Tips for Buying Souvenirs by Don Swearingen

Dried Starfish, or Maori Spear? Which is the Keenest Souvenir?

If you bring home a souvenir from wherever you've been, you'll get a thank you, the knick-knack will be put on a shelf to gather dust or worse, put in a drawer, never to be seen again. At least until the movers come, or the trash man.

What to do? You want to bring home more than a post card. You want those you love to know you've been somewhere memorable, but you don't want a bit of junk. How do you give them a souvenir that they'll like and maybe even remember where it came from a year from now?

Know what your friends and relatives like. If you bring Uncle Jonas home a bottle of perfume, he'll wonder where you left your mind. It doesn't hurt to ask. Those who might expect a souvenir will be flattered if you ask them what they'd like. Don't just ask them what they want. Tell them what you're hoping to see, and they'll immediately tell you what they know about it. Someone who's interested in Shakespeare will appreciate a series of pictures of the Globe Theater, and will treasure them.

Try to find something that you can't get anywhere else: Buying someone a scarf you can get in Wal Mart won't endear you to anyone. Rather, get something that has the name of the place you're in on it somewhere. As in: "Someone went to Preddy Prairie and all I got was this lousy T-shirt."

Stay within your budget: This shouldn't even be mentioned here, but the overwhelming desire to get everyone a souvenir has to be curbed. You also don't want to get that perfect genuine Hawaiian Native Electric Blanket that costs $50 for Uncle Barfy, and then have to get everyone else something that costs fifty-cents.

Know the rules: Don't end up having to pay $30 for the bottle of fine wine you picked up for $3 at a store in someplace in Lower Slobovia. Check with customs before you leave. They'll be glad to tell you.

Practicality is okay: Opting for coffee mugs with pictures of pirates or Wahinis or Louisiana brown pelicans is just fine. It says you were there, and the person you're giving it to can drink coffee from it for years, if they'll keep it. The T-shirt with "Lake City, The home town of Colorado's Cannibal, Alferd Packer" will not only give your recipient a laugh, but laughs for as long as the T-shirt lasts. The floppy hat with "Divide, Colorado. Center of the known universe," will be fun for a long time. It will also keep the sun out their eyes.

Of course, you may run onto that once-in-a-lifetime gift that just cries to be bought for your sister, like a genuine poison arrow frog, but resist it. Think ahead a little bit, and try to think of things that will be remembered. After all, that's what you're bringing home. Memories.


Source for Tips for Buying Souvenirs by Don Swearingen
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I love these tips for buying souvenirs. I travel a lot so more often than not, family and friends seem to think that i ought to be giving them something whenever i return. What Don says is so true!