What is the best mail forwarder for cruising yachts?

Do you need to order parts for your yacht and have them shipped internationally - and fast?

The answer to that question is yes if you are aboard a yacht cruising to international destinations. You definitely will need to have parts and supplies shipped to you.

And if you have sailed off over the horizon for awhile and have no permanent address how are you going to get your mail sent to you?

You could order things and have the company send your product directly to you but, you will soon discover, if you have not already, many companies in the USA won't ship outside of the good old USA. Or they will rip you off for the international shipping cost. Even Amazon has thousands of products only available to customers in the USA.

So how do you get the mail, parts and goodies you need without any hassles and for a reasonable cost when you are in Port Vila Vanuatu or Noumea, New Caledonia?

Thanks so much bro?

Well, you could get a family member, or maybe a good friend, to agree to send your mail and have your purchases sent to their address. But (speaking from experience here) that's going to get old for whoever you get to agree plus it's also going to cost them (and you) a lot more money to ship stuff internationally than you would pay with a professional mail forwarding service.

Big air freight users, like the mail forwarding services, get big (like 80%) discounts on DHL and FedEx. USPS is now even more expensive than DHL and FedEx and is a lot slower and riskier (in some countries postal employees sometimes decide they would like your goodies more than you would).

What's the best Mail Forwarding Service in the US and Europe?

Over the 45 years we've been cruising in the South Pacific I've tried 5 different USA mail forwarding services. They all had issues; not at first, but within a year or so I tossed them overboard and tried another one.

Until, in 2010, I discovered Shipito.com - and it has been my USA (or Europe) permanent address ever since.

Shipito solved all my ordering and shipping problems and reduced my purchasing and shipping costs to the point where I now order whatever I like, ship it to wherever I happen to be, pay the import duty (unless we are in transit and can import duty free) and get the parts and goodies I need (or want) for LESS than I could buy it locally in the islands. If, that is, I could even find it locally.

It also saves renting a car and driving here and there in a strange city searching for a particular part I need. Especially vexing when, at the end of the day, nobody has it.

Instead I now go to Amazon US, or Ebay, or a specialty online store, find the item in seconds, have it sent to my Shipito Address in Oregon (where there is no state sales tax :-), wait until I have a bunch of things in the Shipito warehouse (they will hold packages for up to 90 days at no cost), and then have Shipito unpack all the items and consolidate just the products in the smallest box possible and ship it DHL express at a whopping great discount directly to wherever we are (they will ship to over 220 countries).

Shipito is 100% the mail forwarding service you need to sign up for if you are aboard a cruising yacht heading for parts unknown.

I have an affiliate account with Shipito - you should get one, too.