Over the summer, the Michael W Travels wasn’t traveling internationally due to COVID-19. Instead, we took a handful of road trips not too far from home.
Our most recent and longest trip was an 11-day trip primarily to Maine. While there, we ate a lot of lobster rolls and visited quite a few lighthouses.
While researching things to do, I came across a very special souvenir shop that I had to visit, the Maine State Prison Show Room! Continue reading A Visit To The Maine State Prison Showroom
During Winter Break 2019, the Michael W Travels family took a road trip to the Deep South.
This was an interesting experience for us and probably the longest amount of time we spent driving on a daily basis for a prolonged amount of time.
We headed off from our home in Brooklyn, NY, making stops in states like Maryland, West Virginia, Virginia, Tennessee, Alabama and North Carolina. Some of the states we had previously visited, for others it was our first time checking them out. Continue reading Tasty Souvenirs From Our Deep South Road Trip
The Michael W Travels family started off the summer break with a trip to Iceland.
During our trip, we focused on visiting areas in the south. We had a great time during our trip around this pricey island nation.
Food costs in Iceland can potentially break the budget but there are some ways to save. Daily supermarket visits kept the price of daily breakfast, lunch and snacks to $25-$30 (per day for a family of 4). Continue reading A Tasty Souvenir From Our Trip To Iceland
You might want to be careful with the souvenirs that you try to bring home from Turkey.
A British man was arrested in Turkey recently for trying to bring home some souvenirs he found while snorkeling during a trip with his family. Continue reading Man Arrested In Turkey For Trying To Bring Home Snorkeling Souvenirs
The Michael W Travels family recently got back from a trip to Costa Rica.
During our visit, a few things not so surprisingly stood out- nature, wildlife and hiking.
We combined all of those things during our first full day of the trip which we spent at Manuel Antonio National Park which is located close to Quepos, Costa Rica. Continue reading The Best $16 I Spent in Costa Rica
Over the years our trip souvenir shopping has rapidly decreased. These days, our purchases tend to usually be some sort of little toy for Lucas.
On occassion I’ll buy a t-shirt to remember or support a place that I enjoyed visiting or some other small item if it really stands out
During our trip to the Mid-West there wasn’t really anything that caught my eye. Lucas did get a bunch of small toys but for me, the best thing to remember our trip was an edible item. Continue reading Tasty Souvenirs From Our Trip to K.C.
In recent years we’ve been bringing back less and less souvenirs from our trips. On many of them we don’t even buy a single thing. We do like to get Lucas a little toy during our travels so he has something new and exciting to play with. We also bring back some local snacks on occasion but I’m not really sure if that would be considered a souvenir since they get consumed, eliminating the collectable aspect.
I’m sure most of you know not to bring home meat, fruits, vegetables and cultural artifacts among many other things but what about souvenirs that could really get you into trouble? Continue reading Souvenirs That Could Land You In Jail
It’s been a few weeks since I’ve posted a look back into the past on Michael W Travels with a Flashback Friday.
Today I’ll be posting the first Flashback Friday of 2014. The topic has to do with one of my favorite things to buy while traveling- local & traditional hats. Besides buying a little something for Lucas on our trips, I try to avoid buying souvenirs. The only thing that I will still seek out are hats.
Here is the post:
This post was originally published on April 27, 2012.
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| Authentic Alpine Hat |
Over the past few years I’ve been bringing back less and less from my trips. This could probably be due to a couple of reasons. First would be that many of the souvenirs I’ve been seeing lately don’t really feel authentic or special anymore. The other reason would be Lucas. Extra space in my bag is now reserved for his things. On recent trips I’ve been finding myself looking in shops catering more towards kids. We now have a few smalls toy from around the world instead of more crappy souvenirs.
However there are times that we buy a small souvenir more for the memory than the actual item. One such occassion for me was while on Easter Island. We visited quite possibly the oddest place imagined to go souvenir shopping- the local jail.
Continue reading Flashback Friday: An Unlikely Place For A Souvenir- Easter Island, Chile
I was asked by travel clothing company SCOTTEVEST/ SeV to write an article for their weekly Pocket Guide newsletter. I am happy to announce that this post will be featured there!
Over the years I’ve definitely slowed down on buying souvenirs on my trips. It seems like you see the same trinkets and junk for sale all over the world. However, I still do like to try to bring a little something back (to Kim’s dismay!) with me to remember the countries I’ve visited. Things that I collect are masks, traditional hats, shot glasses (silly and pointless, but why stop now) or anything that seems really interesting and unique.
On our visit to Easter Island we hired a guide for two of our four days. Kim and I rarely hire guides but we figured for EI it would be a good idea to get a better understanding of what we were looking at. While visiting the sites I had mentioned that I would like to get a small statue of a Moai to bring home. (Moai are the carved rock figures found all over the island. You can see them in the title picture for my blog)
Soon after, he mentioned that we should visit the local jail where they might have better prices.
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| “Artisinal Shop” sign with guard standing by |
I was extremely surprised that we could go visit the jail to pick up some souvenirs and had to make it a part of our plans!
When we arrived there was a sign outside with some rules listing items that you could not bring inside. The items on the list were alcohol, drugs, cell phones, cameras and weapons. Luckily they did not enforce the camera rule (I asked first).
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| An inmate at work |
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| The Necklace |
