Poste Restante

My blog is subtitled, “travel experiences, ideas and tips,” and not having had too many real tips, I thought I would post a really practical entry today: poste restante.

French for “mail remaining,” poste restante on a piece of mail indicates to the postmaster that the mail, instead of being delivered, should be kept at the post office indicated for pickup by the addressee. It is a service offered by most postal systems around the world, usually reliably and efficiently, and is invaluably useful for travelers who do not have a fixed address. Generally speaking, the mail should be addressed “NAME, poste restante, CITY general/main/branch post office, COUNTRY.” More specific labeling instructions should be available by country. To pick up the mail, you should take your passport.

In my most recent usage, I delivered a package of travel books to myself, from Hong Kong to Bombay. These are books to be used in my next stage of travels (the Middle East), and it saved me the trouble of either lugging them all around India or searching for the proper titles in India or the Middle East (which would likely be very time consuming and costly). I’ve also asked a friend to send me additional books later on my trip (since most post offices will only hold poste restante mail for a maximum of thirty days). We’ve also used poste restante to ship packages within a country–when we purchased a large souvenir early in our Ethiopia trip, we sent it back to the Addis Ababa post office so that we could pick it up on our way out of Ethiopia (because mailing internationally from Ethiopia is very expensive).

The Bombay post office even bothered to retape, then twine and wax seal my box after customs inspection.