Wine bottle opener that says NY or Boston. Or beer bottle opener with the same. For kids and teens - they love hats and t-shirts… same- NY or Boston.
Yellow taxi or statue of liberty chatski from NY always works.
Yankee candles?
If you identify with the shore, go to the Christmas Tree Shops. They have lots of cool New England Stuff. You could get some good gifts there.
If the adults are from an area far from a European city, a Starbucks mug would be nice. They love Starbucks because of all the Hollywood influence.
Booze is really the best, but hard to transport, I get it.
Calendars are not good - they use weekdays starting on Monday, not Sunday. DVDs are no good because of national code locks, our region won’t play on their DVDs.
I kind of miss the days where everything wasn’t the same everywhere.
TV shows and movies show people walking around with the Starbucks cups! At first, I thought the OP was visiting family in Germany - not England. Most Europeans sit down for coffee. The “walking around with a to-go Starbucks cup” is not common across most of Europe, so the Starbucks cups are sought after. Its certainly not the superior coffee, in my opinion. That said, its more common to see people with take away coffee in Great Britain, so the OP’s mileage may vary.
We have done a lot of this with all the overseas exchanges my kids have done. Years ago I would visit British relatives. Starbucks mugs from your town or a nearby big city are well received. Tea towels are always used, and are a common gift in the U.K, though that might now be old fashioned at this point. Chocolate covered cherries or blueberries. Turtle type candies with pecans are very American. I took some French kids a selection of the most odd flavors of pop tarts (bacon maple?) which were appreciated, if nauseating to me. My town has a state historic society gift shop with unique items and regionally themed socks as well as those tea towels with local maps.
“The “walking around with a to-go Starbucks cup” is not common across most of Europe, so the Starbucks cups are sought after.”
I second that. We had a visitor from Germany who bought several such cups for her tweenaged grandkids. Visiting “THE” Starbucks at Pike Place was like visiting Mecca or something! She also bought Starbucks cups Christmas ornaments. Kind of like this:
I went to Ireland to vacation and to visit distant family and then over to Italy and I brought gifts from my region. For the Irish, a Native American flute which the hubby loves to play, some handmade beaded earrings from a boutique shop in a winery near my house for the wife and a dainty ceramic tea bag/ teaspoon holder made by a local artist. They loved how unique and meaningful each gift was and it was very small to pack. For the Italian Airbnb hosts, the same things minus the flute and the ladies were so thrilled!
P.S. as a joke, I considered bringing 2018 Hot Firefighters (American guys of course) calendars for the ladies, lol
A friend who’s tracked down and visited family abroad told me she brings photographs that fill in the blanks on family history. Eg, a common relative who emigrated, a pic from intervening years, in a light but pretty frame.
Have to say, our exchange student brought us two books about her home area and after we looked, that was that. They were more meaningful to her. I wouldn’t have wanted a mug from her local coffee spot. In fact, I didn’t expect anything. D’s college bff would bring us decorated wooden plates from vacations to her family home country. I only hung them in the kitchen to show our affection for her, since she visited us often. (Lol, still there, but the images are kinda creepy.)
It’s hard to second guess this. If I took a tea towel (and I do like these,) it would be pretty, first and foremost. There are pretty hand printed sorts, maybe a design of a local flower or sea/mountain view. Not a tourist thing or too specific with my city name or landmark buildings.
Alcohol, openers, etc depend on whether they drink. A specialty tea could be nice, if not available there. Maybe if it’s very local. I dunno, but say, Maine blueberry tea or something equally regional.
I think the idea is things they can enjoy. That’s why the right food products are “tried and true.”
Amazon carries the book “A Day in the Life of America” for about $45.
It’s a photo essay of a few hundred pictures of scenes all taken on the same day in 1980. It shows us at our best and our worst-- altruism and hunger and happiness and joy.
One more suggestion. Our visitors from England are always excited the first time they see a big yellow school bus! They are so iconic in American movies and tv. So, how about a little toy school bus? I did a quick google search, and there are some inexpensive ones with a built-in pencil sharpener.