We are traveling to Italy with kids and thought it might be useful to send our voluminous luggage (strollers, crib, etc.) ahead by a delivery service. Has anyone used one of these services? What did you think? Any of them deliver to Italy (Rome, I guess)?

Hi,

Have you contacted UPS or FedEx?

I've traveled to Europe with an infant.

Hotels have cribs, and we used the stroller at the airports, etc. What else would you need to ship?

we are renting a house with no crib, so need to bring one. it's a manageable portable crib, but we'll also have car seats, a stroller, a backpack carrier and clothes. a lot of stuff! i was hoping to front load, but i'm not sure i can ship by fedex or ups without paying customs, etc.

Hi txtree,

Check with UPS and FEDEX, but if you are shipping used goods for personal use you shouldn't have to pay any customs fees.

DHL also ships internationally and I've used them to ship personal items from the UK to the US and also from the US to Milan. You don't have to pay duty on items that belong to you but you will be filling out paperwork for a month of Sundays to accomplish this task. And it is NOT cheap. If you can afford to ship the stuff, why not consider checking the car seats and luggage and purchasing a crib and stroller in Italy? Italian design in the kid themed market is very cool.

I wouldn'

Too swift with the "post" key. Meant to finish by saying that I wouldn't do it. But if you're still interesting the websites for FedEx, UPS and DHL have info.

There are a bunch of different websites to look at. I have been getting quotes myself, it is expensive, but try some of these:
www.theluggageclub.com (I have gotten the best rate from them, much better than UPS),
www.866shipbags.com, http://www.luggagefree.com, http://www.luggageforward.com, http://www.firstluggage.com
Most of these websites have quick estimate features, and those that I e-mailed were very responsive and got back to me quickly.