Buying souvenirs is half the fun of traveling, isn’t it? Well, okay, maybe not half the fun… but who doesn’t love a good gift shop? We never turn down gift shops!
When you buy souvenirs, what do you most often buy? A magnet for your fridge? A new T-shirt? A local piece of art or a local food specialty? A tea towel for your kitchen? Something else?
If you select “other” from the poll options below, please leave a comment and tell us what you usually buy.
Oh, and in this poll, you can select up to TWO answers.
Shot glasses.
See on patches or stickers…it’s a matter of space. These can be placed in notebook/binders
Hiking stick medallions and lapel/hat pins. Small items.
Patches
Stickers for the teardrop, shot glasses for my son and socks or T shirts for my daughter.
I collect lapel pins. They are small and inexpensive, and I keep them in specialty pin binders so that I don’t lose them. I also collect lapel pins for things that don’t involve travel. For example, I have a lapel pin for almost all NASA manned space missions (just missing a few of the latest International Space Station expeditions). I also like Hard Rock pins, and I have a few Disney and Olympics pins.
I buy coffee cups from all the foreign locations I go to and some of the US locations.
And then decide in the morning which memory I’m sharing my coffee with today.
Diesel Fuel and Gasoline.
Heh. Good one.
Yep, then the memory of the location is on your credit card bill.
Magnets. Our refrig at home is the place we display the places we’ve been.
Second is alcohol from craft breweries and distilleries. They make unique gifts.
We get postcards and sometimes a magnet
Lapel pins. Good memory, takes up no space.
everywhere we travel we seek out local breweries, distilleries and wineries. We also collect stickers for our camping journal and occasionally a magnet.
Sew on patches. Queen size blanket covered and another 200 or so in a 12 x12 album
Shot glasses
I’ve bought charms for a traditional charm bracelet since I was very young. First charm was at Disney world grand opening. They are getting hard to find. And it’s to heavy to wear anymore. But it’s great to look back at the eiffel tower, dolphin, gondolas, graduation, etc.
Drink koozies
The kind that fold flat when you aren’t using them. I can keep quite a few in the camper then!
If I purchase souvenirs and if purchasing something it’s for the grandchildren. Got enough “stuff” as it is. I think the last items was a blanket 4 years back from the southwest. Not collecting anything did that over 45 years and still tossing.
I like to buy can cozys. They’re inexpensive, lightweight, don’t take up a lot of room, and I use them on my insulated cup. Unfortunately they’re not always available. I recently went on a trip, visited several national parks and came home empty-handed. Too bad because I would have bought several if they’d been available. Also charms for bracelets. I started one 58 years ago and now have 2 full ones. Unfortunately they’re hard to find anymore too. Although I have purchased a necklace and used the pendant. Listen up gift shops!
Hiking medallions that we put on a walking stick.
Many, many magnets and even more t- shirts. More than 5 coffee cups too
Shot glasses (or coffee cups) depending on where I/we are at!
Stickers. Mostly photos and memories.
Memories
Pasties!!! I live in Tennessee, and have become addicted to Letho’s Pasties from the Upper Peninsula of Michigan (also known as the Superior State). They are just outside St. Ignace. I get them frozen, and share with friends and family at home.
Uggh! Michigan pasties don’t even come close to the deliciousness of a properly made pastie. Everything on the inside should be soft & harmonious with all the other flavors making what is essentially a meat pie.
Honestly I think Michigan pasties (or any midwest pastie) were evolved so hungry populations in the past could be fed almost inedible vegetables when meat was scarce or hard to preserve.
Hah! See what I did there. Past-ies…
Patches representing each state and or tourist attraction
I too collect patches and sew them on 5x 5 squares. I have made two large quilts from these squares. Lately We have been traveling with our grandson so I have been sewing patches on his sweatshirts and fishing vest. We just completed a 6 weeks trip and I am having a hard time finding patches. Most places are now selling vinyl stickers and they are all the same
I enjoy sewing and quilting. I like to stop at quilt and fabric shops along the way and pick up a small cut of fabric.
Just curious, what’s a tea towel.
Tea towels are those dish towels that are really thin. They aren’t the terry cloth kind.
Pottery
”Local foods/spirits” never survive long enough to qualify as “souvenirs”. Yummy in the tummy!
It is a good thing you gave us the option of picking 2. My wife buys magnets every time they have one that has the place name or something that will universally identify the stop. I buy a T shirt at any place that A: Deserves some support, B: Has one that is at all interesting. They do wear out, but we have several decade old magnets on a USA map in our living room. Too many to fit on the map.
When my daughter’s T-shirts wear out, she gives them to her mother and she is now cutting out the logos and assembling them for a quilt.
I collect cloth patches from all parks and stickers. I put them in a scrapbook and have 5 volumes !
I chose art and clothing however by far the biggest souvenir that I buy is a book or two. I like to read history, I find that when visiting places of interest somewhere I can find a good book to read about the area and what happened and the people that it took to shape it long ago. The problem to this is that I now want to return. Currently reading in the shadow of Billy the Kid, it’s about the Lincoln County wars in New Mexico. More information than I ever learned in school!
I gave up collecting when I realized it was counter productive to down sizing.
Memories come from photographs and take up no space on my phone or the cloud (and they never go away).
My favorite souvenirs are medallions, tokens (including wooden nickels) and challenge coins. I’ll get a patch or decal if available. Magnets only if nothing else is available. All of these take up very little space and I also collect these items outside of our travels.
I said rarely, but hubby likes to buy Tshirts and if available I will buy a sticker to add to my door collection of where we’ve been.
Our souvenier purchases include jewelry for my wife, caps and t-shirts for me, coffee mugs, a few refrigerator magnets. Occasionally a metal sculpture relevant to our location.
We always look for a sticker that we can add to the collection on our trailer!
I usually buy a bookmark. It’s small and doesn’t take up much space, is practical, and it reminds me of where we’ve been.
I collect commemorative spoons.
I’ve been collecting Christmas ornaments since I was traveling for work and now traveling by motorhome for the last 25 yrs. I’ve also been given a few “location” ornaments as gifts. Every year when I decorate our tree I have a trip down memory lane. We were married in the Keys & when we return I make sure to buy a dated anniversary ornament. On our 10th anniversary we spent the night in Key West at the Casa Marina, a beautiful hotel and they had a beautiful large ball ornament with a hand painting of the hotel. Not a very smaltzy person, but love my ornaments.
After having to clear out my folks house after they passed, I quit collecting things. In fact I need to start getting rid of stuff so my son doesn’t have to go through what I went through with my folks stuff.
OMG Gary, been there, done that, doing that! We love things and stuff, but our daughter reminds us that she is the only kid and she doesn’t want to have to do what we did with our folks. No on the road knick knacks for us.
Shot glasses
We collect hat pins, or lapel pins. They are light, take little room and we put them on a cloth map that is hanging in the fifth wheel.
we USED to buy coffee mugs but, like Tribbles, they ended up being everywhere so we kept a few with special memories and gave the rest to Goodwill. now we either get our NPS “passport” stamped or i’ll pick up a lapel pin.
We are full-time in a 28 foot travel trailer so our rule is anything we buy must be wearable, consumable or a gift. If it’s wearable it has to replace another worn out sweatshirt, tee shirt, etc. So we have no room for souvenirs. Having said that, when I do replace a sweatshirt or tee shirt it is usually from some place we are hosting or visiting.
Special decals or patches
We are 8 year full timers and we started our journey we made 2 rules about “collecting”. If we can’t eat it,drink it or watch it we don’t get it and if we buy any form of clothing we have to get rid of something. Nothing in unless something out!
Most often it is a souvenir coffee mug or beer glass.
I usually buy books about the area or region, history, etc.
As we travel we buy magnets with the area name on it. We have so many, it takes a while when looking at them and remembering the fun times we had there that it becomes quite the meditation session. Good for the soul.
When I go out and about, I look for the ‘crushed penny’ machines. sometimes I’ll get 2 or 3, if I like the design. they don’t take up much room, and you can get booklets to hold them and organize them. I have crushed pennies from places like the Pentagon, from Kennedy Space Center, and a Cabela’s in Minnesota. they are usually 51 cents.
We are full-timers and I get magnets for my frig to remind us of the places we have been. We certainly don’t need any more stuff.
A baseball cap or T Shirt is usually what I end up with.
I put down Christmas ornaments. They are ornaments but not necessarily Christmas ones. Water themed (flamingos, fish, flamingos mermaids, flamingos sea horses, flamingos etc.) and we hang them all from the ceiling in our hot tub room in our bricks and mortar home
For us, T-shirts/sweat shirts, coffee mugs, refrigerator magnets sometimes.
Jig-saw puzzles from National Parks to put together at home and hang on the wall.
I buy post cards to show where we’ve been. I also buy extra to send to family and friends!
We buy koozies. They take up little space and after we settle down somewhere in the future, I plan to make Christmas ornaments out of them.
Shot glass of each state/country
Got a collection of hat pins from places we visit.
Pins for our walking sticks.
While I really don’t buy many souvenirs, if I visit a National or State Park, I like to get a small sticker to put on the trailer bumper.
Coffee Mugs
I occasionally buy pins depending on how large they are and how they can be worn on a ball cap. However my favorite, though not always found, are bookmarkers. I use them in books obviously but also to mark my place in office files. And they make great stocking stuffers for my granddaughters who love to read!
If we get anything it has to be really small, just a tiny reminder of where we went or what we did while there. T-shirts and mugs are absolutely forbidden!
Digital photos are preferred above all else since they store easily and all display on one screen. We are full-time in a motorhome already overflowing with stuff.
I purchase a coffee cup so each morning when I am home I remember a special place.
Patches
Sew on patches
easier to use fabric glue!!
Post cards
When I am at National Parks/Monuments, etc, I do the Jr Ranger booklet and get my earned badge or patch! I have a vest with them but with be getting a piece of fabric to hang them on my wall instead, as the vest is getting very heavy! I also, buy a pin of the area/park/state.
A hat, now that my hair is leaving without me…..
I collect shot glasses. Getting one from each state and of some site(s) that is significant.
Other than t-shirts, I collect logo’d golf balls from all the courses I play. Doesn’t take up too much space in my display cases when I get back home, so the wife is happy about that!
We have started collecting the hiking stick medallions from National Parks in addition to a shirt if they have a neat one.