Posting replacement shoes ahead

[Sally Forester]

I'd like to post myself a box to retrieve in Leon with a fresh pair of shoes. Love my Hoka Challengers but am noticing breakdown at the 350 mile mark which is affecting my knees. What is the best way to do this? Post extras from US or bring extras on plane and post from Madrid/Pamplona?

 

[mspath]

I'd like to post myself a box to retrieve in Leon with a fresh pair of shoes. Love my Hoka Challengers but am noticing breakdown at the 350 mile mark which is affecting my knees. What is the best way to do this? Post extras from US or bring extras on plane and post from Madrid/Pamplona?

Far cheaper to post shoes within Spain to Leon than to post from US. Furthermore there would be no problem with customs posting from yourself to yourself within Spain.

For more re posting packages in Spain see https://www.caminodesantiago.me/community/threads/poste-restante-in-spain.32512/

Good luck and Buen camino!

 

[t2andreo]

Carry the extra shoes into Spain and post from Pamplona. The Correos will hold packages in Poste Restante (General Delivery) for at least two weeks. There is an urban myth that, if you write PEREGRINO under your address, they will hold it for up to one month. But, no one has validated this yet. Please correct me if you know otherwise for a fact.

Last summer, while I was working at the Pilgrim Office, I asked David from the Correos mini-office there about this. He told me he had never heard of the practice. He knew about the standard two-week hold. That was official policy. But the peregrino thing was news to him.

Another idea that works, especially if you have advance hotel reservations at Leon is to mail the parcel to the hotel with a notation on the outside of the box stating:

See Reservation Number: 34567890, Arriving on da/mo/2016.

In Spanish this would read:

Ver Número de reserva: 34567890, Entrando el 99 / 07 / 2016 (day/month/year).

I have done this and it works. But I cannot say if it works all the time and everywhere. Contact the hotel you plan to stay in to ask if they will hold a parcel for you until you arrive.

I hope this helps.

 

[GreatDane]

Another idea that works, especially if you have advance hotel reservations at Leon is to mail the parcel to the hotel with a notation on the outside of the box stating:
Ver Número de reserva: 34567890, Entrando el 99 / 07 / 2016 (day/month/year).
I have done this and it works. But I cannot say if it works all the time and everywhere. Contact the hotel you plan to stay in to ask if they will hold a parcel for you until you arrive.

I'd contacted my Burgos hotel before hand and they said they'd accept a mailed package there no problem! I also put the reservation number and the arrival date on it. But the Correos still made me pick it up at the Correos instead of my hotel. Right across the river from my hotel so no problem. I must say the efficiency of the Burgos main Correos is the best I have ever encountered!!!

 

[t2andreo]

Did you perhaps mail the parcel from outside the EU? That could cause a hang-up at the Correos.

Otherwise, I cannot think of why the Correos would even be interested in a private parcel being mailed to a private address, the hotel.

Hmmm, the plot thickens...

 

[scruffy1]

Great idea! As long as your knees hold up as well as the shoes you are wearing! Somewhere around Najera if the shoes say "that's all folks you go on ahead", you will need yet another pair. Hoka online says you can find them here:
EPORTES MANZANEDO FCO, GRANDMONTAGNE 26 BURGOS, 09007
Keep the address as an OMG backup if the Post Office or your hotel don't come through.