Souvenirs can serve as memory cues that reconnect us with meaningful travel experiences.

Research suggests sentimental souvenirs can help sustain well-being after a trip ends.

The best souvenirs derive their value from the experiences and stories attached to them.

Keeping souvenirs visible may prompt positive memories during otherwise ordinary days.

We’ve been taught a fairly persuasive rule about happiness and spending: Buy experiences, not things.

Spend your money on the trip to Paris, not another handbag. Go to the concert. Take the cooking class. Book the ridiculous treehouse in Costa Rica. Research has repeatedly found that experiential purchases tend to produce more enduring happiness than material ones, in part because experiences become intertwined with our identities, strengthen social connection, and are less vulnerable to comparison with what everyone else owns.

But maybe we’ve been a little unfair to stuff… especially stuff with glittery PARIS stamped on it.

Emerging research suggests that souvenirs can do something psychologically useful: They can keep an experience alive after it has ended.

A little portal back to the trip

In a recent study, researchers examined whether........

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