Exit Through The Gift Shop

A truly great boutique hotel elevates and enhances the destination you’re in. And a truly great hotel boutique lets you take a piece of the experience home with you. We’re thinking something more ambitious than snow globes and sunscreen.

Discerning travelers enjoy a new crop of hotel shops, featuring goods by local artisans, decadent designer pieces, and cult-favorite foods (Walkers Roast Chicken crisps, anyone?). Here are ten of the best:

Le Sirenuse
Positano, Italy
When you’re not busy lounging on your private balcony or captaining a wooden speedboat up the coast, this crimson-and-white 18th century villa turned first-class hotel offers blissful boutique shopping at its beloved boutique, Emporio De Sirenuse. Splurge on leather ballerina flats, sultry swimwear, Carlo Moretti Venetian glass vases, Le Sirenuse’s Eau d’Italie toiletries line, and a wide selection of mouth-blown Murano glass tumblers, ready for a Campari and soda when you are.

The Iron Horse Hotel
Milwaukee, Wisconsin
Located just steps from the Harley-Davidson museum, the Iron Horse fuses old-school biker Americana with modern design aesthetics. Get your fix of open-road devotion with vintage 1907 t-shirts (worn with pride by the hotel staff), various motorcycle accessories, and locally made jewelry with a distinctive biker bent (e.g., leather cuff with beaver-tail accent).

Hotel Le Meurice
Paris, France
If you’re staying at the très élégant Le Meurice, odds are you’re probably not much of a penny-pincher. And the gift shop understands. Most of the high-end merchandise is emblazoned with the stately Le Meurice logo: silver cutlery sets, USB keychains in the hotel’s signature pistachio green, champagne bouchons and posh rubber duckies (“canard de bain”), all celebrating the French art of living — luxuriously.

Ace Hotel New York
New York, NY
The Ace Hotel in New York’s Flatiron district is a thriving colony of full-spectrum coolness, a sort of mecca for the APC set. Guests and natives alike wait calmly in line for Stumptown coffee and No. 7 subs, pack in for lamb burgers at The Breslin, slurp oysters at John Dory, and, of course, shop. Just off the lobby, avant-garde boutique Opening Ceremony pairs big-name designers (Alexander Wang, Kate Moss), indie heroes (Spike Jonze, Chloe Sevigny), and brands (Pendelton, Keds) to create a thrilling mélange of one-of-a-kind-wear. Around the corner, the smaller Project No. 8 is billed as the “anti–souvenir shop,” proffering precious stationery, handcrafted oddities, vintage tennis sneakers, and keepsakes by the likes of Yoko Ono and Tobias Wong.

Rockhouse Hotel
Negril, Jamaica
Yes, there’s a Bob Marley t-shirt or two on display, but the boutique inside the Rockhouse Hotel in Jamaica offers far more than the usual lineup of Rastafarian goods. Browse original artwork from Jamaican artist Karl Ricketts (who can be seen painting all around Negril), handcrafted wooden plates and sugar cane ramekins, aromatherapy from Kingston-based Starfish Oils, small-farmer-grown Jamaican Blue Mountain Coffee, hand-embroidered bags and dresses, and cult favorite Pickapepper Sauce.

The Standard Downtown
Los Angeles, California
The Shop at The Standard specializes in funky, limited-edition products created in partnership with hip brands, local designers, and big-time artists. Recently, they collaborated with KAWS — who made a name for himself with subversive vinyl toys — on a lightbulb. Yes, a lightbulb. The standard filament is replaced with his signature XX, and comes in eye-catching green, red and blue. If you’re not looking to necessarily take home an objet d’art, you can also find utilitarian (and well-priced) staples like black bikinis and board shorts from Quiksilver.

Claridge’s
London, UK
If you find yourself at Claridge’s feeling less than-fabulous, fear not. Just off this famed hotel’s art-deco lobby is your salvation: a Paul Smith boutique. In a serene pink and white space that evokes a glam vintage powder room, this dapper outpost offers straight-off-the-runway womenswear, a smart assortment of menswear, as well as shoes, bags, and wallets steeped in modern, unmistakably British savoir faire.

21c Museum Hotel
Louisville, Kentucky
Ambitious, welcoming and perpetually buzzing, 21c Museum Hotel is a refreshing bastion of southern hospitality and artsy energy in downtown Louisville. Along with the requisite art books and quirky greeting cards, the hotel’s boutique stocks mainly Kentucky designers, from Biz Ruby horse scarves, Louisville Stoneware mugs, Bourbon Barrel sauces, and Elva Fields cheerful multi-stone jewelry. Much like a gallery, the merchandise rotates regularly, so you’ll never see the same goods twice.

Condesa DF
Mexico City, Mexico
Your author spent a few blissful days of her honeymoon at the Condesa DF, a chic design hotel tucked away on a leafy street in Mexico City’s bohemian Condesa district, and it was the only time she has been motivated to steal. See, each room featured this blanket. The Perfect Blanket. Imported from the rug-weaving town of Teotitlán del Valle, it was heavenly, one-of-a-kind, and not for sale. Fortunately, the lobby gift shop offered fun modish ceramics, cool tote bags, and premium tequila as retail therapy — and the five-finger discount was not utilized at this five-star property.

Hotel Le Germain Montreal
Montreal, Canada
The lofty, high-concept Hotel Le Germain has a special secret for the culinary traveler. In addition to the incredible cuisine at the Laurie Raphaël restaurant, the adjacent gift shop stocks a sleek picnic kit filled with gourmet essentials for your next epicurean hunting or fishing excursion — as well as made-in-Québec tableware crafted exclusively for the hotel by local artisans.

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