When you think about travel souvenirs, it’s often rather frivolous items like fridge magnets and other novelty items. In fact quite often you may not manage to bring souvenirs back from your trips. In some destinations, there’s not enough time, or you might be in such a remote location that there is nothing to bring back. Whilst bringing back travel souvenirs is great fun, what if we could give back whilst travelling, and really pack for a purpose? Wouldn’t the act of giving be the best travel souvenir of all?
Pack For a Purpose
One of our most memorable trips was to Senegal. We were advised to bring as many useful items as we could in our bags – pens, head torches and so on. It was incredibly worthwhile seeing these going directly to the locals who made immediate use of them.
Thanks to an organisation called Pack For A Purpose, you can do something similar. It’s a brilliant initiative and one that can really make a difference to so many childrens’ lives.
Let’s face it, charitable giving is rewarding, but much more so when you know who is benefiting from it. You start by selecting your destination country, then your lodging and choose from the list of items that are needed.
This could be art supplies, Lego, frisbees, or flash reading cards. Even if your lodging isn’t listed, you can still participate.
The organization does not arrange visits for donors to schools as it can have a negative impact on them. If you’re a hotel owner or manager, you can also get involved by adding your lodging to the site.
What to Leave Behind on Your Travels
Books that you’ve finished reading, so that other guests can enjoy them, if there’s a hotel library. To quote Henry Miller: A book is not only a friend, it makes friends for you. When you have possessed a book with mind and spirit, you are enriched. But when you pass it on you are enriched threefold.
Whilst we are on the subject of cool schemes, Book Crossing is dubbed a modern day message in a bottle. You leave a book with a trackable label for someone else to find and then follow where it goes next.
Notebooks that are unused are also very handy. Other useful stationery items are chalk, colored pencils, glue sticks, crayons and pencils.
Polaroid photos for the locals – as long as you get their permission to take them first!
Coins in a fountain. This last one may not be as worthy but it’s not doing harm and will enrich the enterprising locals who fish out the coins. You can do this at the Trevi Fountain in Rome and many other places.
What Not to Leave Behind on Your Travels
Love locks on bridges, especially in Paris. Parts of the famous Pont des Arts have started crumbling under the weight of the estimated 700,00 locks and authorities have been forced to remove them.
Donating second-hand clothes may potentially hamper the development of the clothing industry in Africa, as those items will generally be resold abroad rather than given directly to recipients, making it hard for local manufacturers to compete.
Best Travel Souvenirs
When we can, we love to bring back travel souvenirs, in fact we’d happily single-handedly support local economies with our purchasing if we could. When travelling to Belgium, we always bring back Neuhaus chocolates, they invented the praliné and supply the Royal Court.
When we recently visited Devon, we couldn’t resist bringing back a hand-blown paperweight to remind us of our time there with family.
Would you ever consider trying out Pack for a Purpose or Book Crossing? If you do, we would love to hear how you get on.
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This is such a great initiative – and a wonderful addition to the travel link up! Thanks for bringing it to my attention!
Lauren xx
The Lifestyle Diaries
It’s a clever idea they have there, isn’t it! Wish I’d known about it when I went to Tanzania
What a lovely idea and a completely different take on the subject.
Lots of love,
Angie
SilverSpoon London
Thanks Angie, I enjoyed reading yours too – loved the elephant statue you brought back
That is crazy about the bridge! I heard they are removing all of the locks and not letting people put them up anymore!
Melanie @ meandmr.com
They have their work cut out, I think the locks reappear as fast as they remove them
Like you, I’d much rather give items and know they’re definitely getting to the right people
What an inspirational post, Suze! I love the idea of ‘leaving something back’, especially when you travel to countries where even the smallest object may be appreciated. As for bringing back something, you had me at the chocolates! Everything stops when i see CHOCOLATE.
I’m exactly the same Anda! And currently working my way through a lot of gelato! Thanks very much for your kind words
Wah – I totally forgot about this link up this month :/ I love the idea of leaving something behind though – I always have to make wishes with coins in fountains when I see them – I would be totally broke if I lived in Rome permanently as I would always be throwing my money away!
Still time to write your post, Holly! Link-up ends on the 7th. Just add your post to the widget at the bottom of my, Emma, Rebecca, or Kelly’s posts! We’d love to read about your favorite souvenir 🙂
Would be great to hear about them Holly if you get time, I’d be particulary interested to hear what you suggest people bring back as souvenirs from Canada – maple syrup obligatory of course!
I noticed it’s not just the Trevi fountain, there are quite a few other fountains with coins in them so you would indeed be broke! I’m saving mine for the Trevi fountain though as there’s lots of gelato to spend them on!
Mmm – that is one thing about the trevi fountain – you spend all your pennies on gelato before you even get there!
I haven’t heard of Pack For A Purpose before but now that you’ve introduced me to it, I’m really into the idea. I’m off to check it out now, so thanks for that! 🙂
Thank you for highlighting some very worthy, sustainable, and humanitarian causes in your post, Suze! Definitely something for me to keep in mind for next time. Also: totally agree on the Neuhaus chocolates and the handblown glass is beautiful! xx
Yes bit of a random collection of musings but thought I would do something a bit different! Enjoyed your hosting, great theme!
I like the pack for a purpose idea. I agree with your what to leave behind, books are always welcome
I tend to pack lots of books and don’t get round to reading them which only makes me feel guilty. If I give them away, I feel better despite having not finished/started them and my suitcase is a lot lighter!
This is a great idea, always a good thing to give something back!
I’ll definitely be bearing it in mind for my future travels, I was surprised how many destinations are actually listed so there’s quite a lot of opportunities to get involved
It’s a very atmospheric bridge, particularly at night – most of the main bridges are beautifully lit. Hope you get the chance to go one day
It does seem a pity but they’re the equivalent weight of elephants so they don’t have much choice.
I bet you had some amazing chocolates in Sicily too? I loved all the creamy desserts there
Not really actually – had lots of tiramisu, cannoli’s, gelato and Italian handmade biscuits! Although I did have an extravagant and mindblowingly good chocolate bombe dessert at the restaurant we went to on our final evening (post coming soon ;)) xxx
It started as such a romantic idea, didn’t it. Maybe someone should sell ultra-lightweight plastic locks that you are allowed to put on there – that way everyone is happy!
I’m very glad you liked it Paola, hopefully more and more people will give it a try
great post dear,so sad to read that some part of the love locks will be removed
kisses
www.glamourzone.org
Such a great idea Suze. This is something we could all get involved in that would make a difference to people and I will definitely make sure that either myself or my parents look this up next time we go to India to see family, as they seem to have projects around Delhi.
That’s fantastic Skikha, and hope you have a lovely trip to Delhi
Love your take on this Suze and what a great idea the pack for a purpose is. There is always space in luggage to take something for others!
Wonderful idea. When we are headed to underdeveloped countries we tend to bring things for the kids, little souvenirs from New Zealand. I like the structure of pack for a purpose and will be checking them out before our next trip. There is always room for things like this, especially when traveling with teens who need a bit of packing space to bring back something new.
That’s such a good idea for teens, Rhonda and I hope that yours like the idea
Aw. That is one kind and generous gesture.
Love those travel souvenirs. 🙂
Thank you Lux, hope you get some nice travel souvenirs this year. We’ve just come back from Italy and I got a couple of sunglasses as a memento
Oh I love this idea! I do usually leave books behind, as I always appreciate finding a book at a hotel if I’m fresh out of something to read. Postcards are something I love to collect from my travels–easy, light, and you can do a quick journaling on the back of them to remind you of highlights from the trip!
We left an umbrella when we left Rome yesterday, we’ve got so many at home and hopefully someone will find it useful
A great idea and something I have done now on a few holidays, pens, colouring books, a-z alphabet books and crafts are always well received. I also believe that buying local handmade gifts Hagar better than mass produced nonsense. The love lockets agree with totally not sure that love is killing an iconic bridge that has stood for hundreds of years Lucy x
Yes it’s very ironic that love is killing an iconic bridge isn’t it!
That’s really lovely Cvetina, right back at you!
Glad you liked the post Constantinos, thanks for stopping by
Packing for a Purpose sounds like a lovely idea! Have to agree that chocolates are the perfect thing to bring back, if only they lasted longer 😉
If there’s a chocolate shop where I’m travelling to, I can be relied upon to find it!
What a great idea! We once lugged home a VERY heavy and BIG stone bust of Nefertiti we bought in Egypt – it looks fabulous in our living room and every time we look at it, it reminds us of all the remarkable temples and tombs we ogled there. But now we prefer to bring back good pictures on our camera 🙂 Much easier to transport! So to go with that, the idea of packing with a purpose and taking some much-needed supplies to donate to the country visited is brilliant (and you come home with a lighter suitcase – yeah!) We’d heard that taking school supplies is always welcome. We checked Pack For a Purpose’s website and they really help you figure out what’s particularly needed in particular destinations and how to pack them, eg. how to deflate soccer balls for travel. We’re also happy to see that some of the luxury lodges we’ve just written about in our “travel philanthropy” post are member lodgings of Pack For a Purpose, e.g., chiawa Camp in Zambia. Great post…
Yes there are lots of places that take part in Pack for a Purpose and I really like their advice on what to bring for each destination too
We just found your post through a Google Alert. Better late than never! Thank you so very much for highlighting Pack for a Purpose in your blog. We spent the last several minutes reading the comments and I am overjoyed. As an all-volunteer nonprofit, we benefit greatly from bloggers and others in the media spreading the word about how easy it is to make the trip go farther than the miles you travel.
With gratitude,
Rebecca Rothney
Founder and Chairperson of Pack for a Purpose
You are very welcome, Rebecca!