BootsnAll Travel Community

I've never travelled around when I have had to accomodate for major changes in weather. As I want to start my travels snowboarding in Chile/Argentina, I'll need to bring my equipment along with jacket/snowpants/winter gear/etc.

Afterwards, I want to start heading into Brazil, Ecuador, Peru, etc. and by that time it will be summer and I don't want to be lugging all my winter stuff around. I can imagine it's going to be so expensive to ship all my stuff home (weight and size of snowboard gear). And is it even safe to do so? Are there any alternatives that anyone's used? Any info would be much appreciated.

i've shipped home about 12kg of stuff that i picked up or no longer needed from thailand, which is supposed to be safe to ship from. can't say it was cheap....say US$50 for the slowest surface/sea mail, but it beat dragging it around or rolling the dice with the airlines and their weight limits.

a few weeks storage in a hotel in a major city that you are flying in and out of might be an option.

In my experience, it is not safe to send stuff home...

On my last trip, I sent back three packages... Number one made it (air-mail from Mexico), the second never made it ("insured" air-mail from Guatemala) and the third (which I spent $150 on, sending by the supposedly safe DHL, from Peru) made it - but with several items missing.

I've shipped stuff home from the UK before, and had it go missing... So has a friend of mine.

My personal philosophy when I ship something is, if I see it again it's a pleasant surprise. If not, I can live without it

Kath

Doh! Not the kind of response I was hoping for but kind of expected. Thanks for the replies so far, anyone else? Especially from South America (Chile, Argentina most likely)

Can't you rent snowboard equipment?

I mailed stuff home from Europe and it went fine, but S America might be different. I'd suggest trying to use a reputable carrier--like FedEx, DHL (even though someone did have bad experiences...better than Peru Post or whatever I'm guesing), etc--and your chances will be greater.

Of course you also should insure it and expect that you might lose everything.