How do I receive mail from home along the CF?

[PaulCat]

I can't see to find the post from a few months (or maybe years back) about what to give your friends or family if they want to mail you a letter while on the Camino and pick it up from one of the post offices?

Does anyone know how to do this?

 

[Purky]

See this thread

 

[Avenelite]

I checked the addresses of the major cities along the way and printed a list for close family members who (like me) love to write letters. My almost daily letters to my partner became my diary and I enclosed the pages from the guide book pertaining to the day/s I had just finished as well as small bits of printed trivia, for example; menus, advertisements for albergues, shopping receipts etc. Souvenirs for myself. Some mail from home (Australia) arrived in time for me to collect them at various places, but the writer must leave plenty of time (weeks rather than days) in order to ensure this. Obviously this time frame varies if the mail comes from countries closer to Spain. One letter did not arrive in Longrono and the very helpful personnel assured me that they would forward it to Santiago. It arrived back in Australia many weeks after I did! Equally a letter posted by me (among the many) arrived at my home destination months later. Lesson: Better late than never, and more importantly: Always record the sender's name and address on all mail. Just for interest: when I returned home it was fun to see which letters arrived when, given that I had posted many in very, very small villages. I wrote the date I posted mail on the back of the envelope and the receiver dated them when they arrived; often multiple letters on the same day. By my reckoning, only one permanently went astray. Postcards, as is the case from most countries, took much longer to arrive. Best wishes!

 

[joecamino]

There's no shortage of places to mail a letter. If you want to be able to receive mail, your best bet might be a virtual mailbox service. Most can receive your mail, open and scan it, and notify you with a link for viewing it.
They can then store, forward or shred the physical copy.

I've been happy with Traveling Mailbox, but there are many to choose from.

Have a great Camino!

 

[scruffy1]

I am thoroughly anti-cellphone, virulently so and with the years have not relented. However, my family fears prevailed, worried that while on the Camino I might be kidnapped by the gypsies, skinned alive by the Basques, eaten by bears, or run over by a runaway garbage truck have force me to moderate. The simplest of cellular phones and a Spanish sim-card are a much less complicated solution. Do you really want to spend the time running down the addresses of post offices in Spain and then hunting them down in a major city perhaps to find that due to your own or the Spanish postal system the awaited communication has not yet arrived?

 

[Deleted member 12253]

I am thoroughly anti-cellphone, virulently so and with the years have not relented. However, my family fears prevailed, worried that while on the Camino I might be kidnapped by the gypsies, skinned alive by the Basques, eaten by bears, or run over by a runaway garbage truck have force me to moderate. The simplest of cellular phones and a Spanish sim-card are a much less complicated solution. Do you really want to spend the time running down the addresses of post offices in Spain and then hunting them down in a major city perhaps to find that due to your own or the Spanish postal system the awaited communication has not yet arrived?

What next. Favorite take away delivered from home by drone or helicopter. Walked a few km recently with a peregrine who had a helicopter at nearest airport as he did not want to bus or train or get contaminated by scruffy walkers, his words not mine, tourist holiday or lowly peregrine ?

 

[Anniesantiago]

I just don’t know what to say here