Travel Souvenirs are a must in our household. With the idea of collecting something from every vacation to have at home on show. We have a magnet obsession, filling our fridge with those magnetic souvenirs.
Travelling with my parents it was always exciting to visit a new city or country. Places like Disney World in Florida, skiing in Bulgaria and diving/quad biking in Egypt were fantastic experiences we had as a family. But one thing that all our family holidays had in common was that we would buy a souvenir, a magnet for the fridge.
I took this family tradition with me when I started travelling with my partner. It’s become a bit of an obsession. Before we even touch down on the landing strip of a new country I am already fantasising about what our magnet might have on it, how it looks or the style, and where we will put it on the fridge once we get back home.
Travel Souvenirs
Souvenirs come in all shapes and sizes and usually cheap in the local currency. I think we are all guilty of buying something to take back home with us. But there’s no harm in that right? Many other souvenirs we have seen on our journeys are the following:
- Postcards
- Local produce
- Keychains
- Clothing (hats/t-shirts)
- Mugs
- Stickers
- Patches
- Jewellery
- Christmas decorations
What do you collect as a travel souvenir? How much do you spend on average?
Why Magnets?
Why we love magnets; well they are colourful, small and unique! Even though we know it is likely that thousands of you have the same one! We love that they are designed in the style of the city or location. We buy ones that always portray something that we have visited. Furthermore we always try to buy one with the location name on it too. They are all different too; including cartoons, photography and different materials. Travel is always a great conversation with friends are visiting and spot your magnet collection in the kitchen too.
They don’t take up much room in your suitcase either. But they do start taking over your fridge or magnetic board after a while… good excuse to buy a bigger one!
Magnet Choice Anxiety
Who of you have been standing at a touristic stand for more than you should of, choosing your travel souvenirs? Are you someone that finds that perfect souvenir to take home, only to keep looking a few more minutes ‘just in case’ there’s a better one? I think we are guilty of this as I know I am!
Our holiday to Rome got a little out of control. We came across hundreds of magnets at every attraction we went in and every shop we walked past! There were so many different designs to choose from, like modern photo magnets, silly cartoon ones and roman themed designs. We had a moment where we lost control of ourselves and ended up buying 5 magnets over the 5 days we were there. However one was for Pompeii and one was for Mount Vesuvius, so technically 3 magnets for Rome. We like them all so no regrets, but we didn’t really need 3 for Rome. These issues causes us to lose precious space on our fridge!
European Magnets
Most of our magnets originate from European locations, as that was our focus for the firsts years of our travels. Our collection first grew larger during our Mediterranean Cruise and UK road trip. Visiting multiple locations in a short amount of time.
We also have a few magnets from museums that we really enjoyed, however we try to stick to a magnet of the cities most.
American Magnets
For our American west coast road trip we could have bought easily 25 magnets during our 2 week stay, but restricted ourselves to ones that really meant something to us. Such as our hike up the challenging Angels Landing in Zion, exploring the Meteor Crater in Arizona, visiting the abandoned State Park Bodie and our island prison visit of Alcatraz in San Francisco.
One day will we find ourselves in the other states that we didn’t visit and can’t wait to expand our US magnet collection!
Are you wanting to start a travel souvenirs obsession? Start with buying a magnet or other souvenir of your home location. Your collection will soon grow!
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Are you a souvenir addict? What do you collect as a travel souvenir? We’d love to hear about your collections and your favourite souvenir!
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