🛍️ Souvenirs, by country
Every country has a thing worth carrying home - and a market of imitations around it. These pages cover the classic buys country by country: what it is, where the good versions live, how the real one differs from the fake, and the export rules worth checking before the airport.
📋 The short universal rules. Anything genuinely old usually needs an export
permit - most countries protect their antiques and archaeology, and "ancient" trinkets from
street sellers are either fakes or trouble. Wildlife-derived goods - ivory, coral, turtle shell,
many feathers, furs and shells - are restricted under CITES at nearly every border, whatever the
shop says. And your own country's duty-free allowances for alcohol and high-value goods apply on
the way home. We describe; the official customs pages on both ends of your trip decide.
Europe
🇦🇱 Albania 🇦🇹 Austria 🇧🇪 Belgium 🇧🇬 Bulgaria 🇭🇷 Croatia 🇨🇾 Cyprus 🇨🇿 Czechia 🇩🇰 Denmark 🇪🇪 Estonia 🇫🇮 Finland 🇫🇷 France 🇩🇪 Germany 🇬🇷 Greece 🇭🇺 Hungary 🇮🇸 Iceland 🇮🇪 Ireland 🇮🇹 Italy 🇱🇻 Latvia 🇱🇹 Lithuania 🇲🇹 Malta 🇲🇪 Montenegro 🇳🇱 Netherlands 🇳🇴 Norway 🇵🇱 Poland 🇵🇹 Portugal 🇷🇴 Romania 🇷🇺 Russia 🇷🇸 Serbia 🇸🇰 Slovakia 🇪🇸 Spain 🇸🇪 Sweden 🇨🇭 Switzerland 🇺🇦 Ukraine 🇬🇧 United Kingdom
Asia
🇦🇲 Armenia 🇰🇭 Cambodia 🇨🇳 China 🇬🇪 Georgia 🇭🇰 Hong Kong 🇮🇳 India 🇮🇩 Indonesia 🇯🇵 Japan 🇯🇴 Jordan 🇰🇿 Kazakhstan 🇱🇦 Laos 🇱🇧 Lebanon 🇲🇾 Malaysia 🇲🇻 Maldives 🇲🇳 Mongolia 🇳🇵 Nepal 🇴🇲 Oman 🇵🇭 Philippines 🇶🇦 Qatar 🇸🇦 Saudi Arabia 🇸🇬 Singapore 🇰🇷 South Korea 🇱🇰 Sri Lanka 🇸🇾 Syria 🇹🇼 Taiwan 🇹🇭 Thailand 🇹🇷 Turkey 🇦🇪 United Arab Emirates 🇺🇿 Uzbekistan 🇻🇳 Vietnam
Africa
Americas
Oceania
🎁 Getting it home in one piece. The unglamorous half of souvenir shopping:
a luggage scale so the checkout surprise happens in the hotel,
bubble pouches for ceramics and glass,
packing cubes to contain the damage, and
bottle sleeves for the wine and oil that always comes home too.
Some links on this page are Amazon affiliate links - if you buy through them we may earn a small commission at no extra cost to you. We only list the kind of gear we would pack ourselves.