Hello,
A firm one carry on bag traveler attending a wedding in Italy additional luggage must be taken. Travel on in Europe following the wedding we would like to send the extra bags home alone.
Suggestions or experiences on shipping services?
Thanks
In 2023, we used the DHL in Florence to ship a large parcel home (largest DHL “standard size” box). Great experience and we would use them again. We were in the store on Friday afternoon (staff were fluent in English) and the box was on our porch and retrieved by our neighbor Monday afternoon. The box and its contents were in excellent condition.
It was not cheap, but worth it to us.
DHL or the mail service would probably be my first choice.
Depends highly on your itinerary, but several times I have started and ended my trip at the same hotel, they offered to hold any extra items until my return, which was nice, but I just did not have anything.
There are specific bag shipping services out there, but I fail to see how they will be cheaper or better than the usual shipping companies (UPS, FedEx, and DHL)
The Mailboxes, Etc stores in Italy are dependable. They pack, do the customs paperwork, and ship. You’ll want a service that is insured and offers easy online tracking.
I also will be traveling to Florence in September for a wedding. Afterwards planning on staying in Europe for 3 months so will also be bringing a separate bag just for my suite and any wedding only attire. Pretty easy to find a DHL or place to ship it back to USA? Any cost estimate for those that have done this before?
Plan on at least 100 euro. You can go to any of the web sites and go a booking until actually pushing the pay button. That will tell what you need to know. And ---- remember it is 90 days out of the preceding 180 days and not 3 months. And both arrival and departure days count.
I have used Send My Bag to ship a bag from the UK to the US. It took four days and was easy to use.
They used DHL but their prices were cheaper than using DHL direct. Send My Bag has a contract with DHL so they can offer lower prices.
Hello,
Thank you all for your helpful suggestions traveling through Florence to and from the wedding DHL shipping is probably the answer.
Thanks
Send my Bag uses DHL, picks up and delivers and helps you with the paperwork to prove these are your own used items to avoid paying duty.
As posted above, our parcel was large and a little on the heavy side. We were shipping a large pan, a pasta machine with attachments and 3 jars of passata. - A friend of ours was closing her kitchen store and she saved these items for us…
I looked at our credit card statements and it was around $230, and that was when the exchange rate was better.
Depending on how small you can “squish” your stuff, you are probably looking at $100 to start.
We used the DHL store near Mercato Centrale - Via Faenza 72; their service and communication were excellent.
These prices seem high to me. We sent over 30 pounds of clothing and books back home from Germany last summer, and it cost us about 50 euros. Slowest freight possible was selected. Everything was packed into a cardboard box, which cost us maybe another 4 euros.
I've used Mailboxes etc. several times to send extra clothes home to free up space in my luggage or because of weather changes during travel. I particularly like the store in Florence in the area of the train station on the same street as the Santa Maria Novella perfume store. The ladies who run it are very kind and helpful. I once had them hold a box for about a week before sending it out so I'd be back home in time for it to arrive.
Regarding price, it can vary a lot depending on how fast you want the bag back home. If you don't need the items for a while, you can save a bit of money by sending them by ship. DHL will usually give you an option to choose method and thus price.
If it's just clothing, I would use the post office.
I've recently shipped purchases (food products) with the help of my hotels in Italy and in Spain.
They help me pack it up--they provide a carton and the tape. (I always travel now with scissors, tape and some bubble wrap; but be careful if you are carrying scissors in checked luggage and plan to take the train).
The hotel packs it up and calls the shipper, which has been, in most cases, DHL. A carton smaller than a wine case, packed with jars of food, costs me a little more than 100 euro to ship to the US. I pay online, direct to the shipper.
