What do you collect when you travel?

I have a feeling that a lot of people collect certain items when they travel. Since I'm a huge fan of spicy food, I usually bring home a bottle of hot sauce that's indigenous to the region where I'm traveling. Sometimes, I bring home various spices such as ground pepper mixes that I've enjoyed on my trips, such as merken from Chile or the chile and salt mixture that's sprinkled on fresh mangoes in Mexico.

Is there something that you collect when you're traveling? Spoons, snowdomes, towels that you steal from hotels?

I often bring spices home--one time I had a kilo of peppercorns. First trip to Egypt, my suitcase looked it was going to give birth on the carrousel--gifts, bed linens, spices, robes...I learned my lesson. Since we carry-on, the most I typically bring back would be road or tourist maps--valuable for advising other travelers! I just weeded out the brochures from our travel book bins. I am certain I will never return to Morocco, so I donated that book to the library. I do plan to return to Thailand and Hong Kong, Bali, Prague and South Africa, so all that stuff stays put.

One thing I learned and always keep in mind, that flat items are great--linen kitchen towels, Thai silk pillow covers, small unframed paintings.

I have a dear friend who collects snow globes--she has over 200, I think. I can't bring any back for her anymore (due to carry-on liquids) so she has to depend on others. IF I saw one I HAD to buy her, I would check a bag--but it would have to be VERY VERY SPECIAL!

Since we travel a lot to Latin America - coffee, coffee and more coffee - it fills my husbands bag!
I do not drink coffee so I get chocolate, local textiles, art work - we have some really cool oil paintings!

I used to collect Christmas tree ornaments. They're a good thing to collect because they're small and easily fit in your bag. Then every year at Christmas, I would have all those great travel memories when viewing the Christmas tree!

But after so many years of collecting anything, there comes a point where you just get too many items in your collection, so I don't collect them any more.

My brother had a collection of shot glasses and always wanted me to pick one up at each of my travel locations. I would take great pains to find unique ones.....or super cheesy ones. Then at Christmas, I would wrap them all up from the past year's travels and put them in one Christmas present. Considering that I traveled for work and for leisure, some years I would have lots of them. We had fun doing that! Sadly however, he passed away a couple years ago unexpectedly. So no more collecting of shot glasses.

jmb--My mom collected shot glasses , too. I am currently using the one I brought her from Poland, crystal, with their national symbol, the eagle etched in the side.. I keep a few keys and some razor blades in there. I'm sorry you lost your brother, but can can still think of him fondly with the shot glasses. Did you get some as remembrances? We are currently sharing them with our family members--along with her collection of maritini glasses (do you see a pattern?)
Take care.

We bring back wine, coffee, honey, and olive oil. Fun Fun!!! (and we ALWAYS bring back sea shells or rocks from our destinations.)

I had an eccentric friend who collected a small vial of water on every trip he took. I brought him a film canister (remember them?) of water from Loch Ness.

I usually collect photographs of the places I visit since I'm not a naturally skilled photographer. Usually if you go to art galleries in the area you are visiting, if it's a fairly touristy area, there will be some professional location photographs. I have been known to buy really pricy "art" photos too. Then I come home where I have a "travel wall" to display them. It's really interesting to see how different photographers interpret the sights that you've seen.