What do you collect on your travels?

[Denali]

Me: nothing but I will take all the amenity kits and either donate or give them away on AFFer

My husband: Tshirts.... so many tshirts, majority not worn yet. My husband cant go to a toilet at a bar without coming back with at least one tshirt from the merch counter. His record was 63 tshirts or jerseys on one trip and 8 tshirts at the one shop. Ive had to buy extra luggage for his shirts mid trip, twice. He has over 300 tshirts never worn.

Hubby says hes charting his progress in life through his shirts. He picks a new shirt and thinks, thats that scuba trip we took to [place] or thats the restaurant/place/show we went to in [place]. Hes an emotional hoarder so I have to keep him tidy so its my job to store them and I was complaining that I was going to hand out tshirts for everyone to wear at his funeral because (me pointing at the boxes of tshirts), "this is not normal". His response was "Good. Hand out two per person then!". All our friends know how he is when it comes to tshirts

This is him after leaving a concert merch store

 

[CaptainCurtis]

I collect the airline pyjamas and amenity kits, the former going to my dad who loves them and the latter for homeless/womens shelters.

More personally, I'll generally nab pens from hotels and airlines. Also enjoy browsing overseas record stores and trying to buy at least one record on each trip, although transporting them often becomes too much of an inconvenience.

I collect my tickets too.

 

[Happy Dude]

I keep tonnes of stuff. Tickets/passes (eg entry, transport, boarding, and especially from a sports event), beer coasters, (occasionally steal beer glasses or espresso cups ), currency, Lonely Planets, city, museum, gallery and cathedral guides/maps. I peel off beer labels too.

I take lots of photos but I buy postcards too because I stink at photography. I like t-shirts if they're a cool humble brag type. We'll buy some local art or posters of exhibitions or, say, subway map. These decorate our house but framing is hella-exxy. One kid buys badges and sews them on a tote bag and the other buys pins and puts them on hats. And we buy fridge magnets.

 

[Forg]

When I was a kid, I had people bring me airline barf bags … wonder what happened to them?
I ain’t gots anywhere to put stuffs now, so I just bring back memories.

 

[n7of9]

I like buying tourist tshirts to use as pyjamas

 

[jkbaus]

I love scarves and wear often. I do have a lot.
I have a scarf from most European and Asian cities I have visited over the years. Not tourist scarves with maps etc but stylish silk most of the time.

 

[camperdown9]

When I was a kid everything that I could take of the aircraft legally. Now ducks, soft toys, pins and if the city has a Starbucks or build a bear than something that is unique to that location.

 

[Scarlett]

Mentioned these in that older thread but didn’t post an image, so here’s a look at what I collect.



A coin from each country visited.

- Middle line at the top is all €1
- US Territory (Guam, DC, Puerto Rico, American Samoa, CNMI) quarters middle bottom
- The outer lines are all the other countries from smallest at top left (US dime) to largest at bottom right (Aus 50c).

 

[RooFlyer]

I forgot about my collection as it’s on my wall every day. A bank note ( or more) from every country I visited. Mounted on board and laminated. Have about 10 or 12 now waiting for a critical mass to start the fourth board.

Check out the early “Commonwealth of Australia “ notes at the bottom of the right hand board

 

[RSD]

I must be pretty dull - I'm pretty happy just to collect SC's and FFP's

 

[Pushka]

I used to collect magnets. But we downsized. And now I don't. I like to buy a scarf. And in UK I love the Tesco grocery bags . This trip in Japan? It's going to be a chef knife from Aritsugu in Nishiki market.

I hadn't planned to take the hotel shampoos or soap anymore. But the hotel uses l'occitane products. Three complete sets of shampoo, conditioner, body milk, shower gel, two bath bombs and three waxed soaps every day. Four night stay. They smell divine. So will give them away as presents on return. Unless I keep them

 

[burneracc]

Awfully corporate of me, but I started to collect hotel slippers.

 

[Beano]

I keep coming across old foreign coins as I rummage through my stuff. All my European ones are useless now as the currency has changed. Soem English notes are alos useless as they have changed them.

Pens are my keepsake from hotels!

 

[bPeteb]

Photos, and if I can sneak one in without bAlt seeing me, a t-shirt or two. We used to occasionally buy art, but we have much smaller walls since the return to apartment living.

 

[Supersonic Swinger]

Started out with tickets - I still have the old cardstock ticket with carbon paper layers from my first QF flights to Europe as a child.

Once they moved increasingly electronic, that moved to boarding passes - although not all are readable as the thermal paper on some of them tends to fade. Most of my old Ansett ones now have just the Ansett logo on them (often with the Sydney 2000 logo as well) and the printed advertising on the back.

Now with electronic boarding passes, I can only add to the collection on most international flights.

I used to collect in flight magazines from every flight but that became unmanageable!

 

[Flyerwin]

fridge magnets

We collect fridge magnets too.

Post automatically merged: Apr 14, 2025

Awfully corporate of me, but I started to collect hotel slippers.

View attachment 439311

I have a suitcase full of these lol.

We bring them on trips when we know the hotel doesn't provide them.

 

[OzzRod]

Fridge magnets (so easy to carry and display at home).
Snow globes (have 100+ so slowing down)
Miniature seagulls (harder to find these days)
Hula dolls from Hawai'i (only the small, old style ones - also harder to find)
Empty beer cans (a flexible limit of two per country)
And one or two music CDs from each new country.
Yep, it's a chronic condition

 

[Aeryn]

Mostly memories and digital photos.

I am not a collector of souvenirs but will often buy earrings, necklace/pendant, ring or bracelet if a piece of jewelry catches my fancy. Nothing that necessarily screams i got this in x country. If i receive a compliment i can say oh yes I picked this up in Helsinki or Hawaii etc.

One of my best friends does collect snow globes and if i see one, quite rare these days, I will sometimes grab one for her.

 

[Beano]

Caps with the city or country logo on the front. Mrs Beano won't let me wear them at home!

 

[Bindibuys]

Shot glasses. When we watch Amazing Race, we blindly pick a glass from the shelves, and have to recite what we remember about that place while we sip our schnapps.
Just last week cut up all the old Tee Shirts to make a patchwork bed cover from them. (this may take several years to complete....)