We are going down in January and taking a tour that visits a school. I emailed the tour operator asking if I could put together grab bags for the kids, and if so needing an approximate number of students. He said that would be fine. We plan on bringing 30 or so grab bags of a notebook, a few pencils, a pencil sharpener, crayons, markers, colored pencils, a coloring book and then adding a few fun stuff like a few balloons, a bouncy ball, bubbles,jump rope,etc. We figured it would be a little more personal and fun for the children to get a gift instead of just leaving supplies with the teacher or school. We were told the classroom is about 18-20 kids so we are bringing extra bags to give to local kids or if our maid has children give one to her,etc.
We also plan on bringing some personal stuff for the employees of the resort. Stuff they would want but cannot afford. I work in retail and can get great deals on stuff, especially clearance stuff after Christmas. We always have little perfume gift sets,make-up sets clearanced out after Christmas. I figured I would buy a few of the gift sets that have like seven small bottles of different kinds of Estee Lauder perfume(or other designers) and leave one each day for the maid and give others to female hotel staff. Then we'd like to put together little bags for them as well with some fingernail polish/remover, file board, make-up, jewelry to hand out to the employees that stand out to us.
I don't really have a clue what to put in a bag for a male though?? What would you suggest?? Would razors/shave cream/aftershave/cologne be okay?? We clearance out so much stuff that we only get in for Christmas that we call giftables...crank flashlights(no batteries needed),wallets,hankerchief sets,etc.
Would it also be okay to bring used clothes that either don't fit us anymore or that we don't wear anymore?? Not junky stuff that is stained or ripped, I switch wardrobes so often I have plenty that I don't wear. Shoes as well. Where would I take that stuff? I guess if I saw a hotel employee that looked the right size I could give it to them but if not is there a place you can take donations like that?? Same with baby clothes? I can get super cheap baby stuff on clearance at work and have friends and family that would likely donate. I just don't want to pay for extra luggage to take all of this stuff if there is not a reputable place to give it to where I know it goes to a good cause. Also, socks?? Are those expensive there where that would be an okay thing to bring??
We are lucky this time around. We usually travel to Mexico in September and it comes at the worst time for us to have extra money to buy stuff to take as gifts. We do tip extremely well, but don't have the money to bring the extras and figure the money would be more important to them. This time around we are traveling in January so we can stock up on school supplies with the back to school sales here where a notebook is a nickel, a box a crayons fifty cents,folders ten cents,etc. Then we have the after Christmas clearance stuff we can bring as well. My boyfriend gets a bonus every three months so we can afford a couple hundred extra dollars worth of stuff this time around. I think I'm more excited that I can do this on this vacation than they will be to receive it. It's the people that make our vacations so great and I'm excited that I can give them something that may brighten their day.
