Buying gifts when you travel

[kaybee57]

What sort of gifts (if any) do you buy when travelling?
We have 3 sons who are now in their 20's and get nothing on return any longer.... but over the years we have collected all sorts of things.
Started out buying an Owl from each country so that on return our owl collection grew and grew ... till one day it just collected too much dust and the whole lot went in the bin.
Next was a fridge magnet from each visited spot until we visited Europe and the UK last year and came home with 5kg of magnets!! They are not a lightweight item to collect on an extended trip.
Those glass paperweights with an image inside are nice also but certainly not light.
Have now given up and bring back photos only - but then they are digital and unless you print and frame them, hardly get seen again!
Interested to know what other people gather on their adventures?

 

[medhead]

Teaspoons and/or playing cards.

Local clothes as it traditional dress for the kids.

Got my 20+ sister inlaw a Lego starwars theme watch from the qantas inflight catalog last time if flew OS. She loves it. But not a collectable.

 

[simongr]

Only things which are thin, light and flat due to hand luggage only travels.

Generally though for overseas trips I often come back with a soft toy (previously for the dogs but now for the son). If I travel to the US I come back laden down with Ralph Lauren for the boy (and me ). The biggest gift I buy when travelling is sourced form Roses Only

 

[wingspan]

I usually buy foods to gift to family or friends.

I also like to give my nieces a small banknote from whichever country I have been to.

 

[serfty]

Rarely buy anything these days - when I do/did they are/were small and generally robust.

HLO rules!

 

[markis10]

Used to look forward to the Roo pins and the NZ tiki's from Dad!

 

[v8Statesman]

The biggest gift I buy when travelling is sourced form Roses Only

You're missing an earning opportunity!!!

https://qantasfrequentflowers.com.au/Index.aspx

 

[markis10]

You're missing an earning opportunity!!!

https://qantasfrequentflowers.com.au/Index.aspx

Just dont rely on their reminder service, its a bit slow, I got this email this morning:

We've remembered. Have you?


We would like to remind you of an important upcoming occasion! This time last year you ordered a Birthday gift through Roses Only to xx_ that was delivered to Brendale, QLD, 4500 on 13/10/2006.

 

[v8Statesman]

2006!! lol

That a bit of at stuff up in the database.


Sent from my Telstra NEXTG iPhone using Australian Frequent Flyer app

Get it here.

http://itunes.apple.com/au/app/australian-frequent-flyer/id370334462?mt=8

 

[Jude Starr]

I don't have many people to bring stuff home for. However, there is one friend, whom I always like to bring things back for, as she looks after my dogs when I'm away. She collects bookmarks, so I always try and find a few interetsing bookmarks for her - fortunately they are small and light. For myself, I love getting tshirts from all the different places I've been.

 

[markis10]

I collect the Starbucks mugs!

 

[BD1959]

On my last trip I brought back:

Tea Towels
Cuddly Toy
Ladies Silk Barbour Scarf
Mugs
Wind Deflector (for wife's beetle cabrio!) - travelled as "oversize"
Horse Rug (don't ask!)

A tip: use BA J for the first leg and their 69kg 3 piece allowance holds good for the remainder of the journey!!

Regards,

BD

 

[serfty]

...

A tip: use BA J for the first leg and their 69kg 3 piece allowance holds good for the remainder of the journey!!
...

That would only be if the BA J leg was defined as the MSC for the one-way journey - and not necessarily for the entire trip. (Unless travel is to/from the USA where it would be the case.)

 

[v8Statesman]

Sorry, but what is MSC?


Sent from my Telstra NEXTG iPhone using Australian Frequent Flyer app

Get it here.

http://itunes.apple.com/au/app/australian-frequent-flyer/id370334462?mt=8

 

[BD1959]

Silly me. Here I am thinking that anyone bring gifts home would only have a single, one-way journey left on their trip!

BD

 

[mannej]

I collect the Starbucks mugs!

They go down a treat with the rellies back home, and they are great in places like KL where you can pick them up with a bite to eat at the airport itself!

 

[serfty]

Silly me. Here I am thinking that anyone bring gifts home would only have a single, one-way journey left on their trip!

BD

Your case was specific. BA Business does have a nice allowance - I just wanted to clarify.

Imaging a routing CDG-(BA J)-xLHR-(QF Y)-SYD.

With that, the MSC is on QF and the allowance for QF LHR to SYD in economy applies for all segments, even on CDG-LHR.

 

[BD1959]

Your case was specific. BA Business does have a nice allowance - I just wanted to clarify.

Imaging a routing CDG-(BA J)-xLHR-(QF Y)-SYD.

With that, the MSC is on QF and the allowance for QF LHR to SYD in economy applies for all segments, even on CDG-LHR.

Yes.

I was thinking ahead - to when all OW services ex Europe will be BA and QF is a lowly APAC regional carrier ... but that's another conversation ...

(Incidentally, your - imagined - routing could never be confused with my BA allowances since BA's CE allowance is one bag less than CW J allowance!)

BD

 

[casanovawa]

I learnt a while back that when you bring pressies home for people, they might have a lot of meaning for you, but usually mean next to nothing to the people who didn't travel, so don't really bother buying gifts for people anymore that are travel related... Alcohol or colognes etc are different...

For myself, i usually buy a fridge magnet from each city or place of note i visit, a bank note from each country that i ultimately want to frame on the wall or table, and then one item from each city to remind me which don't have to be the same, so can be a tea towel from Scotland, some little glass animals from Venice, a fluffy bear with a celtic outfit from Boston, a smallish plate from Niagara Falls, one of those snow balls from Rome etc, etc, etc... I would like to eventually get all those into a viewing cabinet or hang some on walls when i settle down in a palce, they are all packed away at the moment...

I would eventually also like to get a respresentation of all the subway networks from all the cities i have visited and put on the wall or on a table, see if people can guess which subway maps match which cities...

 

[Bodie]

For ourselves, we usually buy a few fridge magnets, t- shirts, polos, but we then pick up unusual items as gifts or for ourselves, it could be anything, but if it catches out eyes and made locally, we have a prayer mat from dubai we use on our lounge, it usually depends on person, and what we see. Its only a secondary consideration about the weight, how fragile etc.