London By Mail

Airmail is the best way to send mail home from Britain. Just write “Par Avion—By Airmail” on the top left corner of your envelope or swing by any post office and get a free Airmail label. Aerogrammes, printed sheets that fold into envelopes and travel via airmail, are also available at post offices. For priority shipping, ask for Airsure; it costs £4.20 on top of the actual postage, but your letter will get on the next available flight. If Airsure is not available to the country to which you wish to ship, ask for International Signed For instead; for £3.50, your package will be signed for on delivery. Surface mail is the cheapest and slowest way to send mail, taking one to three months to cross the Atlantic and two to four to cross the Pacific.

Britain’s Royal Mail (☎08457 740 740; www.royalmail.co.uk) is perhaps the best in the world and has taken great care to standardize its rates around the world; use the Royal Mail Postal Calculator (www.royalmail.com) to check rates. From Britain, postcards cost 21p domestically, 42p to send to Europe, and 47p to the rest of the world; airmail letters (up to 100g) are 24p domestically, 48p within Europe, and 78p elsewhere. These are 2nd-class mail rates and take two to three business days to arrive. Next-day delivery is also available for higher prices. International 2nd-class rates are as follows: packages up to 500g cost £5.72 and take five business days to travel around the world including to Australia, Canada, New Zealand, and the US. Packages up to 2kg cost £20.72 and take five days for the same countries. For listings of post offices, see Practical Information .

Sending Mail To Britain

To ensure timely delivery, mark envelopes “Par Avion—By Airmail.” In addition to the standard postage system, Federal Express (Canada and US ☎800-463-3339, Australia 13 26 10, Ireland 1800 535 800, New Zealand 0800 733 339, UK 0845 607 0809; www.fedex.com) handles express mail services to London; they can get a letter from New York to London in two days for US$35.

There are several ways to pick up letters sent to you by friends and relatives while you are abroad. Mail can be sent via poste restante (general delivery) to almost any city or town in the United Kingdom with a post office. Address poste restante letters like so:

POSTE RESTANTE,

[Post office name],

[Post office street address],

LONDON [Post office postcode],

UNITED KINGDOM

Hold for: [Name of Recipient].

The mail will go to a special desk in the central post o.ffice if you don’t specify a post office by street address or postal code. Bring your passport (or other photo ID) for pickup.