Travel & Leisure: Picking Perfect Souvenirs

(Editor's note: for more on this topic, please see our interview with the Galveston County Daily News. Registration is free. The interview can be found here.)

When you've coughed up megabucks to go on a trip, you want to have the perfect memento to take home - something which will evoke pleasant memories of the place you've been.

But how do you choose from among a bewildering array of options? Simple! Follow our no-fail guidelines for picking perfect souvenirs.

Prominently labeled with name of place
Picking a souvenir that's labeled with a name is especially important so that people don't have to guess at where you went - particularly when you've been to a place that they don't have a prayer of visiting. For example, t-shirts labeled with cosmopolitan locale names such as "Rome" and "Paris" are very fine choices, and will be much coveted among the folks back home.

Successfully conveys a stereotype
Stereotypes are incredibly useful for helping us reduce hard-to-understand cultures and peoples to terms that we can relate to - nay, even feel superior to! It doesn't particularly matter whether the stereotypes are accurate as long as we have a vacation to remember.

Usefulness
The more useful an item is, the more likely it is to be kept at hand, thereby prolonging those wonderful holiday memories. If you're gift-giving, recipients will silently thank you for not bringing them yet another piece of useless cultural flotsam. Backscratchers, floaty pens, plastic architectural models, and wall pennants are all superb choices.

Anything made of plastic
Plastic is the quintessential souvenir material. You just can't go wrong by purchasing a plastic goody! Plastic offers long-lasting durability, as well as stimulating shapes, colors, and textures, resulting in a souvenir that will give a lifetime of memories.

Anything made of local materials
What could be more evocative of a place than an item made of local materials? This Mexican Onyx bookend, painstakingly hand carved in a sweatshop by underpaid laborers, never fails to remind us of our long, lazy hours spent basking on Mexican beaches.

Made by indigenous people
Not only do you get to take something home, but you know that you've contributed to the well being of the natives. This boomerang from Australia is a fine example. Note the authentic Aboriginal carvings of the leaping kangaroo and cursive "Greetings from Australia".

Shape evocative of the place you've visited
A distinctive shape lets us know at a casual glance where an item was obtained. This is especially important when one's friends or relatives can't read! Examples include the Australia clock and TexIce® ice cube tray below. The gallery - our top picks
All of these items are first rate in that they display more than one of the essential characteristics.

Australia clock useful shaped like continent made of local materials made by local factory workers labeled with location name. pluses include depictions of local wildlife, plastic bezel on clock. A very fine example indeed!
Boomerang useful labeled with location name made by indigenous people wtih local materials some stereotype elements.
Rome Tshirt prominently features place name depicts local landmarks & national colors useful bonus for being inherently tacky.
Cactus antenna decoration plastic stereotype bonus for being inherently tacky
TexIce® useful shaped like point of origin made of plastic.
Mexican onyx bookend useful made of local materials by indigenous people successfully conveys the stereotype of the "Mexican on siesta".
Kangaroo beer holder extremely useful made of plastic evokes indigenous wildlife of the area visited.
New Mexico refrigerator magnet with thermometer useful shows place name and shape portrays indigenous wildlife and themes.
Mexican vase useful fails on many other points, but these flaws are offset by its garish, decorative nature.