USA: Mail
Post offices are usually open Monday to Friday from 9am until 5pm, and Saturday from 9am to noon, and there are blue mail boxes on many street corners. At time of publication, mail within the US cost 34¢ for a letter weighing up to an ounce. Air mail between the US and Europe may take a week. Postcards and aerograms are 70¢, while letters weighing up to an ounce (roughly four thin sheets) are 80¢. The last line of the address includes the city or town and an abbreviation denoting the state (California is "CA" and Texas is "TX," for example, though you can spell it in full if you're unsure). The last line also includes a five-figure number - the zip code - denoting the local post office. (The additional four digits that you will sometimes see appended to zip codes are not essential.) Letters that don't carry the zip code may get lost or at least delayed; telephone directories carry a list for their service area. Alternatively, look on the USPS website: .Letters can be sent c/o General Delivery (what's known elsewhere as poste restante) to the one relevant post office in each city (which we've listed in the Guide ). They must include the zip code and will be held for only thirty days before being returned to sender - so make sure there's a return address on the envelope. If you're receiving mail at someone else's address, it should include "c/o" and the regular occupant's name; otherwise it, too, is likely to be returned.
Rules on sending parcels are very rigid: packages must be in special containers bought from post offices and sealed according to their instructions, which are given at the start of the Yellow Pages . To send anything out of the country, you'll need a green customs declaration form, available from a post office.
Copyright Rough Guides Ltd as trustee for its authors. Published by Rough Guides. All rights reserved. The Rough Guides name is a trademark of Rough Guides Ltd.
Copyright © 2006 United States.biz
