The Best Travel Tip Ever: Look But Don't Buy!

Why is "Look, but don't buy!" my number one travel tip? This became my motto because of my observations and experiences during several trips to my ancestral Poland.

Primarily, following my tip makes packing for the bulk of your trip, but especially the homeward trip light and easy. Following this tip avoids damaged or ruined purchases and disappointment. But it can lead to getting significant mementos home.

This lens focuses on visual exploration and paying attention to the thousand-and-one souvenir items competing for a traveler's attention. "Window shopping" becomes an educational experience. A close Israeli friend once told me that you could tell more about a country from exploring its material culture in malls, markets and gifts shops than by haunting museums.

However, this exploration also leaves an opening to decide what you really have to buy and carry home, or might be able to buy from an online merchant once at home. I'll also show, from my personal experiences, how you can substitute small, lightweight memorabilia for heavier, cumbersome and breakable objects.

Taking a long hard look can increase your powers of observation and also leads to memories. Strengthen memories with business cards, easy-to-pack pamphlets and postcards, and your own photos. Keep a travel diary.

Easy-to-pack and sure-to-please friends and relatives, especially those with a sense of humor.

• My sister hates to travel, but enjoys knowing what I do. She also, like most of us, has enough stuff. So, I collect for her items typical to Poland like sugar packets which really do vary in different countries, tea bags, small pieces of chocolate often served with a cup of coffee, napkins, and complimentary bottles of local toiletries.
• I love Boleslawiec Polish pottery but it is too heavy and cumbersome to pack for the trip back home. There are plenty of importers and wholesalers in the U.S. with selections just as good as those at the various factories. If you want a memento, why not look for a tablecloth (!) in a typical pottery pattern? I've never seen one for sale in the U.S., but did buy one at a Polish factory outlet store. Most factory stores also have larger than life items on display. These make great pictures, especially with you in one.
• Amber is everywhere, but specially in Gdansk and Krakow. Because so much of amber jewelry's beauty and worth is in the sterling silver setting, I prefer to buy in established stores around the marketplaces in Gdansk and Warsaw, and the Cloth Hall (Sukiennice) in Krakow. It is possible to buy amber at home, but I do believe the selection, and at times, the prices are greater in Poland. And you can always wear your purchases home or tuck them, wrapped in tissue, at the bottom of a camera bag or backpack. It pays to read up before you travel so you get some idea of value and what you want.
• Lapel pins make great souvenirs for yourself or gifts for friends and relatives. Most museums like the Warsaw Uprising Museum have a lapel pin of their logo. There are also pins of crossed American and Polish flags as well as those commemorating the Solidarity Movement.
• Polish Paper Cuts (Wycinanki) pronounced Vee-chee-non-kee means 'paper-cut design'. No one seems to know just when and how this folk-art form began in Poland. One speculation, among many, is that this was one way of bringing beauty to peasant cottages by cutting colorful scraps of salvaged paper with sheep shears. Two well-known modern styles of paper cutouts are the symmetrical Kurpie cutout and the complex and multilayered forms from the Lowicz area. If you find ones that you like and can afford, place them flat between papers and layers of clothes near the bottom of your suitcase.
  
  Happy Hunting!

Operates approximately 60 shops and oversees about one dozen cooperative shops throughout Poland. At times, an online presence is weak.

Begin your adventure in learning about Polish handcrafts in the "Cepelia" shops, tremendous places to begin learning about and searching for Polish goods. They are easy to find and sell among the best of Polish handcrafts and arts to the public. But unless you want tablecloths, wooden eggs or sculptures, be advised that Cepelia does have an online shop. and you can order from home. Because they are usually linked directly to the craftspeople, prices are steeper than items of lesser quality found from street vendors.

"The purpose of the Foundation "Cepelia" Polish Arts and Crafts is to protect, organize, develop and promote folk and artistic handicraft and art and art industry. The Foundation has taken steps to ensure the conditions for the creation of new values and the cultivation of traditional material culture of the Polish nation, preservation of the cultural identity of the nation, and participates in the creation of contemporary Polish culture.

Company "CEPELIA" Polish Arts and Crafts carry on business in the retail, wholesale, and export of folk art and folk handicrafts and arts.

Visitors can buy textiles, paintings, sculptures, ceramics, wicker, went, jewelry, leather goods, textiles, lace, trimmings folk art, furniture, and memorabilia. On the market, there are also private stores using brand "CEPELIA."

There are numerous stores, market, and street vendors selling Polish Baltic Amber jewelry in Poland. There is really only one "trick" to buying amber jewelry. This is to check the settings or fittings and for necklaces and bracelets, the material that beads are strung upon. High-quality silk or beading cord will last infinitely longer than the elastic or cotton cord. The better settings are silver and reputable dealers should deliver a certificate stating so along with the jewelry. Ask for one if necessary.

Here are links for web sites that sell wonderful items that are either too heavy or too breakable to carry home from a Polish trip.