Skip the Champs-Elysees: why you should always thrift when you travel
- Aimee Boudreaux MacIver
- Apr 27
- 3 min read
My favorite travel souvenirs always come from a dusty shelf or a rickety folding table. From the flea markets of Rome to the tiny brocantes of Montmartre to a three-story Goodwill in New York City, I always seek out thrift shops when I travel—not just for the shopping itself, but because thrifting is one of the best ways to experience another place. Here’s why you should always thrift when you travel..
Thrifting uncovers the real hidden gems.
The real hidden gems you’ll find via thrift stores, flea markets, and brocantes aren’t antiques and tchotchkes. Thrifting opens secret access into true immersion. Secondhand shops are almost always located where people actually live. When you follow the trail to a thrift shop, you’ll enter a world far from the tourist track. This is where you’ll often find the best food, most interesting streets, and beloved churches. Thrifting is a portal into the real city.
Thrifting connects you with people, not corporations.
An unframed oil landscape. A silk dress. Antique brass figurines and vessels. Worn crucifixes and weathered statues. None of these things were made for tourists. They came instead from someone's actual life.
Thrift shops offer what no department store can: provenance. When you bring home ceramic feves from Lyon, a wool sweater or lace blouse from Krakow, or homemade wooden hooks from an old man along the Seine, you’re not bringing home a representation of a place. You are bringing home a piece of it.
Your souvenirs will be genuinely original.
Almost every famous, fancy branded product can be purchased from any laptop or airport duty-free shop. But at thrift shops and flea markets, you can find souvenirs that exist in exactly one place in the world, because you are also in exactly that place in the world at exactly that moment. There’s also an element of stewardship: shopping secondhand resists the culture of cheap, forgettable, and disposable. Bringing home thrifted pieces is a form of respect for people and places.
Thrifting leads to great travel stories.
Once at a Paris flea market, I found an antique illustration of alligators. Naturally I decided to buy it for Louisiana reasons. The vendor urged me to put it back. “It’s horrible, monstrous!” she cried, puffing a cigar. “You cannot take these ugly creatures with you!” We argued back and forth for several minutes. She insisted that I was making a terrible mistake, but eventually packaged the print. I’m still not sure what the fuss was about, but the memory of her eccentricity—cigars, red lipstick, wild hair—still makes me laugh. Another time in a flea market, I met a husband and wife team who shared how they started their dream pottery business. A thrift shop owner in Puerto Rico told me a local legend about the cathedral. Boutiques may offer impeccable service, but what fun is that? It’s the difference between being served and being met.
How to find thrift shops when you travel
To find places that don't show up under “antique store” or “thrift shop,” the secret is searching your map app in the local language. Find out what locals call thrift shops in their language and search using those terms. For example:
France: brocante, vide-grenier (garage sale), fripe, friperie, marchés aux puces, Emmaus stores
Poland: antyki, second hand, ciuchy, pchli targ (flea market)
Italy: mercato delle pulci, vintage, usato
Search those terms in your map app and see what turns up. What you find probably won't be in any guidebook or on a curated list—which is, of course, the whole point.
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