Has anyone sent a "care package" to a student studying abroad?
 

My daughter will be in France for 2 months this summer on a study abroad program. She will celebrate her birthday while she is there and I'm considering sending her a "care package". I know there are a lot of companies that do this kind of thing but I was wondering if anyone can recommend one that they've used for an overseas destination.

Consider ordering a "care package" from Paris. When my niece was in London I sent her a basket from Harrod's and that worked great.

My daughter studied in Rome this past semester and celebrated her birthday while there. I arranged for flowers to be delivered to her along with a note in Italian. She loved it. Sending packages from the US is very expensive.

My daughter goes to school in London and I usually put money into her account so she can withdraw it to get what she wants. Sending packages to europe is not just expensive it is criminal. Listen to Marija or Louisia.

I have been on the sending and receiving end of many a care package thanks to summers at camp and years spent studying abroad. No one I know has ever used a company because generally they aren't bespoke enough. If she is over there for 2 months, you hardly have time to send a box, as they can take forever (even if you use the fast service). However, if you get the international priority from the post office, you are given a pretty large envelope and you can get quite a bit in there.

That said, I think that sending material things is not such a good idea because she will already have a lot of stuff (even if she got there light, she will buy) and she is away for a very short amount of time (2 months is nothing when you are studying abroad. . . though the first 2 months are always the hardest).

I second the idea of putting money in her account, and flowers are always a wonderful idea. If you still want to send something material, do the international priority and send her something small and usable.

You can send books thru amazon.com to Europe.

Also realize that on the other end there may be customs charges that she will have to pay to pick up your package from the post office.

Yes it is very expensive. But if your daughter happens to mention something that she really misses, like some special candy or food, you might mail her some if it is not big or heavy.

I have the problem in reverse. The things I want are in France and here I am in Michigan.

I sent my cousin a care package when she was studying in Italy last year. I think I paid about $30 for a small box (5-6 lbs.). Yes, it was a bit expensive considering the stuff I bought weren't even as expensive as the postage! But she was thrilled to get something from home.

I just used the U.S. postal system because it was the cheapest for what I wanted to send.

I just wanted to post back in case anyone else is considering doing this. I ended up using a company called sendcare.com and they were great! They allow you to customize your package so I was able to choose the snack items that I knew my daughter liked. The package arrived a few days before her birthday and the shipping to France was $15 which seemed very reasonable to me. She said that the packaging was very nice and everything arrived in good condition.

welcome to fodors

As a grad student in Germany, I received a well-meaning care package from an in-law.

Unfortunately, the package was held in a customs office and, in order to retrieve the package I had to travel to an institutional building on the outskirts of the city where I was interviewed by a customs officer on the contents of the package, which included some food items and small gifts. The contents were regarded with some skepticism and I had to convince the agents that I was not importing anything for resale. I also had to identify the ingredients of the various food items and packages.

I may have also had to pay some sort of import or duty fee in order to take the package home with me. It took the better part of the morning and was rather stressful and inconvenient, certainly not worth the hassle for what were essentially affectionate tokens rather than anything we really needed.

$15 is really reasonable, that is a very good rate.

For anyone doing this from the US to Europe beware of custom charges on the receiving end. As mentioned by other experienced expats here this can be more of a headache than worth.

If you reflect a value on the outside over a certain amount.. the receiver will pay ( in Spain, for example) 21% tax on the entire box value and shipping included in that calculation.
Finding a European based company would be the best way to go.. amazon.co.uk or similar. That way the package originates in Europe and will not incur those fees and shipping should be cheaper as well.

It was $15 in 2006