Whether you collect refrigerator magnets (like I do for my mom), thimbles or zany t-shirts on your travels, be sure to find mementos from your trips that mean something to you. Don’t feel compelled to buy cliché schlock. Some of the best souvenirs are beer coasters that you snag from a bar, a doodle a new friend made on a napkin or a lock of that Australian girl’s hair.
The more personalized your souvenirs, the more likely you are to always treasure them rather than eventually view them as clutter. Don’t hesitate to pull the trigger on a purchase. You don’t want to regret not buying something, which I do everyday.
What are your favorite mementos from your travels? Share your stories in the comment.
Thinking back on it, the only souvenir that I actually like, that came from an actual souvenir shop, is my charlie brown coffee cup from Knott’s Berry Farm. It’s just yellow with a black zig-zag stripe on it. I love that damn thing. Other than that one item, I have never even looked at a souvenir shop purchase twice. I do however keep all my tickets/stubs. Like boarding passes, show tickets, etc. Seemingly everything you do while traveling comes with an accompanying little piece of paper to grant you entry/access/etc. So I keep all those. I have a box full of them now and once in a while I sift through it and remember stuff I’ve done and seen.
Although now I think I will start shaving Australian girl’s heads for souvenirs. Great idea, thanks!
PS: that shirt is hideously fantastic. I don’t think I could ever wear it anywhere. Ever. But it’s an amazing find.
Thanks, Shawn. Ticket stubs can make the best mementos, for sure! No clue where I would have worn that shirt, but on lazy, hungover Sundays, I wish I had it to wear around my apartment. Sigh…
My favorite is from when we stopped in the desert to take a picture of the pyramids. I grabbed to sand from the bottom of my shoes and put it in a film canister.
Scott, that’s a stellar idea! I have a collection of random stones that I have grabbed from various places. I mix them all together so I never know where they’re from. I kind of like it better that way.
I love free souvenirs. I stole a volcanic rock from the top of a volcano in Iceland (bad, I know). And I have a bunch of neat artifacts I found on the bank of the Thames- victorian bottle tops and such. I’m also a big fan of postcards, which I hang up on my walls.
I buy a lot of jewelry when traveling too. It’s a nice subtle way to brag about your travels. “oh these earrings? Just picked them up at a street market in Sarajevo…”
Definitely refrigerator magnets, definitely smooth stones from beaches we visit. But in recent years (and don’t hate me for this, Mike, I know how much you hate art), my husband and I buy art — from galleries, from street artists — wherever. It’s all over our house, and no one piece looks anything like any other, but still, we love it, and it makes for great conversation when people come over and see something weird and new on our walls.
I love anything a bit plastic fantastic – my best souvenir was a singing ramadan lamp from Egypt – it lights up and everything. Like Shawn I’m also a great hoarder of ticket stubs!
I try to buy something from either a flea or holiday market of every place I stop in. It’s usually a small peice of jewelry but my favorite is a handmade puppet from Prague.
I’ve started to collect stories from my travels and that’s why I created a blog: http://unexpectedtraveller.wordpress.com
The Unexpected Traveller
My favorite souvenir from a trip was actually purchased by me here in the states before I left.
My girlfriend studied for a year in Morocco. The first time I went to visit her, she suggested I pick up some cheap rings to wear so we could pretend to be married. The thought here being that in a somewhat conservative country, traveling as a married couple would be easier than traveling as unmarried sinners.
Or whatever.
We agreed that they should be cheap as who knows what would happen to them. So I swung by Claire’s and picked up 2 $4 rings and brought ‘em with me and man, where they ever too big. We wore ‘em just the same though, up and down the coast as we visited Rabat and Moulay Bouselham and Larache.
When I got home, I couldn’t keep wearing it. It was ridiculously big. I don’t think we fooled anyone. But I grabbed an old necklace chain and put the ring on it. I’m wearing it right now. Because it was so cheap, it has faded from silver to a sort of coppery color. But it’s always on me and I can’t think about it without thinking about her or a lovely trip to the African coast.
I would have to say perfume from Capri – every time I put some on it takes me back there! Best part is, if I use it all, I means I have to go back and get more
Krister, that is one helluva story! Thanks for sharing.
Chookooloonks, I don’t hate art…I just don’t always get it. I’m a simple man!
Along with kind-of-obsessive journaling and beer-coaster-snagging (which I’ve been doing since I was 10. Yeah, my mom was pretty cool.), my most prized souvenir wasn’t originally intended for me.
The first time I went to Germany my mom gave me tiny carved wooden doll. SHE had gotten it when she visited Europe when as a little girl and it went everywhere with her. Since I’ve owned her, the little wooden girl has been backpacking in the Sierras, down the Baja coast and back to her home town of Nuremburg.
Alexi, that’s a great story! And much sweeter than just bringing a SkyRest everywhere. Awesome tradition!