AIBU to post this here because I need a quick answer? 😬

[Persephone70]

I need to send a parcel to Canada, but have never had to send one there before. It is really important (to me) that I get it there for September 30th….. does anybody know how long it will take, roughly? Have I missed the boat already?!

Is your Google broken?

www.royalmail.com/sending/international/country-guides/canada

As above. This is what google is for 😂

Or go old style and go to a post office and talk to a person …

www.parcelforce.com/worldwide-directory/canada

YABU

Thanks for all the helpful information. Of course I Googled it, but all sites say that there are delays with parcel delivery, so wondered if anybody had actual experience of doing this recently. Will happily go to a Post office when it is open, but need to wait in for the item to be delivered to me before I attempt to forward it to Canada.

I thought Mumsnet might be a helpful place to ask the question, but maybe not. Never mind.

but need to wait in for the item to be delivered to me before I attempt to forward it to Canada.

If you don't have the item in your possession yet then it's impossible to answer your question, as we have no idea when you'll be sending it.

@Persephone70 ignore them, obviously real life information is different to what the post office put on their website page- and anyone who disagrees has clearly never used the post.
You'll be too late now for the cheaper options, but probably could pay a small fortune to have it shipped faster. You can organise this online and have it collected at your door- but I find it better to go into the post office for this and speak to them. Again, the quality of service and information depends on your individual post office, so don't tolerate people being rude to you for asking questions.
Summing up, you could probably still make it but it will cost you.

I actually wouldn’t use Royal Mail or Parcel Force, for overseas parcels for my shop I use UPS. Use one of the parcel comparison sites as they’ll give you the best options and some sites will give you a discount to your first parcel. I think it’ll be right with the date, parcels can sit in customs for ages! @Persephone70

*tight with the date.

YANBU to ask for people's recent experiences, it's varied hugely over the past couple of years.

Depends where in Canada too - probably enough time to get it to Vancouver or any of the main depots for airmail, but if its got to be transported a significant distance the other side you may struggle. We tend to add a week to the estimates for shipping to our cousins because of that.

I don't think it will get there by the 30th if you haven't even received it yourself yet!

I would go and ask at the post office

I sent a birthday card to Canada at the beginning of July it got there 4 weeks later.

If you haven't even got it yet you have pretty much zero chance of it getting there by next thursday.

Try Parcel Monkey online it gives you a choice of carriers. I send parcels to Canada all the time. Canadian parcel service has been crap for years so even if it gets to Canada depending on what's in the parcel and where it's going it probably won't arrive on the specified time.

The Post Office is pretty much always the most expensive option.

Use a courier if you can. It took three weeks for a book to reach me in Ireland by post from England!

Postal service in Canada is truly awful, it will be shipped from here pretty quickly but once it actually gets to Canada it can take weeks for them to bother delivering it. (I have Canadian relatives who constantly complain about their postal service.)

Yes UPS or DHL would be more reliable at the moment Roysl mail is not great now.

It’s really unlikely to get there for the 30th. Any chance you could reorder it from the US and return the one coming to you?

I’ve send four or five work parcels to Canada in the last month or so and none have arrived quicker than four weeks.

Thank you to those who have given some real life information, that is what I was hoping for really 😊. It is being delivered to me between 10-11am today, then I can forward it on, so I thought whilst I was waiting for it to get here I would try and find out what would be my best bet. Pretty much thought I had cut it too fine, but having never posted anything internationally and everywhere saying ‘delays’, I just thought there would be somebody on here who had more of a clue than me (that wouldn’t be difficult!).

Canadian postal service always strike at Christmas too. I send my Christmas parcels around this time of year because of this problem.

Canadian customs has a reputation for being very picky about the correct presentation of international parcels. It might be worth checking on their website and making sure that you put (for example) the return address and customs label in exactly the right position.

@JaneJeffer

Use a courier if you can. It took three weeks for a book to reach me in Ireland by post from England!

Blimey, that is bad!

I’ve stopped sending to Italy because every parcel tends to go missing.

If people are sending gifts overseas for Christmas, I’d recommend buying/posting in October to have the best chance of it reaching the destination on time.

…..and just read all the latest comments about how long post takes to get there, I think I need to get A LOT more organised if this is going to be a regular thing! Thank you all, at least now I know the reality, I very obviously didn’t have a clue 😂.