I buy all different manner of things everywhere I go. Collect seashells and coral bits, and we love wandering nightmarkets wherever we are.
One of my favourite things to buy are street trinkets. Things ingeniously tinkered together, of local materials, often to entertain small children. I can’t resist, I’m so having that.
This reminds me of advice a friend offered once: When you’re in some interesting location, buy a flashy, dramatic, or otherwise noticeable item of clothing, like a necktie, scarf, brooch, etc.
When you wear it back home and someone remarks on it, you can say (as nonchalantly as possible), “Oh yes, I picked it up in Biarritz.”
I bought several ties to take advantage of that suggestion.
Souvenir tea towels/dish towels are a tradition in my family; I remember ones commemorating England, Australia and (especially) Victoria, B.C. growing up. They’re nice because they’re cheap and useful but also are easy to display. I try to buy them as well (I’ve got ones from Sicily, Marseilles, Brazil and Osaka, for instance) but if I can’t find tea towels, I’ll buy drink coasters instead (I use some from China and Barcelona on a daily basis).
I don’t, but one of my brothers loves collecting flags and also those pens with something that moves on the side when you tilt it. (For example, a trolley car in one from San Francisco.)
When I travelled to England about thirty years ago, I picked up some serpentine rocks when we were in Cornwall. They’re so cool. When I came home, my brother picked me up from the airport, he lifted my suitcase and asked “What do you have in here? Rocks?” I said “Yep!”
I don’t collect anything specific, but if I’m in a place that has something interesting, and, more importantly, small, I’ll get it. I don’t make a point of it, though.
I guess I’m not that unique. Either a magnet or a shot glass or both. I also like getting Christmas ornaments but only if I like the design.
I pick up unusual stones from places I’ve visited. This includes volcanic rocks, various colored sand, petrified wood, pieces of bricks, etc. I have them in a large platter in our living room, and I remember where everything is from.
When I was on jury duty in DTLA years ago, a group of us walked over to the new St. Vibiana’s Cathedral to check it out. I’m still po’d that I didn’t buy the floaty pen in the gift shop that had a little nun going back and forth. Haven’t seen it since.
The mention of pins reminded me - eons ago (like 40-ish years or so) I had a couple of sterling silver charm bracelets, so I’d look for charms to add to it. I think it’s still in the bottom of my jewelry box - I need to look.
My oldest travel t-shirt is from St. Thomas - it’s 10 years old. Any that predate it are long gone.
Personalized Swiss Army knives. They’re hard to find, so I get one whenever I can. I like the idea that they’re useful, even though I don’t use them, and certainly don’t need more than one.
My daughter collects them, and we buy them for her when we used to go places. They have books where you can put the pennies in, many gift shops that have penny machines have the books also.
My father had a big glass bowl filled with matchbooks, but I haven’t seen one in ages. I still have a few sitting around.
As for me, I collect bookmarks. Light, inexpensive, and easy to store. I have three photo albums filled with them two or three per page. Duplicates I use for reading. I still have a bunch from a book store I used to go to in high school 55 years ago, and some from Egypt and Russia and England. Plus a bunch my wife had made for her books when our son-in-law worked at a printing company and could get them cheap.
My fridge is covered with postcards (held on by mostly non-souvenir magnets). Some of them are postcards other people have sent me, some of them are postcards I bought for myself. When I travel somewhere I usually try to pick up a postcard to add to my collection. If I’m in a foreign country sometimes I’ll mail it to myself if I get a chance, so I can have a postcard with a foreign postmark on it.
Also if I’m in a foreign country I usually keep whatever coins I have left at the end of the trip as souvenirs. I mean the currency exchange doesn’t want them anyway. Except for Euro coins; those don’t seem special enough to keep as souvenirs for some reason. Maybe because they don’t represent a specific country. Those get saved to be spent on a future trip to Europe.
I usually get a coffee mug if a visit a new place too.
I also keep the little map/brochures you get at museums and historical sites.
When I went to New Zealand and Australia I thought it would be cool to bring home little vials of sand from the beaches and deserts that I visited. Unfortunately they were confiscated by customs, soil of any kind being considered a hazard for possibly containing unwanted organisms.
The customs agent was very nice about it though, and diligent to the point of taking my hiking shoes into a back room and scrubbing them for me.
Clothing. I need it anyway, I have fond memories when I wear it, and if I actually wear it regularly it wears out in less than a decade, so I don’t end up with clutter.
A guy I knew got married on a beach in South Carolina years ago. We who attended all got little bottles of sand. The marriage lasted two years.
I still have the little bottle and plan to set the sand free if I ever happen to be in South Carolina.
I bought my kids a little booklet designed for storing them, like this. They enjoyed seeing them and filling the book up.
I like to buy Junior League cookbooks and Christmas ornaments. The ornaments are quite special to me. They don’t clutter up the house, then each year when you decorate the tree you have nice memories of travel. I have every kind from handmade by local artists to tacky tourist trap.
My wife and I are record collectors and part of the fun of any trip is looking for cool little local record shops to check out. We usually end up buying an album or two and always make sure to grab a sticker from the store if they have them.
We keep track of where we bought the records so they’re a nice reminder every time they get played. She plays ukulele and her instrument cases are covered in the stickers from our travels.
There are those who collect those little hotel mini hand soap bars. I had a cousin who had a large collection.
This is apparently a thing. In looking for an example picture, I found people selling collections of hotel hand soap bars on eBay and etsy.
