How Are You Going to Commemorate Your Travels?
Gift shops in nearly every vacation location offer multiple souvenir options, but these are my favorite collection options
In Mission: Wanderlust, I write and podcast about our family’s travel adventures and the things that we have learned along the way.
We joke that I am a sucker for each and every National Park gift shop. It’s not that I want more junk in my house or that I have a difficult time recalling details of memorable family trips. It’s just that the shops usually have so many cool items that call to me and I want to take all of the things home.
There are two problems with that approach to any souvenir shop. First, we don’t have the money to go crazy in every shop we walk into. Second, we don’t have the room to store all of the things that I want to buy every time I go through a gift shop. This is especially true as I am in a constant state of trying to get rid of things instead of collecting more.
Fairly early in our marriage, we made decisions about how we were going to limit our purchases when we went on vacation. We decided on the occasional t-shirt, sometimes books, and our National Parks Passport, which would allow us to remember places and dates.
Then we had to settle on what collections we would be willing to make the room for in our home. Years later, there are collections I wish we had started much earlier, but I think that we have found the right balance of items that help us remember trips as opposed to a messy hodge-podge collection of useless junk.
What are my favorite souvenir collection options?
Glassware
Particularly shot glasses.
I remember my parents once deciding that they wanted to collect mugs from different places. They had a whole shelf of mugs on display at one point. It was a cool collection and made me initially think that I wanted to do that for our home. In the last 20 years, my husband and I have visited a lot of places with fun mugs that we have picked up and admired and the promptly returned to the display shelf.
Why? Like many in America, we already have a kitchen cabinet full of mugs that we don’t use. We don’t need more.
So we found a much smaller compromise. We would start collecting shot glasses from every major place we visited.
To date, we have collected 29 shot glasses from places all over the US. Sometimes we aren’t able to find one that suits our collection (which is what happened on our most recent vacation), but we always have fun looking for a new and unique item to add to our shelf.
Magnets
It seems like a boring collectible, but they are small and have a very specific home: your refrigerator.
Our magnet collection is camping specific. Each of our magnets is from a place where our family has camped (primarily state parks or near national parks) and we keep them on our outdoor kitchen refrigerator in our travel trailer. It allows us to highlight our specific travels in our “home away from home.” I probably wouldn’t start a magnet collection for our refrigerator at home, but for our camper, it works.
Ornaments
Honestly, this is something I wish we had started collecting early in our marriage, but 20 years later we still haven’t and probably never will. However, I love looking at the different ornament collections that we see in nearly every location we visit.
When we were first married I wanted a perfectly decorated Christmas tree fit for a magazine. Now, I love seeing our kids put their yearly stocking ornaments on the tree as our collection has evolved over the years. If you don’t feel the need the for perfect Christmas tree, a collection of all of the places you have visited could be another way to commemorate your travels and celebrate the holidays.
Work of local artisans
When we were in Hawaii, we stopped at a local arts show and spent at least 30 minutes perusing the goods of talented artisans. I found so many things that I wanted to try to pack up and bring home on the plane, but we settled on a handful of items: earrings for me and our daughter, coffee for my in-laws, an etched mug for my mom, etched coasters, and a beautiful print of a volcano.
They were the perfect items to remember our dream trip to Hawaii.
Why should you consider shopping local while vacationing? It accomplishes two things. First, it supports the local economy and the artists who are trying to make a living creating beautiful work for both locals and tourists. Second, it gives you something unique to take home. Our volcano print has found a home on our wall and added to our decor. My mom loves her mug. And our daughter loves her turtle earrings.
I want to hear from readers. What are your favorite kinds of souvenirs to collect while traveling?