Comments on: The Souvenir Debate

By: Rosa Rugosa

Rosa Rugosa — Sat, 05 Sep 2009 21:29:03 +0000

I seldom buy souvenirs per se, but I have bought a lot of our belongings while on vacation. We live in New England and usually vacation in New England, and I tend to favor areas with nice shopping prospects (coincidence?) like Portland, ME, Newport, RI, and the Berkshires in MA. These items range from paintings to dishtowels, and do add value in one way or another to our everyday lives, along with a pleasant little jolt of memory from a nice vacation. I also keep a mental list of upcoming birthdays, etc. and often purchase gifts while away. I think the paintings are the best, although the most expensive. I now have a nice little collection of paintings that ranged in cost from $150. – $275. from artists in the places I have visited. In terms of value for money spent, I do actually think they qualify as frugal. But I also have things like the sand dollars I collected from Prout’s Neck in ME and those were free.

By: Jade

Jade — Thu, 15 Jan 2009 02:41:31 +0000

I have a digital camera to take lots of pictures with. It’s a lot cheaper than the film I used to use, and I always come home with lots of pictures.

Aside from pictures, I usually pick up at least one keychain to add to my collection of keychains from places I’ve been.

Other than pictures and keychains, I only buy stuff that I’ve been looking for and haven’t been able to find anywhere else. I have some interesting jewelry and a few zip up fleece jackets I picked up in Mendocino (I have family up there so I go at least once a year), and on my last trip I found a lovely little hair clip that actually holds a decent amount of my hair.

And whenever I stay at a hotel I always keep the key card for my room. My uncle got me started on this the first time I went to Vegas. He asked which hotel we were staying at and then asked for a key card if I wasn’t going to keep it since he had never stayed there before. I wanted to keep mine, but my boyfriend didn’t want to keep his, so it worked out.

As for what I get for other people, I’ll send postcards, my friends will get keychains or refrigerator magnets, I have one friend I will get socks for because she seems to like whatever character socks I manage to find, or anything else that I know someone who wants it but they haven’t been able to find it anywhere.

Oh, and whenever I stop by a bar or casino in Vegas I grab some matchbooks for my mom ;-) She says that hotel matches will light more easily than the ones you can buy in the store.

By: Londres

Londres — Tue, 27 May 2008 12:17:34 +0000

I love souvenirs especially when they are very authentic or unusual.

By: consumer_q

consumer_q — Tue, 29 Apr 2008 19:14:43 +0000

As a young child my family took many roadtrips. During one such summer trip we went to Disney World, but before leaving each of us children received a hooded sweatshirt a size too large. While at Disney World we collected patches, which were quickly sewn onto our sweatshirts. During the next couple years of roadtripping we continued to find, collect, and have patches from various tourist traps and locations sewn onto our sweatshirts. Twenty-six years later it is one of my most prized possessions. Looking at that small red sweatshirt covered in patches (front-to-back) brings a flood of fun memories.

To this day, every once in a while I will pick up a patch during my travels and stuff it into a sweatshirt pocket. Eventually I will sew them on. ;)

By: Margaret

Margaret — Mon, 21 Jan 2008 14:41:38 +0000

Elaine — why don’t you just tell your parents that you appreciate their thoughtfulness, but you are running out of room? If they feel they MUST buy stuff, then ask that they only bring back consumables. I have inlaws who do the same thing — they go on a trip, and they bring back TONS of stuff. Some of it is junky, some not. But assuming they give their other relatives a similar amount of stuff that they give to us (mainly our kids), they have to be spending hundreds of dollars. Crazy, and mainly clutter. I would rather they had spent an extra day or two on their vacation.

By: Tonya

Tonya — Fri, 18 Jan 2008 23:06:50 +0000

we do all our Chrismtas shopping on our Vacation ,,,, in fact we look for stuff ,,, on our Vacation ,, well cause we just hate shopping ,,,,, but we dont mind doing that ,,,,

By: turbogeek

turbogeek — Wed, 16 Jan 2008 21:15:43 +0000

@Michelle — my wife and I do the Christmas Ornament thing as well. It’s something small, displayed during a time of year that you take stock of your blessings, and easily stored the rest of the year. We’ve been doing ornaments for 12 years now, and love them as frugal souvenirs.

I also like to keep the ‘free’ stuff from trips. A ticket stub from a musical in London, a subway ticket from Rome, and the like are 1) free, 2) mount easily in a scrapbook, 3) genuinely take you back mentally to the memory of the trip, and 4) they are free. (Did I say ‘free’ twice?)

By: Michelle

Michelle — Tue, 15 Jan 2008 18:43:21 +0000

My husband and I always buy a Christmas ornament when we travel–but it has to be non-commercial, like something hand-painted. When we can’t find an actual ornament, we substitute other objects and “make” ornaments. This year, our trip to see the sequoias is marked by a hand-varnished pine cone hung with gold thread.

It’s wonderful to spend the end of the year looking back at the memories of where we’ve been together, and since the items are seasonal in nature I can keep them packed away the rest of the year without guilt that they’re being wasted.

As far as gifts for others, I’m a photography buff, so more often than not people request a framed print of one of my landscapes from traveling.

By: Jen

Jen — Tue, 15 Jan 2008 18:21:13 +0000

Postcards–yes! I buy them for myself when an image strikes me, but I love receiving them too.

Jewelry–yes, it’s portable and durable, but buy it only if it will be worn. My hair spike from the Renaissance fair was well worth the $15.00.

Another personal favorite, though, is cheesy socks from the tourist trap shops. I have one pair with little pictures of Shakespeare on them from the RSC gift shop in Stratford-upon-Avon (theatre geek!). Another pair shows a map of the New York subway. They make me chuckle every time I put them on, which is often.

For me the rule is, don’t buy a souvenir just to have a souvenir. If you see something that will really be enjoyed, go for it. When in Scotland I sent my mom a birthday/Christmas gift that had nothing to do with Scotland, but it perfect for her and I’d never seen a similar item for sale in the U.S.

By: elizabeth

elizabeth — Tue, 15 Jan 2008 17:51:27 +0000

My husband and I collect Hard Rock t-shirts from the places we go. This limits the buying, but also has special significants since our first Hard Rock visit was on our Honeymoon. We eat dessert and then buy the album t-shirt from that city. We have three so far and we take pictures of us while we are there to go with the t-shirts (we hang them on the wall…still sealed). But we only get them if we are together and there is one…and so far we have limited ourselves to one a year.

By: Sue M.

Sue M. — Tue, 15 Jan 2008 17:28:05 +0000

I discovered on my last trip that taking digital photos of the souvenirs was adequate. I don’t need another t-shirt, cap, shot glass, paperweight, etc., and I frequently just lose the post cards. Taking photos of the stuff is sometimes better, since you can share the photos with more people. Since some of the stuff is hilarious, it invites more stories to be shared.

By: Liz

Liz — Tue, 15 Jan 2008 16:52:24 +0000

My hubby and I went on a two-week whirlwind trip to Ireland, Italy and England over a dozen years ago. We knew going in that we wouldn’t have a whole lot of extra money for souvenirs, so I – as the official photographer of the family – took tons of photos of the entire trip. Once I edited them, they were enough to fill five or six 100-page albums (in case anyone is wondering, this was a 35mm film camera – way before the digital era). I made it a point not to take typical vacation photos, i.e., my hubby standing in front of some typical tourist attraction, but rather photos of things generally not seen in the U.S. My hubby still thinks some of my photos were a bit quirky – a Royal Mail postal box in Dublin, a tiny three-wheeled car (two in front and one in back, maybe a Cooper) in London, and so on, but I think they’re more representative of the trip than not.

The other thing we did was to save all our tickets and receipts, no matter how small, as well as church bulletins, a couple newspapers, and even labels from snacks we bought along the way, which I bound into a scrapbook of sorts as a reminder of the trip.

Finally, we still talk about aspects of the trip now. We have a lot of great memories of the people and experiences we had along the way, and it still stands out in my mind as one of the best vacations ever.

By: LisaB

LisaB — Tue, 15 Jan 2008 15:59:56 +0000

For me, the important thing is value. Not just for me, but for the recipient. I went home for the holidays and wanted to bring back some souvenirs for people in my department who had been such a help to me in my first semester at grad school. Being your typical *struggling* grad student I couldn’t afford much. I bought some postcards and gave them out, telling a story about the places as I handed them over. The recipients enjoyed them and I did too.

By: Sarah

Sarah — Tue, 15 Jan 2008 14:30:12 +0000

Like other posters, I try to get something of meaning if I buy any souvenirs. My last major trip was a 3 week tour of Europe in high school. Throughout my time there, I tried to find something special for each member of my family. This was partially as a “thank you” since my parents and grandparents helped me cover about half of the cost of the trip. For some people, this meant spending money (I got my grnadmother a leather box in Florence), for others it was free (my mom collect seashells, so I collected a bunch from a beach near Venice). When I did spend money, it was often more than what the typical tourist-y stuff would cost, but it actually had value to the person receiving it. A win-win in my book.

By: Kacie

Kacie — Tue, 15 Jan 2008 14:06:08 +0000

I buy refrigerator magnets that represent places I visit. I don’t spend more than $5 for them, usually.

Every time I open my fridge, I can see a reminder of a fun place.

By: Jeanne

Jeanne — Tue, 15 Jan 2008 11:04:28 +0000

Since I was a child, I made travel journals on trips. Get an inexpensive notebook, bring along some paperclips (you can permanently attach the items when you get home). I write a brief summary of the day, names and addresses of restaurants and hotels. Save cards, postcards, matchbooks, museum ticket stubs. It’s inexpensive, and a great way to review your trip. Especially helpful a few years later when someone asks if you can recommend places to visit from your trip! Just check your journal.

By: Oleg K.

Oleg K. — Tue, 15 Jan 2008 08:22:18 +0000

I don’t know about anyone else, but I wish more people took the philosophy described in this post to heart.

It’s nice that I was thought of during someone’s trip, but I don’t need anymore plastic keychains or magnets with the name of the locale; those things just aren’t as special if I was not there.

Bringing back good stories is what I like. I’d rather listen to those than put up with another piece of clutter.

By: Meg from The Bargain Queens & All About Appearances

Meg from The Bargain Queens & All About Appearances — Tue, 15 Jan 2008 04:58:06 +0000

I absolutely hate those tourist shops that sell the same crap as the next. I’m not big into souvenirs, but when I went to London I tried to find a few things to take home that had some meaning to them.

For my husband, I ended up getting a CD from Westminster Abbey with music by Handel. For myself I got a reproduction in book form of the info they gave American soldiers visiting Britain in WWII since my father was one of them and I love history. Then I bought some tea for us and family. That was pretty much it.

In general, though, I take lots of pictures. If I buy something, it better be something I can eat, wear, or really use because I don’t need to store any more ‘collections’. And I definitely don’t make a habit of buying souvenirs for other people, unless I’m buying it for a special occasion anyway and it’s something nice that will be meaningful to them.

By: Tyler K

Tyler K — Tue, 15 Jan 2008 04:54:39 +0000

I’m also not one who buys lots of kitchy stuff when I go on trips. This summer a bunch of my friends and I went to Las Vegas. The best souvenir I brought back was a $2 chip from one of the hotels. I only won about $22, but my first unsuccessful attempt to exchange the coins was quite eventful. One friend kept the receipt from a strip club we visited. I won’t elaborate… Another friend has a collection of cards that were being handed out on the streets. All great souvenirs because they remind us of the stories behind them and the great time we had. They were also pretty cheap except for the receipt. lol

By: Shana

Shana — Tue, 15 Jan 2008 04:11:48 +0000

I think it’s interesting that some people are talking about souvenirs as gifts for other people. I tend to think of souvenirs as gifts for *me* (though in disclosure, I’ve travelled for up to a year before, and carrying gifts for other people just doesn’t happen because bag space is precious, and it can be remarkably expensive to mail things). I have a tendency to buy jewelry wherever I go. It’s not that I buy ethnic jewelry, or that other people will look at a ring and say “Oh! That must be from Paris!” — but that *I* know where it came from. I often use travelling as a time where I will allow myself treats like that, because I certainly don’t spend the kind of money on single pieces of jewelry as I have when travelling. I also (generally) buy quality jewelry, and I know that what I have now will be pieces I have many, many years from now.

As a holdover from my college days, I still buy lots of museum postcards. Just place them in a cheap-o glass and clip frame, and you have instant art.