It’s that time of year again. On top of our gift guides for travelers, we’re also highlighting 16 useful, tasty, and unusual gifts to bring home from your travels. Buying a gift for someone while you’re traveling is a win-win: you have something unique for the recipient to unwrap, and they in turn will be touched that you thought about them during your trip. To compile this motley list of fun souvenir-gifts, we asked Afar staffers what they’ve picked up on their recent trips, from incense to the best cheese puffs. Most of the gifts we’ve highlighted are relatively light and easy to pack. If you have a trip coming up in the next few weeks, use this as a guide. If not, file it away for next year when you’re planning your 2026 travels.
A sharp baseball cap and limited edition chai from London
- Find it: Kitchen Provisions has several outposts in London; in England, Dishoom has locations in London, Birmingham, and in Scotland in Glasgow and Edinburgh.
- Price: £25 (US$33) for hat; £22 (US$30) for chai
“I love this hat from London knife shop Kitchen Provisions so much that I bought all of the ones they had in stock last time I was there so I could swap them out when they start to fade.” — Nicholas DeRenzo, Afar’s editorial director of newsletters
“I’m also on team food gifts because they won’t go unused. Like everyone else in London, I love Dishoom, and I saw their cobalt blue tin of chai, a limited edition collaboration with Ayishu Patni, an artist who grew up in Jaipur and now lives in Bombay. I snapped up one for me and one as a hostess gift for friends. The chai was delicious—we all used it up making iced chai in lieu of air conditioning this summer—and now the pretty tins hold loose odds and ends.” — Sophie Friedman, Afar contributor
Macon et Lesquoy’s shop in Paris’ s10th arrondissement is filled with light, easy-to-transport gifts like patches and brooches.
Photos by Lucile Casanova and Ryvdoll
Patches, brooches, and paper-style dolls from Paris
- Find it: Macon&Lesquoy in Paris; through the end of the year, Rydvoll is sold in the first floor Christmas market area of department store Le Bon Marché, near women’s fashion. You can also order for delivery to your accommodations in Paris or pick up at Adda’s showroom.
- Price: From €12 (US$14) for Macon&Lesquoy’s patches; from €15 (US$18) for paper dolls
“I am completely obsessed with the patches and brooches from Macon&Lesquoy in Paris. I think I have around 20 of them just sitting at my house waiting to be ironed onto things. Some favorites include skiing fox, gangsta raccoon, and baguette.” — ND
“I loved paper dolls as a child, so I was immediately hooked on Ryvdoll, 26-year-old Ryvka Adda’s contemporary spin on them—they’re magnets instead of paper, so they’re much less delicate. As you would expect for a Parisian, Ryvdoll is well turned out—she wears a floral maxi-dress to a Provençal village and cozies up at home in a chunky white fisherman sweater. ” — SF
Scorpions from Utah, scarves from Bhutan, ceramics from Bangkok, and gin from the U.K.
- Find it: The scorpion is from Zion Prospector in Springdale, Utah; scarf from the handicraft market in Thimpu, Bhutan; painted ceramic elements from Tha Tian Market in Bangkok; gin from Alnwick Garden
- Price: Prices vary; Alnwick gin from £16 (US$21)
“A scorpion encased in glass from Springdale, Utah, for my nephew (who loves creepy crawlers); a scarf from Bhutan for my partner’s mother (who’s elegant and always cold); painted ceramic mini elephants in Bangkok for my mom (who loves elephants); and poison gin from the Alnwick Garden in the U.K. for a friend who loves gin and curious history.” — Danielle Hallock, Afar’s senior editor
Black and white cookies are a delicious gift to bring back from New York City, and East Village bakery The Pastry Box has some of the best.
Photo by Tiara Bennett
Black and white cookies from New York
- Find it: Russ & Daughters on the Lower East Side; the Pastry Box in the East Village
- Price: $3.50 at Russ & Daughters; $5 at the Pastry Box
“I always bring home [from New York] a bunch of black and white cookies from Russ & Daughters. They are my favorite! Maili Holiman, Afar’s creative director
I like to bring very New York gifts back to my friends in France. Black and white are the most iconic, so I get a dozen from the Pastry Box before my flight, and they travel quite well. The owner, Tiara, is so friendly and the cookies are far from dry like so many other black and whites. (My French giftees are also partial to her brown butter brownies.) —SF
Incense from Mexico City
- Find it: Xinū Perfumes has three shops in Mexico City, one in Mérida, and one in San Miguel de Allende.
- Price: MXN 620 (US$33)
“One of my favorite ways to remember a trip is through scent. These hand-rolled incense sticks from Xinū Perfumes in Mexico City are perfect for gifting (or keeping for yourself). They’re small enough to slip into a carry-on and bring a little piece of your travels home with you.” — Alice Phillips, Afar’s brand marketing manager
Tea from Korea and Singapore
- Find it: Osulloc has several shops and teahouses in Seoul, including at Incheon and Gimpo airports, and there’s an Osulloc museum in Jeju. TWG has a dozen-odd shops in Singapore, including at Changi airport.
- Price: Osulloc tea from KRW 5,500 (US$4); TWG tea from SGD 10 (US$8)
“I love getting teas from countries I visit, for example, Osulloc tea from South Korea. I [also] have one from [my hometown of] Singapore, TWG, that I always [give] as gifts. I like getting consumables as gifts for people, so they aren’t saddled with things they might not like, [and] I’m a huge tea drinker so I spread the good word on tea all the time. " — Ellie See, Afar’s associate art director
A signed drawing by artist Jaakhankhuu Grisha picked up on a trip to Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia
Photos by Billie Cohen
Artwork from Kenya, Mongolia, and Mexico
- Find it: Upcycled animals at Ocean Sole in Karen Village in Nairobi, Kenya; artwork in Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia from Jaakhankhuu Grisha; yarn painting from markets in Mexico, especially in states Jalisco and Nayarit.
- Price: Ocean Sole’s upcycled animals from $26; for Grisha’s artwork, contact her directly; for yarn paintings, prices vary.
“I love to gallery-hop and visit markets in my travels. I’ll strike up a conversation with the artist or artisan (through a translator, hand gestures, or Google Translate, if necessary) and buy a small, inexpensive item that I can easily pack, and then I’ll ask the artist to write a note, tell me a story about it, let me take a video of them at work, or sign the piece. That way, I’m supporting a local creator and end up with a super cool present that delivers a connection to the place it came from and a real person who lives there.
“I’ve been able to give my mom a colorful wooden spoon from Estonia and explain that it was painted by a woman named Krystal whose husband did the carving. I’ve given friends animal sculptures crafted from colorful, discarded flip-flops by artisans in a Nairobi workshop, along with videos of the sculptors in action. And I kept this little painting from Mongolian artist Jaakhankhuu Grisha for myself; she blends traditional imagery and calligraphy with a modern style. Like she [entitled] it on the back, I found [the painting]—and her—impressive.” — Billie Cohen, Afar’s editorial director
The Huichol Indigenous people are known for their yarn paintings, which can be found at markets in Mexican states with significant Huichol populations, such as Jalisco and Nayarit.
Photo by Pat Tompkins
“Easy to pack counts when I buy gifts while traveling. No jars of honey or fragile items that could get damaged. Unique and handmade appeals to me. I’ve picked up local folk art at informal
street markets: a needlepoint wool pillow cover I purchased in Greece for a friend and later personalized with a short embroidered message on the back. Or the shallow woven reed bowl
from an Arizona reservation; I knew my mother, a quilter, would enjoy its geometrical pattern. For myself, I’ve kept a small yarn painting from Yelapa, Mexico. It’s a craft made by the Huichol people and involves pressing thin strands into beeswax spread on
wood. The elaborate patterns of larger yarn paintings can be mesmerizing.” — Pat Tompkins, Afar’s digital copy editor
In Indonesia, Afar’s editorial director Billie Cohen found blueberry ice cream–flavored Oreos.
Photo by Billie Cohen
Cheese puffs from Canada and Oreos from everywhere
- Find it: For the Cheezies, any grocery store in Canada. For the Oreos, any grocery store in the place you’re visiting.
- Price: About CA$5 (US$4) for the Cheezies; prices vary for Oreos but rarely above US$5.
“Canadian Cheezies! Better than any American cheese doodle snack. I brought back a bag that I meant to bring to the office to share . . . and then didn’t. . . . Also, ever since I stumbled on a package of blueberry ice cream Oreos in a tiny grocery store in Bali 10 years ago, I’ve been collecting Oreos. Now, no matter where I travel, I find a market to see what interesting varieties they have—and, believe me, Oreos are everywhere. I’ve found, or been gifted, strawberry cheesecake in Lisbon; churro flavor in Mexico City; banana split in Ushuaia, Argentina.
“The gift is fun because it gives me a mini quest during my trip, and it’s fun again when I bring the cookies home and taste them with friends and family. The shared experience usually leads to a conversation about the place I was visiting and places my giftees have been to themselves. And in a sweet twist, since my friends, family, and colleagues know about my Oreo quirk, they’ll sometimes look for them on their own travels and then gift them to me! Who would have imagined that a little sandwich cookie from New York could be such a global connector?” —BC
