I have always loved National Geographic magaines. The photos, the exotic places, everything about National Geographic has inspired my love of travel. You can imagine how thrilled I was when I stumbled across Novica.com A global shopping market with items from all around the world that works in association with National Geographic.

Browsing through the website is a visual delight and, for this traveling fanatic, a great resource on deciding where to travel next ((place with cool art always make the list)) When I travel I always try to visit artisan markets, now with Novica, I can visit international artists all year long.

Novica.com has everything from Home Decor to Musical Instruments and everything in between. You can search for items by category, key word, or even region. Additionally, there are daily deals<<<—love, and a $7 discount for first time customers.

After spending way too much time on the site I finally decided to order a set of Central American bird ornaments from Guatemala as a momento of our Costa Rican trip last Christmas and a Alpaca blend scarf from the Andes for Alan.

I was thrilled to see that the items aren’t just stored in a warehouse in the U.S., but they are actually shipped from their country of origin. Now, I know you are thinking that the shipping fees but be awful, but they are really reasonable. I paid around $8 for the birds to be shipped because I needed them before Christmas so I paid a rush fee. The scarf was $2.99 to ship. That is cheaper than what many online stores charge.

 

This is the FedEx route for the birds:

My hand painted birds arrived first. The box arrived wrapped so nicely with a little doll treasure on the front. Inside was a nice postcard from the artist and a little booklet about them.

 

 

 

Inside were 6 hand painted ceramic birds that depict Central America. Ahhh…it took me back to our vacation which is the exact experience I was looking for. I really like the quality of these ceramic birds and know that we will enjoy them for years to come. 

I’m still waiting on the arrival of Alan’s scarf. I expect it to arrive any day. I might have to end up keeping it for myself

If you are looking for a unique gift for yourself or someone else I really recommend shopping at Novica.com. Want to learn more? Watch this great video:

Happy Shopping,