Sending Mail From Europe
 

I was wondering if anyone could provide any information on ways to send mail while in Europe? I was wondering if hotels will mail letters for you for a small fee, or someother place, or is the only option to find a post office?

Thank you for your help.

Joe

Depends on the country and the hotel. Large hotels often sell stamps and will post letters for you. In a few places stamps are sold at places other than the post office - eg the tobacconist. But it's really no stress to buy stamps and just post a letter - even if you don't speak a word of the language, if you show the clerk an addressed envelope they will invariably figure out you would like to buy a stamps for it.

Sometimes you can buy pre-stamped international postcards which always makes life easy.

&quot;Better&quot; hotels will typically do it for you - - the key is whether they have any stamps to sell you. If not, they are widely sold in <i><b>tobacco</b></i> &quot;shops&quot; or newsstands (might be one in the same). Look for &quot;T&quot; (tabac in France or &quot;tabacchi&quot; in Italy; I forget in Germany). the hotel will surely be able to direct you to a letter box if they prefer that you mail it yourself.

&quot;Stamp&quot; is not a <i>cognate</i> in French, Italian or German

F: timbres (tam-bruh)
I: francobolli (frahn-ko-BOE-lee)
D: Briefmarke (breef-mar-kuh)

Best wishes,

Rex

In some countries no one is allowed to sell stamps except the post office. In others, as mentioned, tobacco shops can also sell them.

If you are mailing them to your home country, be sure to tell the postal clerk to which country you are mailing--there are different valuations on international stamps.

You could bring stamps from home then just drop your postcards into a mail box, couldn't you?

stamps from another country??

Just as easily as you could go your whole vacation spending dollars instead of euros, pounds etc.

Sorry -

I've never seen a hotel where the front desk staff wouldn;t take care of mail for you if there's no concierge or bell captain.

My last two hotels in Paris would not, one was a 2 star, the other a 3 star.
My hotel in Rome a few years ago would not. I didn't try it in other Italian cities since I had no mail to send.
My last, otherwise full-service, hotel in London would not, the PO was only a few blocks away. My hotel in Prague did this last year, but it had as many stars as the Czech Republic awards, so maybe this service is tied to the luxury level.

Ipod Robbie,

&gt;&gt;You could bring stamps from home then just drop your postcards into a mail box, couldn't you? &lt;&lt;

This is meant to be sarcastic, isn't it?? oh, please tell me you were just trying to make a joke!! PLEASE!!! or I'll have to send in your name to Jay Leno for a Jay Walking Episode!!!

Elaine -

I'm surprised. We don;t do 2* but when on vacation (vs business - which is usually 5*) we often do 3* - and send a lot of postcards. And none have ever blinked an eye at doing. Either they have stamps already behind the desk - or they run through their own postage meter - and just send it out with the hotel's own mail.

Here's a story about sending mail from Italy. We were at the Hilton Cavaleri (sp?) in Rome (I think 1998), and we took our stamped postcards to the front desk and asked them to mail them for us. Well, it's been almost 7 years, and no one (in different parts of the country) has ever gotten any of the postcards! I guess &quot;Will you please mail this&quot; sounds in Italian like &quot;Will you please put this in the garbage.&quot; We still wonder if some day our kids and friends will finally get their postcards!

On my long trips to Europe I used to send a lot of postcards to my mother. Some would come in a couple days, some would arrive months and months later, some never did show up. I used to think I should just keep them, wait till I got home and mail them from home (a few blocks away from her). She would have gotten a lot of them quicker that way.

Finding and using the post office is one great way to see that slice of &quot;local life&quot; that travelers often seem to be clamoring for. That and grocery stores are two of my favorite spots.

That said, I would advise the OP to ask at the hotel front desk first (since this seems to be hit or miss whether the service is offered), otherwise just keep your eyes open. Post offices are most likely located somewhere central like near the train station or at a major street intersection.

Or if it is just stamps for post cards, ask when you buy the cards, often merchants sell postcard stamps (with a bit of a mark up).

Last year, in Venice I was told that tabacchi are no longer allowed to sell stamps. I don't know if that is true for other cities.

Just bring your cards home and mail from home - nobody will notice. Unless you want to send a card to co-workers saying &quot;wish you were here?&quot; ;)

aha! but the postmark will be your undoing!
:)

&lt;&lt;aha! but the postmark will be your undoing!&gt;&gt;

Oh, what a funny memory this brings back, from a crazy scheme I actually did once. There were quite a number of people that I wanted to send... not just a post card, but some pictures, and a brief trip report... but of course, I couldn't get that all together while I was there - - so I bought a bunch of postcards, bought and applied <i>francobolli</i> to them, and took them to the main post office (this was in Venice - - a cool place in its own right - - to see the &quot;loading docks&quot;, where boats pull up to, of course)... anyway, I asked that they be hand canceled, and then put them in my suitcase. I referred with a laugh, to &quot;see, here's the proof that I was thinking of you while I was there&quot; as I put the post card, the pictures and &quot;report&quot; (letter) into envelopes, and mailed then, <i><b>from my home</b></i> to the intended recipients!

LOL. So nutty, I can hardly even believe it myself!

LOL Rex, actually that was very clever of you! I like thinking outside of the box.