I went a bit overboard in purchases in Vienna. Either I need a second suitcase ($70 extra on Lufthansa + the cost of a suitcase) or I ship a box weighing 12 kilos and about the size of a ream of copy paper box.
It is now Friday night and we leave Sunday morning. I have tomorrow, Saturday, to accomplish this.
Who/where can I ship a box home to the U.S.? What would the cost be? Can it be done on a Saturday in Vienna?
I'd bite the bullet and check the bag. I've looked into this in the past from other countries, and it was a lot more than $70 and too much paperwork. Especially being Holiday gift mailing time here in the US.
Post office. It's not that hard. DHL is also open. Usually the same place.
I agree with Stan. IMO, the easiest thing to do is go buy a cheap suitcase and check it. We bought a case of wine in Italy, the first of October and just got it, two months later, before the Xmas rush and the winery had filled out all the required paperwork for us.
How important is 'speedy' delivery?
How fragile/durable is it?
If it is durable and when it arrives is critical, the a cheap duffel bag and checking it looks ideal, and probably cheaper than paying for delivery that goes via air.
PS A ream is 500 sheets of paper. Do you mean a 5 ream or 10 ream box size?
I have had the same problem. A nice problem to have. :-)
I shipped a very large box home from Innsbruck, Austria 2 years ago. We went to the post office, bought a box and tape and picked up the necessary paperwork. Then went back to the hotel to pack the box and fill out the paperwork. And back to the post office where they were very helpful and made sure we had the paperwork correctly filled out. If I remember correctly, you just need a general description of the contents (clothes, souvenirs, or whatever) and an estimated value.
I don’t think it cost more than $30 or $40 to ship to the U.S. We filled the box with mostly clothes and used the extra room in our suitcase for all the souvenirs.
Not sure where your hotel is, but this post office is open Saturday 10 -6 (according to Google). Address: Fleischmarkt 19, 1010 Wien, Austria
Good luck!!
Could you put your dirty clothes in a newly- purchased duffle bag, and your shopping items in your regular suitcase? Just a thought.... Good luck!
Embarrassed to say it is espresso beans. 12 one kilo bags. Had a bag two years ago and it was superb. It is unavailable for on line ordering.
Well, at least they're not breakable.
This is a very dated, anecdotal report, and quite possibly not at all useful, but just in case: I was told decades ago that drugs mailed into the US were often packaged with coffee to disguise the smell. It occurs to me that this might slow down the delivery of your coffee beans if you mailed them.
I think you can fairly easily uncover shipping costs on the DHL, UPS and FedEx websites. You just have to find the place where you specify shipping to the US from Austria, rather than vice versa. In many cases postal shipping is cheaper, but in some countries, I think the postal system doesn't handle heavy parcels.
