{"id":98884413,"date":"2016-06-21T11:12:24","date_gmt":"2016-06-21T15:12:24","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.onetravel.com\/going-places\/?p=98884413"},"modified":"2021-08-12T04:37:43","modified_gmt":"2021-08-12T08:37:43","slug":"my-grandpa-went-to-florida-and-all-he-brought-me-was-this-stupid-t-shirt-5-rules-to-souvenir-buying","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.onetravel.com\/going-places\/my-grandpa-went-to-florida-and-all-he-brought-me-was-this-stupid-t-shirt-5-rules-to-souvenir-buying\/","title":{"rendered":"\u201cMy Grandpa Went to Florida and All He Brought Me Was This Stupid T-Shirt”: 5 Rules to Souvenir Buying"},"content":{"rendered":"

Raise your hand if most of your souvenirs end up tucked back in a cupboard somewhere or tossed in the corner of the closet. While most of us aren\u2019t keen on throwing money away, we often do when we\u2019re traveling. Some of us buy souvenirs for sentimental reasons, others to show off, but some of us buy them out of desperation because we feel like we need <\/span>something, anything <\/span><\/i>to remind us and others that we actually visited the place (Cue my husband strolling through the airport in Jamaica to find something that wasn\u2019t completely tacky to display in our home. Spoiler: he failed).<\/span><\/p>\n

Since that fateful moment in the airport, I\u2019ve thought a lot about souvenirs, eager to create a method to selecting them. I\u2019ve also spoken to avid travelers I know who have their own methods of shopping for meaningful souvenirs, and with their answers, came up with these five questions to ask yourself before you make a souvenir purchase.<\/span><\/p>\n

1. Is This Meaningful?<\/h2>\n

To me, this is the most important question to ask yourself. If a souvenir really means something to you, it’s probably worth purchasing. Chances are, you will find yourself bringing it out of its box or displaying it somewhere you can see it all the time. Everywhere we go, I try to find a children\u2019s book from that country. I write a few notes about the place in the front cover and have a special shelf full of these books. To me, it’s an inexpensive, yet meaningful way to collect stories and illustrations from different cultures and languages.<\/p>\n

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2. Is It Useful?<\/h2>\n

Just because you toured the Jim Thompson house in Bangkok<\/a> doesn\u2019t mean that $250 silk scarf is necessary. If, however, you connected deeply with Thompson\u2019s story, and want to display the high-quality silk somewhere in your home, or feel that you will wear it often, it may be worth it to you. *Note – all items don\u2019t need to be useful. But if it’s not meaningful, it should at least be useful. Otherwise it turns into clutter.<\/p>\n

3. Is This a Tourist Item?<\/h2>\n

There\u2019s nothing wrong with buying a souvenir from a touristy shop in a high-traffic tourist area (read: small Eiffel tower from any shop in Paris) if you find meaning in it or find it useful. But a lot of touristy shops sell cheap items that are not even made in the country you are visiting. I purchased said Eiffel tower in Paris, and on the bottom it read \u201cMade in Taiwan.\u201d Cheap knick-knacks can be fun to bring home as gifts to kids or relatives, but don\u2019t make for lasting souvenirs. You may need to venture off the beaten path to find that perfect item.<\/span><\/p>\n

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4. Does This Spark Joy?<\/h2>\n

Marie Kondo\u2019s bestseller \u201cThe Life-Changing Magic of Tidying Up\u00a0…\u201d says that the things you own should spark joy. Ask yourself that before making a purchase. A friend of mine collects cookbooks from the countries she visits (even though she can\u2019t read some of them) because\u00a0\u201cThey just make me happy.\u201d That should be your response before buying a souvenir, whether it be a clothing item, a piece of art, a book, or a decoration.<\/p>\n

5. Where Will I Put This?<\/h2>\n

Knowing where it will go in your home upon your return should be an important factor in your decision. \u201cI collect spoons and have a special rack for them,\u201d a friend told me. Another traveler I met on a tour in New Zealand said that he collects maps from each place he\u2019s been – just the free guidebook maps available at tourist centers. He stores them in a binder in his home, categorized by country. Another friend said he collects currency and has a display case for his coin collection.<\/span>
\nHopefully, this saves you from an overload of stuffed animals and plastic leis and trinkets that inevitably end up in your junk drawer – only to be thrown out a few years later when you deep clean. Cheap and quick is not the end goal here: souvenirs can be beautiful reminders of the places we\u2019ve been when carefully chosen.<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Raise your hand if most of your souvenirs end up tucked back in a cupboard somewhere or tossed in the corner of the closet. While most of us aren\u2019t keen on throwing money away, we often do when we\u2019re traveling. Some of us buy souvenirs for sentimental reasons, others to show off, but some of […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":21,"featured_media":98884416,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[69],"tags":[683,684],"class_list":["post-98884413","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-travel-tips-intel","tag-gift","tag-souvenirs"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.onetravel.com\/going-places\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/98884413","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.onetravel.com\/going-places\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.onetravel.com\/going-places\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.onetravel.com\/going-places\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/21"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.onetravel.com\/going-places\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=98884413"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/www.onetravel.com\/going-places\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/98884413\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":98908367,"href":"https:\/\/www.onetravel.com\/going-places\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/98884413\/revisions\/98908367"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.onetravel.com\/going-places\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/98884416"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.onetravel.com\/going-places\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=98884413"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.onetravel.com\/going-places\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=98884413"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.onetravel.com\/going-places\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=98884413"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}