<p>Oh, I forgot to mention, some of my most treasured souvenirs are my moleskine notebooks stuffed with ticket stubs, post cards, wine labels, even receipts. Get the sketchbook moleskines with fewer pages and heavier paper and bring a glue stick. Then just glue stuff into the pages without trying to be too cutesy or “scrapbook-y.” Make a few notes, but don’t try to create a perfect journal. Write a few words about people you meet. I promise you will treasure these later! </p>
<p>I’ve bought a lot of stuff from Mexico when I went to Cancun. I’m having a hard time finding places for it now in the garage. Possible give it away. I no longer buy anything, but I don’t pack anything either, I buy clothes when I get there. That is my souvenir.</p>
<p>My inlaws have beautiful pieces of art and sculpture they have purchased all over the globe. They buy quality pieces.
I like to buy things that are made in the country. I love textiles so often will buy table linens. I also like to buy bags. My favorite items are 2 Kikoy cloth bags from Kenya. I love the cotton and I use them almost daily as shopping bags. They remind me of my trip. It is also something I haven’t found at home.
In France I bought espradrille shoes for little money at the outdoor markets. They are something I love and also can’t get at home. </p>
<p>If I’m checking a bag, I’ll always bring back a nice bottle of wine-- gotta take advantage of your duty-free limit 
</p>
<p>I bring back inexpensive jewelry. Wearing it reminds me of the place I acquired it and what I did when I was there. For me it’s a way of extending the trip. Today I was wearing a Berber necklace from Morocco, silver earrings from Cambodia and a bracelet from Mexico.</p>
<p>I also get a Christmas ornament, or something that functions as one, from every country I visit. Our Xmas tree isn’t exactly designer but our kids love it. It’s a tradition that started when my H and I were on our honeymoon and I bought the first ornament for our first tree.</p>
<p>I like nottelling’s list. I to resist buying things simply to bring something back or because they’re typical of the area in which I’m traveling. I found long ago through unfortunate trial and error that the wooden parrot that looked conservative when surrounded by other more colorful pieces in a Jamaican boutique would look gaudy and wildly out of place in my New England home. I have relatively few souvenirs in my home for the amount of traveling I do, but those I do have make me smile when I look at them. They tend to be strange but beautiful articles I pick up at out of the way places-a beautiful opium pipe from an illegal street market in Thailand, a set of weird locks from a guy selling old items out of his bike in a park in Japan, a piece of pottery from Mexico, an inexpensive but (I think) beautiful painting from Estonia and a Brett Weston photograph from a gallery in Sonoma are my current favorites.</p>
<p>One of my favorite quotes is from William Morris. “Have nothing in your houses that you do not know to be useful, or believe to be beautiful.” </p>
<p>When my D travels… she brings back CATS!!!</p>
<p>( We also get Christmas ornaments, but they are a not always the store bought kind. Mr B found a fishing lure on the bottom of the lagoon where we snorkeled in HI - yup, you bet it goes on our tree every December! )</p>
<p>“Have nothing in your houses that you do not know to be useful, or believe to be beautiful.” </p>
<p>Sue - awesome quote!!! </p>
<p>“13. On a totally different note, sometimes it is fun yo bring back consumer product oddities like weird flavored chips or cookies or strangely packaged cosmetics. I personally think a can of some weird blood sausage product, for exsmple, makes a better souvenir than a ministure Eiffel tower.”</p>
<p>The package of Barf that D brought from one of her trips… priceless! 
As priceless as the story that goes with it.
Local airport security dude (SD): “What is it in that can in your bag?”
D: “Uhm, powder…”
SD: “What? What kind of powder?”
D: “A cleaning one… You know, Barf” (trying to hold back the giggles)
SD: “Oh, you should have said so! Barf! Of course! Here is your bag, and have a safe flight!”</p>
<p>(here is what the logo looks like - <a href=“Barf Laundry Detergent | "barf" means snow in Farsi accordin… | Flickr”>http://www.■■■■■■■■■■/photos/elmada/254689286/</a>)</p>
<p>Empty pockets</p>
<p>I bring back very little – I don’t have the money to afford anything truly valuable-- so I pretty much stick with very small knickknacks like refrigerator magnets or post-cards. My daughter has done a huge amount of traveling, and the thing I really treasure the most are the tons of photos she has taken wherever she went,particularly photos that actually have her and her traveling companions in them. The cool thing about photos is the memories that are attached to them. Every once in a while you might come across an object worth buying because it is also carries special memories… but usually not in souvenir shops geared to tourists. I do appreciate the assortment of mugs and t-shirts my kids have brought me as gifts from their travels. </p>
<p>I like to pick up small watercolors or sketches of local scenes done by local artists. I have them hanging together on my stairway.</p>
<p>I bring back pictures and memories. I have more than enough stuff in my life.</p>
<p>My business partner whom I often travel with is a stuff-accumulator, and it frustrates me to no end when we’re walking to some shrine or cathedral or other site that is really exciting and interesting and fascinating, and she stops at every darn souvenir shop to look through their trinkets. Just … no. I didn’t come all the way to (insert exotic location) to look through refrigerator magnets or packaged candy. </p>
<p>That said, in Amsterdam, I did buy some absolutely beautiful note cards at a church, but that was out of character for me. </p>
<p>We do magnets. DH covered one smallish wall in our laundry room with sheetmetal, and we buy one magnet when we travel and add it to the wall. Over the years we have amassed, um, a LOT of them. They are cheap, easy to transport, and good reminders of “remember when we went to __” A few connected to ex- girlfriends were ceremonially destroyed!</p>
<p>We used to do magnets until we got a stainless steel refrig. that the magnets wouldn’t stick to. DH sometimes gets a hat. I sometimes get a t-shirt. Most of the time we take pics and buy nothing.</p>
<p>w</p>
<p>The list above is a good one…but really,when I’m on vacation, I would not take the time to consider all of that. I just buy something consumable, or small. And I get NO gifts for others anymore. As a relative said “I wish folks would stop giving us their trip souvenirs as Christmas presents.”</p>
<p>Now…the Belgian chocolates…that’s another story!</p>
<p>My husband who is bald on top and therefore always covers his head with a hat buys caps from most places we go to. His one rule though is he never wears the cap that matches where we are - so he wears his Boston cap when we are in New York and his North Carolina cap in Maine, etc.</p>
<p>I like to buy consumables - maple syrup from Maine, nougat candy from Paris, run cakes from the Bahamas, etc. We don’t typically buy souvenirs for anybody but ourselves - although we usually bring back something for our neighbor who takes care of the mail while we are away (again we get them some kind of local food).</p>
<p>I should also add, in connection with the list I posted above, I don’t always buy stuff when I travel. Most of the time I buy nothing. But I have collected some beautiful objects through the years on trips where shopping is part of the fun. That’s certainly not every trip. </p>
<p>When I travel, I often like to spend a longer time in a single destination so that I have time to explore places beyond the major attractions. And I enjoy poking around in flea markets or antique shops or galleries or artists’ studios or chic boutiques on some trips. So shopping is sometimes part of sightseeing for me. But I’m definitely not stopping at souvenir stands.</p>
<p>I bought a Gullah sweetgrass basket in Charleston.</p>
<p>For my 10 yo niece, I have gotten cards that had her name in Chinese characters, Japanese characters, the Russian alphabet, etc. Kids get a kick out of that, and it’s flat and easy to pack. I’ll go for 2 weeks w just a carryon so small is critical. </p>