.
Its versatile electronics might even replace your traditional classical guitar. Speaking of preamp, it lets you blend in the sound of “miked” acoustic to the basic piezo sound.
It also comes with reverb and chorus effects built into the unit. It requires 2 AA batteries to keep it powered, which could’ve been nicer if it was rechargeable.
Wrapping up its features include a headphone jack for silent practice, an aux input for jamming along with your favorite tracks, and it has a built-in tuner.
The Yamaha SLG200S is a feature-rich travel guitar that takes the acoustic guitar concept beyond what you’d normally expect.
- Body Profile: Silent Guitar
- Body: Mahogany (1-Piece Body & Neck)
- Collapsible Frame: Maple & Rosewood
- Neck: Mahogany
- Fretboard: 15.75″ Radius Rosewood
- Scale Length: 25″
- Nut Width: 1.6875″
- Electronics: SRT Pickup & Preamp
- Body Length: Not Specified
- Weight: 4.375 lbs
The Journey Instruments FF412C is a great travel companion due to its convenient folding design and surprisingly good sound quality.
It is very easy to assemble. The company claims that it can be done within 20 seconds, which appears to be true.
It features a contoured lower bout (or wedge) for comfortable arm placement and better playability. This travel acoustic guitar comes with a Journey Instruments piezo pickup system, and while it has no onboard preamps, you can plug in an instrument cable to it.
Its construction includes a solid Sitka spruce top, solid African mahogany on the back, and engineered African mahogany on the sides, all with a smooth satin finish and Grover locking tuners.
It holds tune quite well, has a solid build, and comes with a practical backpack that fits accessories like stands and capos.
The bag is made of durable nylon and includes a handle and wheels. It has a spacious compartment that can fit a laptop, tablet, or multi-effects pedal, as well as an accessory compartment and an in-between document pocket for other items.
However, the action can be high and might require some adjustments for better playability. The tone can also be a bit tinny and lack depth, especially higher up the fretboard.
Overall, the Journey Instruments FF412C is among the best mini guitars due to its convenient folding design and surprisingly good sound quality.
- Body Profile: Concert Cutaway
- Top: Hand-selected Premium Solid Sitka Spruce
- Back & Sides: Premium Solid African Mahogany Back, Engineered African Mahogany Sides
- Neck: Solid African Mahogany
- Fretboard: Ovangkol
- Scale Length: 25.5″
- Nut Width: 1.75″
- Electronics: JourneyTek™ under-bridge passive 3-piezo transducer pickup system
- Bundled with Gigbag: Yes
- Body Length: 18″
- Weight: 5.4 lbs.
The Best Travel Guitar: Electric Guitars
Weighing in at just 3.125 lbs and with a total length of just 28″, the Traveler Ultra-Light Electric is a light and compact electric travel guitar that retains full-scale length playability.
To achieve this lighter weight, the electric travel guitar is stripped down to essentials, including the headstock.
It features a 24.75″ scale length, similar to many Les Paul style guitars, and a standard nut width of 1.75″.
It utilizes the company’s distinct tuning system, where the tuners are located in the middle of the body, removing the need for a headstock.
However, these tuners can be hard to reach and tricky to hold, though the extension piece helps with handling.
The Traveler Ultra-Light Electric also features a detachable frame that allows you to sit the electric travel guitar comfortably on your legs.
Finally, it features a dual-rail humbucker that can handle both clean and overdriven tones, much like a regular electric guitar.
If portability is your top concern, the Traveler Ultra-Light Electric travel guitar should be high on your list. It’s the highest rated electric guitar on this list, making it the best travel electric guitar.
- Body Profile: Traveler Ultra-Light
- Body Tonewood: Maple
- Neck: Maple Thru-Neck
- Fretboard: Rosewood 22-Frets 12″ Radius
- Scale Length: 24.75″
- Nut Width: 1.75″
- Pickups: 1 x Dual-Rail Humbucker
- Bridge: Adjustable Tune-o-Matic
- Bundled with Gigbag: Yes
- Total Length: 28″
- Weight: 3.125 lbs.
To get rid of the extra bulk and width of electric travel guitars, some manufacturers have opted for more streamlined headless designs.
Case in point is the Eart GW2, which allows for standard 25.5″ scale length playability while having a travel-friendly small profile.
The guitar’s body is crafted from roasted Padauk, a reddish brown wood that’s similar to rosewood in terms of durability and looks.
To cater to modern guitarists, the headless neck follows a compound radius profile. To better handle heavy gauge strings and lower tunings, the neck is reinforced by utilizing 5-pc maple/padauk material.
Giving this electric travel guitar its voice are two covered humbuckers, designed to cater to modern cleans and high-gain style playing.
Other features include having a rosewood fingerboard with zero fret, and a fixed hardtail bridge. It’s got stainless steel frets, which are quite durable and ensure smooth playability, especially when performing bends.
However, it is heavier than expected, which might be a concern for those seeking a lighter travel guitar.
Finally, the Eart GW2 Headless comes with a relatively affordable price tag, given its unique design.
The Eart GW2 is an affordable, good travel guitar meant for those who are into modern guitar styles. It is also a good entryway into the world of headless guitar designs.
- Body Profile: Headless
- Body: Roasted Padauk
- Neck: 5-Piece Roasted Maple/Padauk
- Fretboard: Compound Radius Indian Rosewood
- Scale Length: 25.5″
- Nut Width: 1.6417″
- Electronics: Dual Humbuckers
- Body Length: 18″
- Weight: Not Specified
Things to Consider When Buying the Best Travel Guitar
Size & Weight
The main point of having a travel guitar is portability and convenience, and this is where size and weight factor in. With this in mind, we have included the weight and total length (where data is available) of the travel guitars listed, so you can decide on what you prefer. Most of the travel guitars on this list are expected to fit in the overhead compartment of planes and are allowed as carry-on.
Since portability is the priority, don’t expect too much in terms of traditional materials and specs. But there are some manufacturers that offer premium travel or parlor guitars with specs like solid spruce top, solid koa top, and even solid mahogany back and sides. But they generally aren’t well received for their portability.
Playability (Scale Length & Nut Width)
Guitar Scale Length (the length by which the strings are stretched from the nut to the bridge) and nut width (how wide the neck is at the nut) play a big role in playability. As such, it is recommended that you get a travel guitar with similar neck specs as your main axe. And this can be complicated given the many types of guitars and their different neck profiles. On the flip side, a travel guitar with a shorter scale length is generally considered easier to play. So it will be up to you whether you prefer uniform playability or something that’s more comfortable to play with.
Playing Comfort
Since travel guitars are lighter and have smaller bodies, you may find them awkward to play at first. But with some adjustments and familiarity, this becomes a minor issue. Some recommend using a guitar strap to keep your travel guitar in position as you play both in a standing or in a sitting position, much like a regular guitar would. It is worth noting that some manufacturers provide extensions that let you rest the small body on your legs, much like a regular-size guitar would. Silent guitars have been a normal sighting in the guitar world, used by plenty of musicians.
Built-in Electronics
Having the ability to plug your travel acoustic guitar into a portable amplifier is always a nice plus. Thankfully, this is a given for acoustic-electric and electric travel guitar models. So to make the most out of your travel guitar, we recommend pairing it with a good portable amplifier, or a guitar headphone amp. Speaking of amps, there were some travel guitars with built-in amps and speakers, but they didn’t have high enough ratings, probably because they don’t meet the size or quality expectations of guitarists, for us to recommend them.
Having electronics with essential tone controls is good to have for tonal versatility. Some headless electric guitars even have modern features like coil split, giving you great value.
With good control, wou can have an impressively big sound from a travel guitar – when you know how to tweak the amplified sound properly.
Aesthetics
Finally, make sure to get a travel guitar that appeals to your eyes—get one that will inspire you to play more often because that is the entire point of having a travel guitar. The ones on this list scored highly in this aspect, and some of them are available in different finishes, so all you have to do is pick one that tickles your fancy.
Best Travel Guitar Selection Methodology
The first edition was published in 2017. The current edition was published on September 2, 2024
We first made a short list of the most popular and top-rated travel guitars, focusing on those that can be readily bought from major US retailers. For this edition, we ended up with a shortlist of 42 travel guitars, which entailed the gathering of over 11800 relevant reviews, ratings, and discussions, including those written recently. All these data were then fed into the Gearank Algorithm, which resulted in rating scores out of 100 that we used to finalize each list above. For more information about our methods, see How Gearank Works.
About the Author and Contributors
Here are the key people and sources involved in this guide’s production – click on linked names for information about their music industry backgrounds.
Lead Author & Researcher
Contributors
Jerome Arcon: Supplemental Writing and Research
Jerry Borillo: Research
Jason Horton: Editing and Illustrating.
Media / Image Credit
Main/Top Image: Created by Gearank.com using a public domain photograph.
The individual product images were sourced from websites, promotional materials, or supporting documentation provided by their respective manufacturers.
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Comments:
6 responses
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Publication of our November 2021 Edition resulted in the following guitars coming off the recommended list above:
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Snapdragon guitars are made in the UK, which makes them worth a mention in itself. And they fold. And they’re not the most expensive.
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Would think you should add the Stewart Travel Guitar Line.
See the Stow-Away
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See the following:
Recent Stewart Review
[Review removed – it was a positive review copied from another website but we don’t have the rights to publish it on https://www.gearank.com – Editor: Jason Horton]
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Snapdragon guitars are amazing and very good value too. Converted some of my mates too.
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For those interested in the OF660, but not fans of carbon, Journey has collapsible wood models in steelstring and nylon for around $600 with case and pickup.
Travel Guitars
- The Best Beginner Acoustic Guitars
- The Best Acoustic Guitars – From $100 to $2000
- Best Acoustic-Electric Guitars
- The Best Classical & Nylon String Guitars – Up to $1000
- The Best Electric Guitars Under $500
- The Best DIY Electric Guitar Kits
- The Best Cheap Electric Guitars Under $200
- The Best Guitar Straps
- The Best Guitar Tuners
- The Best Acoustic Guitar Cases and Gig Bags
- The Best Guitar Stands
- The Best Acoustic Guitar Strings – 6 String Sets
- The Best Electric Guitar Strings
Disclosure
About the Author and Contributors
Here are the key people and sources involved in this guide's production - click on linked names for information about their music industry backgrounds.
Lead Author & Researcher
Alexander Briones
I have been writing about and researching music gear for many years, all while serving as a music director at my local church. I engage in guitar playing and singer-songwriter stints, in addition to mentoring young musicians and teaching guitar and bass.
Drawing from his experience in performing and recording, he teaches guitar and bass and mentors young artists to be better musicians. And when he is not busy playing or tinkering with musical gear, he puts on his entrepreneurial hat, which helps fund his passion for collecting guitars, mecha figures and Gunpla kits.
Contributors
Jason Horton: Editing and Illustrating.
Media
Main/Top Image: Created by Gearank.com using a public domain photograph.
The individual product images were sourced from websites, promotional materials or supporting documentation provided by their respective manufacturers.
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