10 Travel Souvenir Ideas You’ll Still Love in 20 Years

Looking for useful travel souvenir ideas? Most travel souvenirs are mass-produced somewhere far from where you bought them, end up in a junk drawer, and then get donated within two years. You know the ones.

But then there are the souvenirs you still think about forty years later.

My dad went to Germany in the early 80s and came back with an obscene amount of Haribo gummy bears and Ritter Sport chocolate bars. Boxes full. Neither Haribo or Ritter Sport was available in the States at the time, so it was a total novelty and something you could only get if you’d actually been there.

Today I still grab a Ritter Sport at Trader Joe’s sometimes, and every time I do, I’m back at the kitchen table listening to him talk about that trip. I especially like to pack them when I travel. Not sure why.

That’s what a good souvenir actually does.

It doesn’t have to be expensive or destination-branded or even particularly significant. It just has to mean something when you see it later. These ten souvenir ideas are the ones we look for on every trip.

These are the ones that earn their place in our home instead of a box in the garage.

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10 Unique Travel Souvenirs You Won’t Regret Buying

1. Jewelry

Jewelry is one of my favorite souvenirs to pick up while traveling. A ring, bracelet, or necklace can be a daily reminder of a loved destination. Choose a piece that fits your style.

A bracelet doesn’t need an Eiffel Tower charm to remind you that you found it at that cute little shop in Montmartre.

I found a unique square silver ring in San Antonio at a shop in the coolest shopping & arts village called La Villita. Every time I wear it, I am reminded of the afternoon spent chatting with the shop owner.

I recently started a new souvenir collection. I buy a simple gold bracelet in each destination we visit. I can wear them stacked in multiple combinations and they bring back great memories.

2. Books

Nothing tells a story (literally) like a book. Books are great souvenirs because they give you unique insights into a place, whether fiction stories set in the location or nonfiction accounts of the region.

Vintage bookstores are another favorite stop. Paris’s Shakespeare and Company has been debated to death: cultural icon or tourist trap? Both, honestly. I go every time I’m in Paris. The crowds are real, but so is the experience of getting completely lost in that shop.

If we are staying at a historic or uniquely beautiful hotel, I check the gift shop for a coffee table book about the property. These books capture a side of the hotel that is not always available to guests and are great for flipping through later to remember a stay.

Yes, they are heavy, but I plan for that extra weight when packing or have the gift shop ship them to my home.

3. Food + Spices

The best food souvenirs are the ones you can’t get at home. Think about what the destination is actually known for and buy the real version while you’re there. Here are some of our favorites:

• Fudge from Mackinac Island
• Beignet Mix and Chicory Coffee from New Orleans
• Tea from London
• Goo Goo Clusters from Nashville
• Maple Syrup from Canada
• Chocolate from Switzerland
• Macarons from France

Spices
Bring home some local spices to recreate your favorite dishes. Sea Salt from the salt marshes around Gurerande, France was an obvious choice when we visited the medieval city. I bought a small ceramic salt cellar in the same shop, which I continued to refill long after the French salt was gone.

4. Wine + Spirits

You can’t go wrong with a bottle of wine from France, Scotch Whiskey from Scotland, Sake from Japan, or Rhum from Martinique.

But, you don’t have to travel internationally for unique booze.

Local breweries and distilleries are great places to tour and you can pick up souvenir bottles in the gift shops.

We had a great day touring the Firefly Distillery in Charleston and brought back several jars of moonshine to enjoy at home..

A note about traveling with food. Be sure to check with Customs before bringing foods back into the US from abroad. Check the latest list of approved food items.

5. Home Decor Items

I call our home’s style casually curated wanderlust. It sounds much fancier than it is. Basically, most of the decor in in our home are unique travel souvenirs.

When shopping for home decor souvenirs, my only rule is that the piece has to be authentic. No mass market trinkets allowed. Other than that, we buy what we like even if the item isn’t destination specific.

Some of my favorite finds are vintage items from antique stores. We have a film rewinder from a New Orleans theater that we bought from a vendor at The Lucky Rabbit when visiting Hattiesburg, Mississippi. (As a Film Production teacher, this is one of my favorite unique travel souvenirs!)

Home Decor souvenirs make wonderful gifts as well. One of my students brought me two beautiful carved wooden bowls from Africa about 10 years ago and they still decorate the table in our sunroom.

6. Kitchen Items

Nothing is better than a travel souvenir that you actually use and kitchen tools fit that bill perfectly. You can use your souvenirs to recreate favorite recipes from the destination.

• Tea towels
• Serving Dishes
• Specialized tools such as an Ulu knife from our Alaskan Cruise
• Serving Utensils

Or, consider a cookbook. Many women’s organizations and churches publish annual cookbooks with regional favorites. My copy of the Greenwood Woman’s Club from Greenwood, South Carolina is a go-to favorite for easy Southern favorites.

I love to grab a cookbook from a favorite restaurant. I reach for my copy of Tupelo Honey’s Southern Spirits & Small Plates for both appetizers and cocktails.

7. Holiday Ornaments

One thing we always buy at every destination is a Christmas ornament. They are easy to find, inexpensive, and small enough to fit in your suitcase. Look for locally made ornaments that reflect the culture of the destination.

We hang all of our ornaments on a dedicated travel tree. It is fun to watch the tree get more and more full each year!

Ornaments don’t have to be location specific. I collect Shiny Brite and other vintage ornaments, so I am always on the lookout for those in any local antique shops.

The lot pictured here was one massive haul from an antique shop on theMississippi Gulf Coast. We drove that trip, so we didn’t have to worry about packing these to fly.

8. Local Art

Most of the art in our home was purchased as a souvenir from some adventure.

Some feature the location, such as the Bach, Beethoven, and Breckenridge festival poster and the framed print of Charleston’s Rainbow Row. Others are simply pieces painted by local artists.

Art can be expensive, so we don’t mind buying prints especially when the artist was so closely connected to the town. You can’t visit Ocean Springs, Mississippi without getting a Walter Anderson artwork print. Anderson passed away in 1965 and original pieces are rare and super expensive.

However, you can pick up one of his prints at Realizations, the shop his family runs in the old train depot.

9. Photo Book

Your phone photos are sitting in a cloud somewhere doing nothing. Fix that when you get home.

A photo book turns a trip into something you can actually hold. We use Artifact Uprising — the quality is genuinely worth it and they’re not the cheapest option, which tells you something.

Shutterfly works well if you want something faster and more budget-friendly. Either way, make the book. You won’t regret it and neither will your kids someday.

10. Iconic Clothing + Accessories

I have donated more destination t-shirts than I can count. The problem is that clothes fade and then the memories do too.

But, occasionally there are items of clothing or accessories that you absolutely should bring home. Somewhere in my boxes from childhood is a Hard Rock Cafe London t-shirt that my parents brought me in the early 80s.

I wear baseball caps all the time. They are my go-to for bad hair days, beach days, boat days, and Saturdays. So, a hat from Fenway Park was an obvious choice for a Boston souvenir. Its iconic. My Red Sox cap has started dozens of conversations with complete strangers from Canada to the Caribbean. It seems like wherever we go, someone comments on my hat. (Even my boss – who happens to be a Yankees fan. Ouch)

Like it or not, a Red Sox cap is iconic and will be just as cool in 10 years as it is today. And, I’ll still be wearing mine.

Bonus: The Unexpected Need

Sometimes an unexpected need comes up while you are traveling. Treat those purchases as souvenirs too. Don’t head straight to the discount store or tourist market to buy the cheapest version. Pick up something that helps tell the story of your trip.

Since I enjoy relaxing with a glass of wine in the evenings, we usually pick up a bottle while we are out sightseeing. I’m not fancy and am quite happy using the water glasses provided by the hotel.

However, The Grand Hotel on Mackinac Island only provided coffee mugs. Sipping wine from a coffee mug just didn’t feel right. So, we bought some cute wine glasses in town.

These are definitely more kitsch than what I would normally bring home. But, every time I use them at home I think about sitting on the sofa outside of our room late at night with a glass of wine and a good book.

Don’t Overthink Unique Travel Souvenirs

And look, treasure is relative.

We bring my mother-in-law a refrigerator magnet from every place we visit. Her entire fridge is covered with them. Every member of our family has contributed to her little kitchen art gallery, and she adores it. Every time she pours herself a glass of sweet tea, she sees all the places her kids have been.