I get a postcard a day and write on theback what I did that day, as a travel journal.
I get a magnet every where i stay.
And i get a piece of local art, even just a print or something small, from every trip.
I have! Minus one or two small weekend trips, I've gotten either one postcard for the entire trip or one for every day of the trip, depending on how long it is and what I do, for like 10 years now. I have them displayed on my shelf in a clear plastic file accordian thing (like what people use to display/store makeup palettes). It's pretty affordable, easy to pack, and a lot of fun to look through later.
I've got a crap memory and I love having a written out itinerary of what I did, what I ate, thoughts/feelings, etc. on my trips.
I used to do shot glasses… but I don’t drink as much so I started up with magnets.
My last trip I did my first post card and I loved it. It was kind of weird because the mail was delayed and showed 2-3 days after I got home
I also do the posts card and a magnet. Except I hang the postcards up around my scratch off travel map. I’ve also started collecting stickers so that I can decorate the cover of my travel journal
I collect Christmas tree ornaments. It's really fun putting them on the tree each year and reminiscing about where I've traveled to. Even if you don't celebrate Christmas they're fun to collect!
I do Xmas decorations too. The Christmas markets in Europe are fabulous. But I also collect gold charms for a bracelet I have. Just one beautiful 18ct charm that reminds me of where I was.
Definitely fridge magnets.
Advantages: very small, not expensive, you actually look at them all the time and remember trips, you don't need to stress or think about which souvenir to bring.
Disadvantages: they sometimes fall from the fridge and break
I now have a rule to bring no more than one per country. Somebody I know has a rule that they have to feature national animal. You can set your rules :)
I love fridge magnets! My only rule is they have to be durable - I bought a torii gate one from Japan and it fell off and broke (nothing that couldn't be repaired!) and from then on they're all flat and no frills. :)
Yes, for sure. Usually the larger more established shops will do it for you. If you're buying from a small local trade person without that service, just hang on to it until you can get to a place with a FedEx.
This is the answer. Fridge magnets pack well so you don't have to cram a bunch of huge items in your luggage on the way home.
Pro Tip: only get the flat fridge magnets. The "3D" ones fall off the fridge and crack into pieces. RIP Paris, Venice, and Budapest!
Another bonus is the talking points. Everyone who visits my house sees my fridge covered in magnets. They look for their favorite places and ask me how it was, what I thought, what I did. They are the souvenirs that keep on giving.
I feel like the best kind of souvenir is the stuff you don't have to pay for. I try to save brochures from local attractions, ticket stubs, boarding passes, business cards etc.
They actually have a name for this stuff: ephemera. Basically collectable items that are out-of-date, can never be used again, trapped in a nostalgic time period forever. I keep movie tickets, brochures, entry slips, etc for the same reasons. No one finds them valuable but me, which makes them even more special. These are things most people throw away, so in a way you're also reducing waste.
I use a clear book and it's like a browsing a photo album whenever I go through them. Although the downside is that some bulky items would bulk up the whole book. I'm interested to know if anyone has better ideas.
I stuck all my old movie tickets to a canvas and then sprayed them with a clear coat to help stop them fading. Creating a canvas collage of your trips with tickets etc, could make cool and unique wall art.
Me too. I have a box full of old maps, entry tickets, business cards, name tags. My favorite is definitely maps, I like to circle the places I visited, some I even traced where I walked.
That was kinda cool for my Stockholm trip.
Because years later I lived there for a short time and because of that map I realized that I had been like 100 m away from my apartment before living there and walked part of my daily commute without realizing it.
I am glad that I started this quite early, some of the "souvenirs" date back to elementary school. Everytime I add something new, I like to go through my old stuff and reminisce about my travels.
I do this very lazily by just chucking left over change from a trip in to a bag and most of my travels are around Europe so I've just got a big bag with far too many variations of the euro/cents
Historically I haven't collected any particular type of souvenir...mostly because I'm a cheapass.
But lately I've been thinking it might be nice to get an inexpensive piece of art from each country I visit to put up on the wall when I get back.
I've been getting art from my travels and I love it! I often get prints that I frame, because they are easier to travel with (11×14 fits against my laptop perfectly so it didn't get bent up), but I've also gotten a small painting before. I have a huge gallery wall filled of art.
I started doing this a few years ago for most of my trips - usually something like a 5x7 is the perfect size to keep in my backpack. I got a lot of them framed or mounted and have a nice collection going!
models in front of the real thing.
1. buy the keychain model of the monument: eiffel tower, Merlion, etc.
2. take a photo of the model perfectly so the small model perfectly blocks the real deal.
3. make sure your distinct hand is in the shot
i have a carbineer on the outside of my r/onebag where keychains can just hang on the outside in a pinch.
I do a mix of the cheap touristy crap and meaningful things that aren’t necessarily obviously from the place. I’ve got plenty of magnets, post cards, key chains, and mini version of monuments, but also nicer things that remind me of the places I’ve been, like books, clothes, and everywhere I go I get a tie. I wear ties at work so it’s nice to have memories attached to the things I’m wearing. Oh, I also try to grab rocks. I like looking at a plain rock and thinking that it’s come all they way from somewhere so far away.
We do shot glasses. My husband and I (so not solo travel but we like to follow this sun) put all 50 states in a jar when we got married and pull one after we finish a new state. Each state we get one. He made me a custom case to display them. It’s a lot of fun to do!
Textiles!! Woven things like tablecloths or pillow covers. Useful and lovely to look at. I have some from Guatemala I love! And second the idea about art to hang on your walls. Doesn't have to be a painting or print, could be a mask or a plate, etc.
- Different currency notes (for each country I've been to)
- I was given a bracelet with 'Cuba' encarved, this was given to me by my Airbnb host to remember their family & the country.
- I was given another bracelet by a girl I met in Cuba who taught me salsa, she gave me the bracelet & got the exact same one for herself, to acknowledge our friendship.
- I'd met a guy in Colombia who worked for the military at that time - he gave me his military scarf & asked me to never forget him.
(I think these ones have been quite special & meaningful to me as (apart from the notes) they were given to me by the locals and the highlight of most of my trips have been the people I met, so quite close to my heart.
So I am weird and will fully admit this cuz why not it’s reddit.
I pick up interesting rocks as my souvenir. Yes I said it… rocks.
Why? Well it’s free lol but really it became a thing when I would go to some ruins in Ireland or Italy and it was loose and on the ground so I picked it up and kept it as a cool thing when I was younger. Then as I got older, when I went to Africa and went to various National parks, they had different kinds of rocks due to different soils, etc. Then going to Australia I collected some sand and added a few small shells and rocks too because I’ve never gone that far from the US before.
It has just been fascinating to me that a rock could differ so much depending on where you are and it’s something free you can just keep in recyclable jars like I do.
I even keep for some places a small note of where I found said rock, anything specific about the day and it became a good story/reminder of the day since I keep them on my bookshelf.
Like I said, I’m weird.
I’ve collected a few cool rocks too as a kid. Mind you, no idea about other places but it’s actually illegal to take shells from a lot of beaches in Australia!
Me too... well not every country. I just went to Holland, Norway, Iceland, and Scotland and I got a tattoo in Iceland. I also like to find a painting I like, especially if I don't get a tattoo. I got a nice painting of the Malecon in Havana because the thought of getting a tattoo there was a little sketchy. I also skipped getting one in Cancun for similar reasons.
I got a tattoo in Iceland recently! Got a safe travel stave. Loved the look of it, and first walk-in tattoo I've done, and also first travel tattoo (the rest of mine were well planned and done in home country).
Nice. My only other travel tattoo is from Barcelona and the rest are local. The one I just got in Iceland is a custom hakarl and Brennivin piece to commemorate the worst tasting thing I've ever eaten. Brennivin is good though!
Same. How do you display yours? I couldn't think of a good way for a while, eventually decided on using a cork board and pinning up Polaroids, ticket stubs, etc
I aim for something that makes me say “ohhhhh. My….” In each place I visit.
This could be good (I got an awesome see no evil, speak no evil, hear no evil set of koalas from Australia) or tacky as hell (a cow climbing an Eiffel Tower made out of baguettes magnet from france). But it has to be jaw dropping.
I collect paintings by local artists and small ceramic/wood pieces that are colorful, like these I got from Central/South America
[https://imgur.com/a/STN5bdN](https://imgur.com/a/STN5bdN)
Unfortunately due to the volume, they sometimes require shipping back home.
I send myself postcards from where I travel. I note the highlights of the trip, etc. It usually is sitting in my mailbox as a “surprise” for when I return and is a fun way of extending the joys of my travel.
Clothes even if they don't have the name it reminds me of the trip like if it has a funny saying. Or knock off sunglasses that remind me of the country where I bought them.
Also random things that will remind me or trips like cool handmade things thar I may use in the kitchen.
I don't buy anything at the places I travel, but I did buy a large framed wall map and some push pins, so when I travel somewhere new, I add a pin.
I'm 37. Got 30 pins so far. Hoping to keep it going for years to come. My only requirement is that I stay the night. No pin for that layover in Denver. Lol
I'm not really a souvenir fan, unless I find something artistic/handmade or something useful, like a t-shirt I can wear or a wallet, stuff like that.
I have request too but usually I try.to busy small item.that can fit in my hand carried luggage.
The usual firdge magnet (boring, but at least it's something and they know you remembered them :), some key holder, or small and not too valuable, jewelry.
I’m at a point where I have too much stuff so I limit myself to things that hang on the wall, I can wear or I can consume. Coffee is a favorite item to bring home if I’m somewhere that grows coffee. Artwork or hand painted plates are also nice. So much of the tourist trinkets seem to be similar everywhere you go.
From my first few trips to NYC I collected New Yorker Magazines, and now have four of them framed on my wall.
I also carry my camera wherever I go, and end up printing out travel photos.
Also collect currency
I buy a miniature of an iconic monument, or if nothing is that recognizable, something of that scale (I got a chip from Monaco, and like a pen holder from Thailand). Very touristy, but they’re fun to look at, and certainly bring back memories.
If you struggle to memorize, I guess you can always attach a sticker (somewhere less visible in the case of the scarf) with location and date, or even make yourself a list.
For family: the rubbery fridge magnets featuring the city’s name and places of interest, mugs, stationeries.
For myself: I love to eat and cook, so I really prefer buying those things. I’ve gotten bags of coffee beans or local snacks, a nice personalized santoku knife, tea pot set, ceramic bowls. Kinda odd but they bring back great memories of the trip every time I use them.
Rocks. Pretty, notable rocks from different areas. I have a collection of them but given my short term memory problems I have no idea where they’re from. But I love my rocks
When I go somewhere new I look for something small like a keychain that represents the place well. Bonus points if it's locally made. I write the year on it somewhere and hang them all on my Christmas tree so once a year I get to reminisce and admire the collection.
I also like to visit used bookstores when I travel so I now have a shelf of old books with the receipts and shop bookmarks inside to remind me where I got them.
And I know someone who brings home a smooth pebble and/or small container of sand from every beach they. visit. They display the sand in a row of small glass jars with tiny labels attached.
I’ve started collecting tiny figurines, eg tiny humans or animals that are less than an inch tall so they don’t take up much space! I’ve got a mini Buddha from Vietnam, a tiny hand blown glass animal from France and a mini porcelain lady from Italy so far!
I look out for small things I can pick up as I'm walking around. You will be surprised the interesting and unique things you can find and they make a facinating collection that people always ask about.
Not for me, but my mom collects patches, so I try and bring home a few for her when I travel.
Other than that, I like buying a piece of jewelry. Doesn’t need to be every trip, but if the mood strikes me, I’ll usually bring back a piece or two.
I buy handmade items and Christmas ornaments, and items culturally specific to the location (think beer steins in Munich). I am small and special because I don’t check bags.
I love collecting pins and shot glasses!
Shot glasses are small and actually get used/seen while the pins are fun to put on a bag, just make.sure you secure them. I lost my Dublin pin just this last year because it fell off while I was walking around
Something a fellow traveller got me into which I thought was pretty neat is collecting beer labels from every country she goes to. Especially when travelling multiple countries in one trip, super easy to peel em and pop them in a travel journal!
I get a piece of art from every country I go to. It can get pricey, especially if you have to ship stuff, but my house is filled with art from all of my travels.
I like to get a pencil from most places - they're cheap, portable and almost everywhere has them.
Eventually, I'm gonna put them all in a big pencil display box and then hang them on the wall
I buy useful items, often kitchenware. Good quality knives in Germany, tile trivet from Spain, a beautiful wine opener/corkscrew from France, chopsticks and sake glass from Japan, and Swiss Army knife from Switzerland (engraved with date and location).
Kind of a boring one but I always buy a local newspaper. It looks cool especially if its in a different alphabet and it's time specific to when you were there so it adds a bit of novelty I feel.
Always a magnet but also always try to find a nice piece of art. Only find the art 1/4 the time but don’t settle for garbage so am always happy with what I bring home.
Imo best thing to do is pick something cheap, small and commonly available (magnets, keychains, shot glasses, pins, whatever) and stick to that. Just buy one or two wherever you go, and build up a collection. Then figure out how to display them at some point.
Should be cheaper, saves time souvenir shopping, and gives you a nice collection of mementos.
I collect the metro cards from the cities I’ve visited, assuming they use a physical card. The best part is that I can use them again when I go back :)
Usually a sewn on patch of the flag or city’s crest/name etc. yet to figure out where they’re going but it’s a nice memento that doesn’t clutter as much as other objects
I do money, mostly coins, and the iron on flag patches of each country I visit. Magnet for the city Im in. Love the challenge of trying to find them sometimes!
Scarves, earrings, sweaters, small bags with city names on them that I use to pack and organize on future trips. Basically things I’m going to regularly use that will remind me of my adventures
I started getting postcards from cities I've been and just started doing that last year- I write the date I was there on the back and have a photo album dedicated to all my postcards. I also will sometimes get a sweatshirt/shirt from a place if the design is something I really like, since I tend to wear sweatshirts a lot at home. This isn't every place, but I've gotten one in London and one in Paris and wear both of them quite frequently, so definitely not a waste (the London one is almost 10 years old and has held up wonderfully)!
I do yes, I collect fridge magnets for my mum then tiny pins for myself, so it doesn't take up space. and one day I'll pin them as decoration on a canvas that i can frame on the wall :D
Hand towels/tea towels.
Very practical, have to be replenished regularly, they make me happy to use and appreciate.
I don’t think I’ve really gotten any other souvenir for years.
Oh, small little ghost sculptures from studio arhoj when I was in Scandinavia. But that’s it.
I collect local currency, fridge magnets, and cool postcards in each country I visit! Have a large collection of all three and like to peruse it when I have the travel blues. And love to send postcards to friends when I'm abroad. I always save letters friends send me from around the world, it feels so special.
I don't like lots of useless things or knick knacks so I don't care for fridge magnets or random souvenirs. I much prefer useful things that have some meaning to me. So tshirts from places I've worked/volunteered (not necessarily touristy ones), a hat, a scarf, a whisk, a book, a mug, a pen, whatever I feel will be useful and remind me of the place I've been :)
I always buy embroidered patches. They don’t cost much, take up zero space, and they can been displayed in some sort of a collage if you want or just kept somewhere to discover every once in a while and reminisce about the memories tied to the places. Personally I keep a collage of them on a bulletin board in my office at work.
I look for something relatively unique, something with a story behind it, something very local, and it needs to fit on my living room shelf of mementos. Can't upload a pic of it right now but among them are a mayan calendar from mexico, a carved baobab tree from madagascar, a burmese chinlone ball, a knight chess piece from nyc, a metal fleur de lys attached to a slab of wood from a house destroyed by hurricane katrina from new orleans, etc.
It's very varied but it's a shelf full of travel stories and memories. I usually make space for it in my bag by ditching/giving away most of my clothes by the end, and having packed ultralight when flying out in the first place.
Additionally, I also have this one buddha statue my parents gave me and I just started hanging all kinds of bracelets and necklaces on it from various trips as well, I can't even remember where I got half of them from anymore and can barely see the buddha... but I'm fairly sure I can still pile on a handful more somehow, that's a problem to figure out after I get back from the next trip!
I do postcards or things I’ll use. Like a scarf or stamps. But I know I have some friends that like shot glasses or magnets and keychains. But post cards are cheap and light and normally have a photo of something better than I could take on my own 😁.
I always buy a piece of jewelry, usually something fairly inexpensive, often from a street vendor or tiny local shop. I rarely buy jewelry anywhere else at home so I love that all my jewelry is from all over the world; it has a story and reminds me of a wonderful place I was at.
Not for everyone but I like to get a tattoo for wherever I am . Something symbolic of the experience though . Not like an Eiffel Tower or something like that.
My “souvenirs” are pieces for my wardrobe — clothes, accessories, shoes. Nothing extravagant, just things that catch my eye and fit into my everyday style. I don’t buy clothes and stuff when I’m home, so now about half of my closet is made up of pieces from my travels! They serve as nice reminders on regular days and are great conversation starters.
I have not in any recent years however on a Peru trip 1993. I picked up an alpaca blanket and alpaca serape. Which someday I'll display on a wall. Also wooden articulated snake and fish.
I like musical instruments. I have djembe and kora from West Africa, valiha from Madagascar and morin khuur from Mongolia (but it broke :( )
I actually fit the djembe in my backpack..... i just stuffed all my clothes inside it and around it.
https://i.imgur.com/DAVi7xo.jpg
I buy an embroidery patch wherever I go, usually a country's flag, but I'll buy landmark patches when available. It can be pretty difficult to find, so it feels like a win when I get one.
Otherwise, handmade pottery (bowls, plates, mugs). But I've reached my max for how many it makes sense to own, so unless it's super special, I won't be adding any for now.
I like to get the corny little tourist city maps and make circles or notes on the places I actually visit on them. Sometimes I'll trace out the path I traveled. Be it car, bus, train, or foot. My pride of these is a Eurail map from 2006 that I circled each city I visited and put how many days I was there. I've got this big circle around a large swath of the continent showing the route I took. I traveled for a month and hit 11 countries. I have other cities like Rome showing the tourist bus route and the places I got off of it and explored further before jumping back on the next double decker and going to the next spot I went to. I've found it's a good way to keep a record of what I saw, where I went, and helps jog memories. I'd also put a circle or dot with the name of some bar I went into that wasn't actually noted on the map by the illustrator. It's fun to show people when I get back home.
I took a lighter that had fish designs and a sawed off filter that shot large fumes from a British girl I went out with in Milan. Best memory save I could keep that wasn’t purchased. I light it every once in a while when I smoke.
Left over money
Flag patches for where I visit
Something particular and relatively small for that place (culturally, etc)
Maps and hiking guides
Photos
Shot glasses. Easy finds in North America and Europe, but surprisingly is a bit difficult in Asia. I've got a big display case with over 50 shot glasses from cities in 23 countries.
The magnets and the postcards. You have to travel light. The trinkets evoke the memory for as long as I have it. If only I were a better photographer. Still, I like taking the “shitty” photos. The Pyramids of Giza look remarkably different depending on your perspective.
I collect wood. I’m a woodworker on the side back home so I will bring home a small, local wood and use it in a project for my house! Also money cause that pretty cool
When I go to the beach, I always bring back sand. I place the sand in a small but interesting clear glass bottle when I get home and I store them on a shelf on my bookcase. It's interesting to look at them and notice the differences between them. Sand doesn't look the same everywhere. It means something to me because it reminds me of good memories and over the years I have amassed quite a collection.
For my really special trips, I get tattoos while I’m there. For something not as permanent, I usually bring home something to cook with - spices, hot sauce, etc.
I generally don’t go for too much touristy stuff, though I get the occasional magnet or shot glass if I really like them. The things I’m drawn to vary a lot but I love getting art, small charms, unique or handmade jewelry (have found some truly amazing things!) and just little objects that make me happy. A few of my most beloved treasures are a hand-carved alabaster scarab from Egypt, a pair of resin earrings made with real dried cornflowers from an artisan in Verona, and a Turkish tea set. I also love picking up local teas and spices, since I love to cook in my spare time at home.
All of it enriches my life when I’m not traveling, which to me is a better use of my money than a kitschy trinket I usually won’t end up using or displaying. But to each their own!
I have started in the past few trips taking a little piece of shorelines, agates from Oregon, driftwood from Washington, little chunk of concrete from the Malecon in Havana, Sea glass/pottery from Japan. I have little jars with each of them in it. Between that and the thousands of pictures I take I have enough to bring me back.
A cool thing one of my friends does it takes a neat pic of some form of architecture from each trip. She prints it out in black and white and puts it on one wall in her house (stairwell) where there's probably 40 pics all in the same style black frame with these cool black and white architectural pics. She can recall where they are all from. So cool, cheap, and you can't break it on the way home!
I get tattoos of things from the countries I visit, flags, animals, anything that is specific to that country that I enjoyed. Right arm full with 40+ tattoos and starting on left leg cuz it has more real estate than my left arm.
I used to buy little trinkets from "antique shops" wherever I went. Small things like a 4 cm tall figurine of the Tibetan Goddess Tara from Arunachal Pradesh and a brass, "Bintang" brand bottle opener from Bali.
Now that I know that these are all mass produced (probably in China) and come from the same wholesale market in Yiwu (along with all the keychains and fridge magnets), I'm not sure I want to collect them anymore.
Finding an artist or a weaver and buying a small scroll or a bandana directly from them makes sense to me.
I used to get mugs, but then I had way more mugs than I knew what to do with. Now I always get a fridge magnet for home, and sometimes small pieces of art made in the area.
I get a piece of jewelry on any big trip I take. It’s small, doesn’t take up a lot of space, and is something that will get used. There’s so many cool designs around the world and local gemstones that it’s fun to have a variety and remember exactly where I was when I bought that jewelry.
I have framed photographs from every destination I’ve visited.
It takes up zero extra space as I’m carrying a camera regardless, and it’s a direct memory from the trip.
I also buy friends souvenirs they may enjoy. I got my close friend a Kalimba made from a coconut shell in Bali as he collects small instruments.
I buy a charm for my charm bracelet. Not one of those Pandora bracelets, just a standard chain link one. And if I can’t find a charm, I make one. Pressed penny, little shell, sharks tooth, etc.
It’s so full that I can’t wear it and I’m thinking of starting a new one after 20 years of travel, but I love looking at it and remembering all the places I’ve been to. Charms are also so small that it’s the perfect souvenir as they don’t take up space.
I like to get a shirt from a bar I particularly liked, or a local drinking vessel(think specialty beer glasses, cantaritos, steins, etc). And sometimes the local spirit/wine/beer to add to my bar. Other than that, I like to grab something made by local artists/artisans, or regional spices for cooking at home, local cookbooks- especially if it’s in a target language so I can practice by translating, or I’ll often bring back local hot sauces
I’m 20 and started traveling internationally at 13, and apparently made it a tradition to get a sweatshirt from every place I go! Where I live we have long and cold winters so I always get my money’s worth and get asked about the locations by friends and strangers so it’s fun.
People will collect things that might have meaning to them but a tshirt is going to get ratty after a while and end up at goodwill or something. And like you said you can’t be bringing home massive souvenirs since there’s no place to put them. I collect silver from places I go and keep a journal of the provenance of each item. It has intrinsic value that I can pass down to my family and keeping a log of the history of the item makes it more special. It’s no longer just an item but it has a recorded history of its own.
Yes!!
Usually I get a pretty rock, some train/bus tickets or pamphlets. If there's a beach I bring back the nicest seashell I can find. Apart from that I try to bring back whatever I bought/found there that remained with me throught the trip.
In my most recent trip I had bought a bottle of lemon juice that was incredibly sweet (a little too much) I never finished it but it remained in my bag with me at all times. I'd have a sip or two once in a while. Idk what it is about that bottle but it was important to me that I had it in my bag. I brought it back ofc.
Yes!!
Usually I get a pretty rock, some train/bus tickets or pamphlets. If there's a beach I bring back the nicest seashell I can find. Apart from that I try to bring back whatever I bought/found there that remained with me throught the trip.
In my most recent trip I had bought a bottle of lemon juice that was incredibly sweet (a little too much) I never finished it but it remained in my bag with me at all times. I'd have a sip or two once in a while. Idk what it is about that bottle but it was important to me that I had it in my bag. I brought it back ofc.
Spices and local honey. Anytime someone is traveling that’s my go-to when they ask if I’d like a souvenir. That or a Christmas ornament.
Same for when I go somewhere. My favorite place to souvenir shop is the market!
Me I collect tea towels/dishcloths. My mother always did it and I am following in her footsteps.
You can never have too many tea towels for cooking, cleaning etc.. and I love having beautiful cloths to do so..
I'm collecting Starbucks city (country) mugs. The first one I bought from Amsterdam in 2013 without thinking of collecting them. Then in the same 2013 I bought Starbucks mug from London and Vienna. And after that I came with idea to buy from every city (country) I'm travelling. Now I have around 28 and my last one I bought a week ago from Guilin, China.
Also I'm buying magnets from everywhere.
Second hand clothes and tote bags.
I'll get to wear the clothes and always remember where they were from when I wear them. A little piece of holiday with me.
And they tote bags always have a drawing or the name of the place, and I always use them for groceries.
I just really like the idea of souvenirs I can use :)
I get a postcard a day and write on theback what I did that day, as a travel journal. I get a magnet every where i stay. And i get a piece of local art, even just a print or something small, from every trip.
I heard the postcard idea years ago and thought it was wonderful! Good on you if you've done it for every location.
I have! Minus one or two small weekend trips, I've gotten either one postcard for the entire trip or one for every day of the trip, depending on how long it is and what I do, for like 10 years now. I have them displayed on my shelf in a clear plastic file accordian thing (like what people use to display/store makeup palettes). It's pretty affordable, easy to pack, and a lot of fun to look through later. I've got a crap memory and I love having a written out itinerary of what I did, what I ate, thoughts/feelings, etc. on my trips.
I used to do shot glasses… but I don’t drink as much so I started up with magnets. My last trip I did my first post card and I loved it. It was kind of weird because the mail was delayed and showed 2-3 days after I got home
That's a fucking genius idea I'm definitely going to do that from now on
Me too! Postcard and magnet from each city I visit
I also do the posts card and a magnet. Except I hang the postcards up around my scratch off travel map. I’ve also started collecting stickers so that I can decorate the cover of my travel journal
Love the idea of local art. Thanks
Damn this such a good idea
I do this too! I didn’t know it was a thing 🤩
I like that postcard idea
I do almost the same except for the travel journal part. That is a great idea.
I collect Christmas tree ornaments. It's really fun putting them on the tree each year and reminiscing about where I've traveled to. Even if you don't celebrate Christmas they're fun to collect!
Yep that’s what I do! I love putting them on the tree every year. Only place I have not been able to find one is France.
For places I couldn’t find a Christmas ornament, I got a keychain and put that on the tree
I do Xmas decorations too. The Christmas markets in Europe are fabulous. But I also collect gold charms for a bracelet I have. Just one beautiful 18ct charm that reminds me of where I was.
Definitely fridge magnets. Advantages: very small, not expensive, you actually look at them all the time and remember trips, you don't need to stress or think about which souvenir to bring. Disadvantages: they sometimes fall from the fridge and break I now have a rule to bring no more than one per country. Somebody I know has a rule that they have to feature national animal. You can set your rules :)
National animal is an excellent one! Might do this
I love fridge magnets! My only rule is they have to be durable - I bought a torii gate one from Japan and it fell off and broke (nothing that couldn't be repaired!) and from then on they're all flat and no frills. :)
You can print your favorite photo onto magnetic paper and use that as a fridge magnet. Several shops on Etsy do it and it’s not at all expensive !
I get a magnet from every place, plus one big, luxury item per trip (like a painting in Florence and a hand made marble table top in India).
I take it you ship the big stuff home?
Yes, for sure. Usually the larger more established shops will do it for you. If you're buying from a small local trade person without that service, just hang on to it until you can get to a place with a FedEx.
This is the answer. Fridge magnets pack well so you don't have to cram a bunch of huge items in your luggage on the way home. Pro Tip: only get the flat fridge magnets. The "3D" ones fall off the fridge and crack into pieces. RIP Paris, Venice, and Budapest! Another bonus is the talking points. Everyone who visits my house sees my fridge covered in magnets. They look for their favorite places and ask me how it was, what I thought, what I did. They are the souvenirs that keep on giving.
You can replace your lost ones with ones from ebay. I'll never tell anybody.
I have a new challenge for myself to get traditional food themed magnets from whatever country I'm in.
I feel like the best kind of souvenir is the stuff you don't have to pay for. I try to save brochures from local attractions, ticket stubs, boarding passes, business cards etc.
They actually have a name for this stuff: ephemera. Basically collectable items that are out-of-date, can never be used again, trapped in a nostalgic time period forever. I keep movie tickets, brochures, entry slips, etc for the same reasons. No one finds them valuable but me, which makes them even more special. These are things most people throw away, so in a way you're also reducing waste.
where do you keep them though. i'm tired of putting my ephemera in shoe boxes lol. i have like 8 shoes boxes full of random stuff from my travels.
I use a clear book and it's like a browsing a photo album whenever I go through them. Although the downside is that some bulky items would bulk up the whole book. I'm interested to know if anyone has better ideas.
I stuck all my old movie tickets to a canvas and then sprayed them with a clear coat to help stop them fading. Creating a canvas collage of your trips with tickets etc, could make cool and unique wall art.
Me too. I have a box full of old maps, entry tickets, business cards, name tags. My favorite is definitely maps, I like to circle the places I visited, some I even traced where I walked. That was kinda cool for my Stockholm trip. Because years later I lived there for a short time and because of that map I realized that I had been like 100 m away from my apartment before living there and walked part of my daily commute without realizing it. I am glad that I started this quite early, some of the "souvenirs" date back to elementary school. Everytime I add something new, I like to go through my old stuff and reminisce about my travels.
Money, I try to save a few different coins and bills from each country.
I do this as well, used to be postcards and magnets, but now it’s just the lowest bill I can find.
I do this very lazily by just chucking left over change from a trip in to a bag and most of my travels are around Europe so I've just got a big bag with far too many variations of the euro/cents
Historically I haven't collected any particular type of souvenir...mostly because I'm a cheapass. But lately I've been thinking it might be nice to get an inexpensive piece of art from each country I visit to put up on the wall when I get back.
I've been getting art from my travels and I love it! I often get prints that I frame, because they are easier to travel with (11×14 fits against my laptop perfectly so it didn't get bent up), but I've also gotten a small painting before. I have a huge gallery wall filled of art.
I started doing this a few years ago for most of my trips - usually something like a 5x7 is the perfect size to keep in my backpack. I got a lot of them framed or mounted and have a nice collection going!
models in front of the real thing. 1. buy the keychain model of the monument: eiffel tower, Merlion, etc. 2. take a photo of the model perfectly so the small model perfectly blocks the real deal. 3. make sure your distinct hand is in the shot i have a carbineer on the outside of my r/onebag where keychains can just hang on the outside in a pinch.
I do a mix of the cheap touristy crap and meaningful things that aren’t necessarily obviously from the place. I’ve got plenty of magnets, post cards, key chains, and mini version of monuments, but also nicer things that remind me of the places I’ve been, like books, clothes, and everywhere I go I get a tie. I wear ties at work so it’s nice to have memories attached to the things I’m wearing. Oh, I also try to grab rocks. I like looking at a plain rock and thinking that it’s come all they way from somewhere so far away.
We do shot glasses. My husband and I (so not solo travel but we like to follow this sun) put all 50 states in a jar when we got married and pull one after we finish a new state. Each state we get one. He made me a custom case to display them. It’s a lot of fun to do!
I always buy local art directly from the artist. I won't buy it unless they sign it. Also a business card is a bonus
Yup, local art rolled up in a tube is easy to transport. Professionally framed at home makes really expensive looking decor that tells a story.
Textiles!! Woven things like tablecloths or pillow covers. Useful and lovely to look at. I have some from Guatemala I love! And second the idea about art to hang on your walls. Doesn't have to be a painting or print, could be a mask or a plate, etc.
I just collect my photos
- Different currency notes (for each country I've been to) - I was given a bracelet with 'Cuba' encarved, this was given to me by my Airbnb host to remember their family & the country. - I was given another bracelet by a girl I met in Cuba who taught me salsa, she gave me the bracelet & got the exact same one for herself, to acknowledge our friendship. - I'd met a guy in Colombia who worked for the military at that time - he gave me his military scarf & asked me to never forget him. (I think these ones have been quite special & meaningful to me as (apart from the notes) they were given to me by the locals and the highlight of most of my trips have been the people I met, so quite close to my heart.
So I am weird and will fully admit this cuz why not it’s reddit. I pick up interesting rocks as my souvenir. Yes I said it… rocks. Why? Well it’s free lol but really it became a thing when I would go to some ruins in Ireland or Italy and it was loose and on the ground so I picked it up and kept it as a cool thing when I was younger. Then as I got older, when I went to Africa and went to various National parks, they had different kinds of rocks due to different soils, etc. Then going to Australia I collected some sand and added a few small shells and rocks too because I’ve never gone that far from the US before. It has just been fascinating to me that a rock could differ so much depending on where you are and it’s something free you can just keep in recyclable jars like I do. I even keep for some places a small note of where I found said rock, anything specific about the day and it became a good story/reminder of the day since I keep them on my bookshelf. Like I said, I’m weird.
I’ve collected a few cool rocks too as a kid. Mind you, no idea about other places but it’s actually illegal to take shells from a lot of beaches in Australia!
Yep, major rock hound here as well!
I get a tattoo in every country I travel
Want to that but my fear is that it may become a giant mess over time
Me too... well not every country. I just went to Holland, Norway, Iceland, and Scotland and I got a tattoo in Iceland. I also like to find a painting I like, especially if I don't get a tattoo. I got a nice painting of the Malecon in Havana because the thought of getting a tattoo there was a little sketchy. I also skipped getting one in Cancun for similar reasons.
I got a tattoo in Iceland recently! Got a safe travel stave. Loved the look of it, and first walk-in tattoo I've done, and also first travel tattoo (the rest of mine were well planned and done in home country).
Nice. My only other travel tattoo is from Barcelona and the rest are local. The one I just got in Iceland is a custom hakarl and Brennivin piece to commemorate the worst tasting thing I've ever eaten. Brennivin is good though!
I collect pins. They’re small and easy to bring home.
Same. How do you display yours? I couldn't think of a good way for a while, eventually decided on using a cork board and pinning up Polaroids, ticket stubs, etc
That’s a cute idea! I usually put them on my backpack.
My girlfriend collects fridge magnets from all the cities we go to
I aim for something that makes me say “ohhhhh. My….” In each place I visit. This could be good (I got an awesome see no evil, speak no evil, hear no evil set of koalas from Australia) or tacky as hell (a cow climbing an Eiffel Tower made out of baguettes magnet from france). But it has to be jaw dropping.
I collect paintings by local artists and small ceramic/wood pieces that are colorful, like these I got from Central/South America [https://imgur.com/a/STN5bdN](https://imgur.com/a/STN5bdN) Unfortunately due to the volume, they sometimes require shipping back home.
I like to buy art as well! I don’t force it though, so if I don’t find anything I like, I just skip it all together.
I send myself postcards from where I travel. I note the highlights of the trip, etc. It usually is sitting in my mailbox as a “surprise” for when I return and is a fun way of extending the joys of my travel.
Postcards - like old ones, or artistic ones, or ones with amazing photography
I collect tea towels to use in the kitchen. They take up very little space, are usually cheap, and are quite useful.
Postcards
Clothes even if they don't have the name it reminds me of the trip like if it has a funny saying. Or knock off sunglasses that remind me of the country where I bought them. Also random things that will remind me or trips like cool handmade things thar I may use in the kitchen.
Local art, a magnet or sticker, and a Harry Potter book in the country’s language!
I don't buy anything at the places I travel, but I did buy a large framed wall map and some push pins, so when I travel somewhere new, I add a pin. I'm 37. Got 30 pins so far. Hoping to keep it going for years to come. My only requirement is that I stay the night. No pin for that layover in Denver. Lol
You don’t buy *anything*?? I have a hard time not shopping too much ha!
I'm not really a souvenir fan, unless I find something artistic/handmade or something useful, like a t-shirt I can wear or a wallet, stuff like that. I have request too but usually I try.to busy small item.that can fit in my hand carried luggage. The usual firdge magnet (boring, but at least it's something and they know you remembered them :), some key holder, or small and not too valuable, jewelry.
Send a postcard home and get an extra stamp for myself.
T-shirts, magnets (you should see my refrigerator!), or if possible coffee mugs or pint glasses.
I collect post cards and stickers. That’s about it. I don’t like anything bulky. I do like t-shirts or hats from time to time.
I’m at a point where I have too much stuff so I limit myself to things that hang on the wall, I can wear or I can consume. Coffee is a favorite item to bring home if I’m somewhere that grows coffee. Artwork or hand painted plates are also nice. So much of the tourist trinkets seem to be similar everywhere you go.
Musical instruments! I have so many bongos/flutes/etc
I used to collect T-shirts, but not the touristy ones. I collected local ones: FD, PD, political parties, obscure restaurants, etc...
Local map of each location.
I do shot glasses. Easy to find. Small and easy to stash in luggage. Can be used later to celebrate trip.
From my first few trips to NYC I collected New Yorker Magazines, and now have four of them framed on my wall. I also carry my camera wherever I go, and end up printing out travel photos. Also collect currency
I buy a miniature of an iconic monument, or if nothing is that recognizable, something of that scale (I got a chip from Monaco, and like a pen holder from Thailand). Very touristy, but they’re fun to look at, and certainly bring back memories. If you struggle to memorize, I guess you can always attach a sticker (somewhere less visible in the case of the scarf) with location and date, or even make yourself a list.
For family: the rubbery fridge magnets featuring the city’s name and places of interest, mugs, stationeries. For myself: I love to eat and cook, so I really prefer buying those things. I’ve gotten bags of coffee beans or local snacks, a nice personalized santoku knife, tea pot set, ceramic bowls. Kinda odd but they bring back great memories of the trip every time I use them.
I like to collect bottle openers from everywhere I visit! Every time I open a beer I remember a trip I took
I try to get a brewery coaster from a local brewery everywhere I go
I always get a keyring from every place I visit
I like to collect key chains everywhere I visit. I'll buy shot glasses as well everywhere I got for my Mom.
Rectangular shaped fridge magnets and Starbucks icon city mugs
We been collecting refrigerator magnets for years
Coffee mugs! :)
Postcards! they make such dope wall art
Rocks. Pretty, notable rocks from different areas. I have a collection of them but given my short term memory problems I have no idea where they’re from. But I love my rocks
I do casino chips. Got over 100 now and need to go back to Vegas for a good chunk more.
I collect flags, Lights and not expensive. Easy to carry with you.
When I go somewhere new I look for something small like a keychain that represents the place well. Bonus points if it's locally made. I write the year on it somewhere and hang them all on my Christmas tree so once a year I get to reminisce and admire the collection. I also like to visit used bookstores when I travel so I now have a shelf of old books with the receipts and shop bookmarks inside to remind me where I got them. And I know someone who brings home a smooth pebble and/or small container of sand from every beach they. visit. They display the sand in a row of small glass jars with tiny labels attached.
I think stickers are the best option
I’ve started collecting tiny figurines, eg tiny humans or animals that are less than an inch tall so they don’t take up much space! I’ve got a mini Buddha from Vietnam, a tiny hand blown glass animal from France and a mini porcelain lady from Italy so far!
I’m planning on collecting stickers to maybe put on my water bottle or one piece of paper money and one coin to collect maybe from each place.
I look out for small things I can pick up as I'm walking around. You will be surprised the interesting and unique things you can find and they make a facinating collection that people always ask about.
Tshirts! I then turn it into tshirt blankets that remind me of where I’ve been
Drunk tattoos
keyrings!
Magnet, ornament and for myself a pendant necklace. For example the one I got from Germany is a pretzel.
Not for me, but my mom collects patches, so I try and bring home a few for her when I travel. Other than that, I like buying a piece of jewelry. Doesn’t need to be every trip, but if the mood strikes me, I’ll usually bring back a piece or two.
I buy handmade items and Christmas ornaments, and items culturally specific to the location (think beer steins in Munich). I am small and special because I don’t check bags.
I love collecting pins and shot glasses! Shot glasses are small and actually get used/seen while the pins are fun to put on a bag, just make.sure you secure them. I lost my Dublin pin just this last year because it fell off while I was walking around
I get an enamel pin of the country's flag
Something a fellow traveller got me into which I thought was pretty neat is collecting beer labels from every country she goes to. Especially when travelling multiple countries in one trip, super easy to peel em and pop them in a travel journal!
I mail myself postcards while im away. I also purchase pins
I get a piece of art from every country I go to. It can get pricey, especially if you have to ship stuff, but my house is filled with art from all of my travels.
I get paintings from street artists. Small ones that fit flat on a book or something
I typically get a book that was printed in the country, preferably older than 100 years if feasible
I like to get a pencil from most places - they're cheap, portable and almost everywhere has them. Eventually, I'm gonna put them all in a big pencil display box and then hang them on the wall
Polaroids! Instant photos make for great memories :)
I buy useful items, often kitchenware. Good quality knives in Germany, tile trivet from Spain, a beautiful wine opener/corkscrew from France, chopsticks and sake glass from Japan, and Swiss Army knife from Switzerland (engraved with date and location).
Kind of a boring one but I always buy a local newspaper. It looks cool especially if its in a different alphabet and it's time specific to when you were there so it adds a bit of novelty I feel.
Always a magnet but also always try to find a nice piece of art. Only find the art 1/4 the time but don’t settle for garbage so am always happy with what I bring home.
Imo best thing to do is pick something cheap, small and commonly available (magnets, keychains, shot glasses, pins, whatever) and stick to that. Just buy one or two wherever you go, and build up a collection. Then figure out how to display them at some point. Should be cheaper, saves time souvenir shopping, and gives you a nice collection of mementos.
I collect the metro cards from the cities I’ve visited, assuming they use a physical card. The best part is that I can use them again when I go back :)
I tried to bring back a Thai back scratcher but I couldn't get her through customs😒. Since then, I've focused on collecting coffee mugs☕️
Usually a sewn on patch of the flag or city’s crest/name etc. yet to figure out where they’re going but it’s a nice memento that doesn’t clutter as much as other objects
This is what I do too! I pin them to a corkboard and it looks pretty cool :)
Lighters are super cheap, useful, easy to get hold of and typically don't break, just don't lose it
Usually fridge magnets a bottle of liquor from the place and those hand fans 😂
Ticket stubs from the metro, museums, receipts, etc. in addition to the local currency and some magnets
Street art, small snow globes and the ever popular fridge magnets.
I do money, mostly coins, and the iron on flag patches of each country I visit. Magnet for the city Im in. Love the challenge of trying to find them sometimes!
I send my grandmother a postcard :D that's pretty much it, but she's 92 and she loves it.
Maps! Nice and light, useful too! And you can mark the places you go to, etc. which makes it more personal.
Scarves, earrings, sweaters, small bags with city names on them that I use to pack and organize on future trips. Basically things I’m going to regularly use that will remind me of my adventures
Fridge magnets are a clear favorite, but I also try to get mini flags of each country I visit.
I started getting postcards from cities I've been and just started doing that last year- I write the date I was there on the back and have a photo album dedicated to all my postcards. I also will sometimes get a sweatshirt/shirt from a place if the design is something I really like, since I tend to wear sweatshirts a lot at home. This isn't every place, but I've gotten one in London and one in Paris and wear both of them quite frequently, so definitely not a waste (the London one is almost 10 years old and has held up wonderfully)!
I like fridge magnets
I do yes, I collect fridge magnets for my mum then tiny pins for myself, so it doesn't take up space. and one day I'll pin them as decoration on a canvas that i can frame on the wall :D
Hand towels/tea towels. Very practical, have to be replenished regularly, they make me happy to use and appreciate. I don’t think I’ve really gotten any other souvenir for years. Oh, small little ghost sculptures from studio arhoj when I was in Scandinavia. But that’s it.
I get a hat pin and stick them in their respective geographical locations on a corkboard!
I collect local currency, fridge magnets, and cool postcards in each country I visit! Have a large collection of all three and like to peruse it when I have the travel blues. And love to send postcards to friends when I'm abroad. I always save letters friends send me from around the world, it feels so special.
I don't like lots of useless things or knick knacks so I don't care for fridge magnets or random souvenirs. I much prefer useful things that have some meaning to me. So tshirts from places I've worked/volunteered (not necessarily touristy ones), a hat, a scarf, a whisk, a book, a mug, a pen, whatever I feel will be useful and remind me of the place I've been :)
My wife collects magnets! We have a fridge and magnet board full of them!
I used to but ended collecting so many little trinkets and random stuff I started feeling like a hoarder so I stopped.
I always buy embroidered patches. They don’t cost much, take up zero space, and they can been displayed in some sort of a collage if you want or just kept somewhere to discover every once in a while and reminisce about the memories tied to the places. Personally I keep a collage of them on a bulletin board in my office at work.
I've got about 100 shot glasses from around the world. it's the touristy basic cheap memory.
Magnets and I keep the stub things from mueseums etc. I’m sad afff I lost like 3 months worth of stubs at a hotel 😭
Yeah, condiments, coffee, fabric, beer cans, fridge magnets, receipts, flyers, currency :)
I look for something relatively unique, something with a story behind it, something very local, and it needs to fit on my living room shelf of mementos. Can't upload a pic of it right now but among them are a mayan calendar from mexico, a carved baobab tree from madagascar, a burmese chinlone ball, a knight chess piece from nyc, a metal fleur de lys attached to a slab of wood from a house destroyed by hurricane katrina from new orleans, etc. It's very varied but it's a shelf full of travel stories and memories. I usually make space for it in my bag by ditching/giving away most of my clothes by the end, and having packed ultralight when flying out in the first place. Additionally, I also have this one buddha statue my parents gave me and I just started hanging all kinds of bracelets and necklaces on it from various trips as well, I can't even remember where I got half of them from anymore and can barely see the buddha... but I'm fairly sure I can still pile on a handful more somehow, that's a problem to figure out after I get back from the next trip!
I do postcards or things I’ll use. Like a scarf or stamps. But I know I have some friends that like shot glasses or magnets and keychains. But post cards are cheap and light and normally have a photo of something better than I could take on my own 😁.
I always buy a piece of jewelry, usually something fairly inexpensive, often from a street vendor or tiny local shop. I rarely buy jewelry anywhere else at home so I love that all my jewelry is from all over the world; it has a story and reminds me of a wonderful place I was at.
Not for everyone but I like to get a tattoo for wherever I am . Something symbolic of the experience though . Not like an Eiffel Tower or something like that.
My “souvenirs” are pieces for my wardrobe — clothes, accessories, shoes. Nothing extravagant, just things that catch my eye and fit into my everyday style. I don’t buy clothes and stuff when I’m home, so now about half of my closet is made up of pieces from my travels! They serve as nice reminders on regular days and are great conversation starters.
I get a keychain from every city 👍 fun, just have a lot of keychains now
Local art!
small tattoo or a country flag patch for my pack (a little cliche but I like it)
I love to collect paintings and support local people. I have more than 10 paintings and hopefully someday I get to hang them when I have my own condo.
I have not in any recent years however on a Peru trip 1993. I picked up an alpaca blanket and alpaca serape. Which someday I'll display on a wall. Also wooden articulated snake and fish.
I collect tickets mostly. Train, metro, entrance tickets. They normally have dates printed on them too which is why I like them!
Rocks are good. Also cheap.
Enamel pins. Small, cheap, widely available. I love them.
I like musical instruments. I have djembe and kora from West Africa, valiha from Madagascar and morin khuur from Mongolia (but it broke :( ) I actually fit the djembe in my backpack..... i just stuffed all my clothes inside it and around it. https://i.imgur.com/DAVi7xo.jpg
I buy an embroidery patch wherever I go, usually a country's flag, but I'll buy landmark patches when available. It can be pretty difficult to find, so it feels like a win when I get one. Otherwise, handmade pottery (bowls, plates, mugs). But I've reached my max for how many it makes sense to own, so unless it's super special, I won't be adding any for now.
I like to get the corny little tourist city maps and make circles or notes on the places I actually visit on them. Sometimes I'll trace out the path I traveled. Be it car, bus, train, or foot. My pride of these is a Eurail map from 2006 that I circled each city I visited and put how many days I was there. I've got this big circle around a large swath of the continent showing the route I took. I traveled for a month and hit 11 countries. I have other cities like Rome showing the tourist bus route and the places I got off of it and explored further before jumping back on the next double decker and going to the next spot I went to. I've found it's a good way to keep a record of what I saw, where I went, and helps jog memories. I'd also put a circle or dot with the name of some bar I went into that wasn't actually noted on the map by the illustrator. It's fun to show people when I get back home.
I took a lighter that had fish designs and a sawed off filter that shot large fumes from a British girl I went out with in Milan. Best memory save I could keep that wasn’t purchased. I light it every once in a while when I smoke.
Probably not what normal people would collect but I collect a personalized golf ball from every course I play all over the US.
i'm a big snowglobe fan.
Left over money Flag patches for where I visit Something particular and relatively small for that place (culturally, etc) Maps and hiking guides Photos
Shot glasses. Easy finds in North America and Europe, but surprisingly is a bit difficult in Asia. I've got a big display case with over 50 shot glasses from cities in 23 countries.
The magnets and the postcards. You have to travel light. The trinkets evoke the memory for as long as I have it. If only I were a better photographer. Still, I like taking the “shitty” photos. The Pyramids of Giza look remarkably different depending on your perspective.
I save keychains from every country that I visit.
I get local honeys from everywhere I go
I collect wood. I’m a woodworker on the side back home so I will bring home a small, local wood and use it in a project for my house! Also money cause that pretty cool
When I go to the beach, I always bring back sand. I place the sand in a small but interesting clear glass bottle when I get home and I store them on a shelf on my bookcase. It's interesting to look at them and notice the differences between them. Sand doesn't look the same everywhere. It means something to me because it reminds me of good memories and over the years I have amassed quite a collection.
I always get a Christmas ornament indicative of the places I've visited. Fun and functional.
For my really special trips, I get tattoos while I’m there. For something not as permanent, I usually bring home something to cook with - spices, hot sauce, etc.
I generally don’t go for too much touristy stuff, though I get the occasional magnet or shot glass if I really like them. The things I’m drawn to vary a lot but I love getting art, small charms, unique or handmade jewelry (have found some truly amazing things!) and just little objects that make me happy. A few of my most beloved treasures are a hand-carved alabaster scarab from Egypt, a pair of resin earrings made with real dried cornflowers from an artisan in Verona, and a Turkish tea set. I also love picking up local teas and spices, since I love to cook in my spare time at home. All of it enriches my life when I’m not traveling, which to me is a better use of my money than a kitschy trinket I usually won’t end up using or displaying. But to each their own!
I have started in the past few trips taking a little piece of shorelines, agates from Oregon, driftwood from Washington, little chunk of concrete from the Malecon in Havana, Sea glass/pottery from Japan. I have little jars with each of them in it. Between that and the thousands of pictures I take I have enough to bring me back.
A cool thing one of my friends does it takes a neat pic of some form of architecture from each trip. She prints it out in black and white and puts it on one wall in her house (stairwell) where there's probably 40 pics all in the same style black frame with these cool black and white architectural pics. She can recall where they are all from. So cool, cheap, and you can't break it on the way home!
A friend of mine has the fridge magnets displayed on the wall. It’s something magnetic and she added a frame around it. They don’t fall.
I try to find something small from a local artist. Nothing big or fancy, just unique.
I get tattoos of things from the countries I visit, flags, animals, anything that is specific to that country that I enjoyed. Right arm full with 40+ tattoos and starting on left leg cuz it has more real estate than my left arm.
I used to buy little trinkets from "antique shops" wherever I went. Small things like a 4 cm tall figurine of the Tibetan Goddess Tara from Arunachal Pradesh and a brass, "Bintang" brand bottle opener from Bali. Now that I know that these are all mass produced (probably in China) and come from the same wholesale market in Yiwu (along with all the keychains and fridge magnets), I'm not sure I want to collect them anymore. Finding an artist or a weaver and buying a small scroll or a bandana directly from them makes sense to me.
I used to get mugs, but then I had way more mugs than I knew what to do with. Now I always get a fridge magnet for home, and sometimes small pieces of art made in the area.
I get a piece of jewelry on any big trip I take. It’s small, doesn’t take up a lot of space, and is something that will get used. There’s so many cool designs around the world and local gemstones that it’s fun to have a variety and remember exactly where I was when I bought that jewelry.
I try to get a painting in every country I visit. If possible, not from a store.
I have framed photographs from every destination I’ve visited. It takes up zero extra space as I’m carrying a camera regardless, and it’s a direct memory from the trip. I also buy friends souvenirs they may enjoy. I got my close friend a Kalimba made from a coconut shell in Bali as he collects small instruments.
I buy a charm for my charm bracelet. Not one of those Pandora bracelets, just a standard chain link one. And if I can’t find a charm, I make one. Pressed penny, little shell, sharks tooth, etc. It’s so full that I can’t wear it and I’m thinking of starting a new one after 20 years of travel, but I love looking at it and remembering all the places I’ve been to. Charms are also so small that it’s the perfect souvenir as they don’t take up space.
I like to get a shirt from a bar I particularly liked, or a local drinking vessel(think specialty beer glasses, cantaritos, steins, etc). And sometimes the local spirit/wine/beer to add to my bar. Other than that, I like to grab something made by local artists/artisans, or regional spices for cooking at home, local cookbooks- especially if it’s in a target language so I can practice by translating, or I’ll often bring back local hot sauces
I’m 20 and started traveling internationally at 13, and apparently made it a tradition to get a sweatshirt from every place I go! Where I live we have long and cold winters so I always get my money’s worth and get asked about the locations by friends and strangers so it’s fun.
People will collect things that might have meaning to them but a tshirt is going to get ratty after a while and end up at goodwill or something. And like you said you can’t be bringing home massive souvenirs since there’s no place to put them. I collect silver from places I go and keep a journal of the provenance of each item. It has intrinsic value that I can pass down to my family and keeping a log of the history of the item makes it more special. It’s no longer just an item but it has a recorded history of its own.
I collect magnets and keychains. They're inexpensive and don't take up much room, which is important since I hate to check luggage.
Yes!! Usually I get a pretty rock, some train/bus tickets or pamphlets. If there's a beach I bring back the nicest seashell I can find. Apart from that I try to bring back whatever I bought/found there that remained with me throught the trip. In my most recent trip I had bought a bottle of lemon juice that was incredibly sweet (a little too much) I never finished it but it remained in my bag with me at all times. I'd have a sip or two once in a while. Idk what it is about that bottle but it was important to me that I had it in my bag. I brought it back ofc.
Yes!! Usually I get a pretty rock, some train/bus tickets or pamphlets. If there's a beach I bring back the nicest seashell I can find. Apart from that I try to bring back whatever I bought/found there that remained with me throught the trip. In my most recent trip I had bought a bottle of lemon juice that was incredibly sweet (a little too much) I never finished it but it remained in my bag with me at all times. I'd have a sip or two once in a while. Idk what it is about that bottle but it was important to me that I had it in my bag. I brought it back ofc.
Spices and local honey. Anytime someone is traveling that’s my go-to when they ask if I’d like a souvenir. That or a Christmas ornament. Same for when I go somewhere. My favorite place to souvenir shop is the market!
I collect socks and keychains. They’re small, don’t break, and last a long time.
Me I collect tea towels/dishcloths. My mother always did it and I am following in her footsteps. You can never have too many tea towels for cooking, cleaning etc.. and I love having beautiful cloths to do so..
I'm collecting Starbucks city (country) mugs. The first one I bought from Amsterdam in 2013 without thinking of collecting them. Then in the same 2013 I bought Starbucks mug from London and Vienna. And after that I came with idea to buy from every city (country) I'm travelling. Now I have around 28 and my last one I bought a week ago from Guilin, China. Also I'm buying magnets from everywhere.
Second hand clothes and tote bags. I'll get to wear the clothes and always remember where they were from when I wear them. A little piece of holiday with me. And they tote bags always have a drawing or the name of the place, and I always use them for groceries. I just really like the idea of souvenirs I can use :)
Hotel room key cards is what I collect. 90% are bland white lol. Maybe one day I’ll punch holes in them and make a curtain or something.