Holidays are just around the corner, and if there’s one thing you don’t want to bring back from them, it’s yet another home-cluttering souvenir! Often tacky, breakable, not even locally produced, souvenirs are designed to separate you from your money at a time when you’re feeling buoyed up by travel experiences and a little aloof from your common sense. This is why we bring you the travel memorabilia suggestions below, so you can still enjoy a little something from a favourite destination, but without the regret!
Recipes
Memorable meals, super street foods, and sidewalk snacks – they’re all part of a travel experience, and remain so when you track down the recipes of your favourites and bring them home with you. Your chef or cook may be willing to share their secret ingredients – or you can simply grab the name of the dish and head onto the net for details. Don’t forget to take a photo of you enjoying the eat-on-the-street (or restaurant) meal, so you can paste it into your cook book when you return home, along with the recipe!
Authentic replacements
Before you leave on your holiday, check out your home for items you really do need, or which you want to replace with something fresh (after all, you don’t need to keep that tarnished butter knife forever!). It’s these items you can look forward to hunting down as you travel. On your search, be sure to head to markets or craft shops for genuinely locally made items. If in doubt, snap a photo of the item you’re keen on, and do a Google Image Search (click on the camera icon in the search box and follow the instructions on how to upload your photo). It may provide you with the information you need.
Stamp it!
Inked tourist stamps are available in many parts of the world, and they are a great way to record visits to favourite destinations. The stamps can be placed in your travel journal, a plain cotton scarf, a decorative ‘passport,’ or a piece of fabric which you can then frame or turn into a cushion cover. Places to find publicly available stamps include Japanese railways stations and onsens (hot pools), pilgrim hikes (such as the Camino), serviced mountain huts (especially in Germany), national parks (particularly in the USA), border crossings (because not all borders now provide stamps in your passport), and onboard ships and cruise liners.
Crafter’s corner
If you’re a crafter, pick up a small embroidery or tapestry kit which reflects a scene from your destination. You can even work on it as you travel! If you craft with yarn, choose a ball or two of local yarn and a local pattern to go with it. If you’re a sewer, take home a small piece of fabric you can later make into a table mat or cushion cover.
Ethical investment
One of the most rewarding souvenirs you can take home is the first-hand experience of a cause you can keep investing in. It may be the opportunity to contribute to a local conservation effort, a school, a homeless shelter, or a hospital. Where you see a need, contact a reliable NGO (such Red Cross or UNICEF) working in the area you are visiting, and ask how you can help.
Leave with less
When you’re packing for your holiday, include in your luggage one or two items of clothing you’re happy to pass on to a charity shop. Then, replace them with something new to remind you of your holiday destination!
Travel journal
A travel journal is our top recommendation for collecting and storing holiday memorabilia. Before you leave home, pop a glue stick, some paper pockets, and a small pair of scissors into your check-in luggage. When you first arrive at your destination, head to a stationary shop for a pretty ‘souvenir’ pen and an attractive, blank-page book for your travel journal (tip: spiral bound books are best as they hold more memorabilia between the covers). When you have these items, begin snipping up local brochures and maps you collect as you travel. Glue the paper pockets into your travel journal, too, and use them to hold small items such as pressed flowers (remember to declare these at customs when you return home), tickets, recipes, and labels from favourite food packets.
Book lovers
Leave your reading material at home and buy a book by a local author when you reach your destination. There’s nothing like reading about a setting you’re actually travelling through!
Post it
If you love what you see, grab post cards of the scenes, and mail them to friends and family. Pop on the post card that you’d love to have the card when the recipient has finished enjoying it (it’s also fun to post cards to yourself so they’re waiting for you when you return home).
Souvenirs can be tacky time and money wasters or an imaginative reminder of your favourite destinations – and we think we know what you’d rather have!
Forty - 3 weeks ago
Having travelled and lived overseas we have the usual Box(es) of Souvenirs and when our Parents died we ‘inherited’ the Magnets and Teaspoons and Postcards (showing our age) that we had sent back to them.
We now are a little more circumspect and we have two suggestions that we are sure other Grown Up members may attune to. We have quite a number of Christmas Tree decorations from around the world. Putting up the tree is made even more special with memories. People and Places. Another light weight useful souvenir are small wine glass markers. i.e. a small bone carving of a fish from Raro, a small square of Paua from Stewart Island, small pebble in resin from Gallipoli. Daily Memories…..Any one want some teaspoons or magnets????? LOL