How to ship packages from Thailand to the United States? Use DHL or Thai post office?

What is the best way to ship packages from Thailand to the U.S.?

One of the questions I have been asked by tourists coming to Thailand more times than I can count is how to ship packages from Thailand to the United States?

After all, many tourists buy far too many things while on holiday in the Land of Smiles, and then need to get them home.

Being an American company, however, some Americans think using DHL is the way to go.

Is that true? Or is there a better alternative? Particularly when it comes to price?

How to ship packages from Thailand to the United States

Honestly, I am just going to keep this simple.

In most cases, using the Thai post office, aka Thailand Post, is preferable to using DHL.

Why?

For so many different reasons:

Thailand Post is cheaper than both DHL and Federal Express.
There are post offices all over Bangkok, and all over most major Thai towns. Even smaller towns will have at least one branch. That makes it easy to drop off a package, while on your way to do something else, and not have to make a special trip to DHL or FedEx.
There are also Thailand Post kiosks in many of the country’s shopping malls. They offer most Thailand Post services should you be too far from an actual post office location.
Thailand Post has a number of different price options, depending on if you want the package to arrive in the U.S. within a couple of days, or a week or longer.
The Thai post office is extremely efficient and rarely loses packages that are shipped through them. In fact, in 15-plus years of shipping packages from Thailand to the United States, I have never had one disappear between Thailand and the United States. I have, however, had packages disappear in the U.S., which I was able to track as I registered the package before shipping it.
The staff at Thailand Post is helpful, and speak English. They will help you complete customs forms, they will tell you about the options regarding registration, tracking and insurance, and they will usually do it all with a smile.
You can have your package wrapped at the post office for an extremely low fee, so you do not even have to wrap it yourself. They also sell large brown envelopes, boxes and any other packaging material you may need at low prices.

To see what a typical Thai post office looks like, check out the video below.

And notice too, even when the post office employee asks him why he is filming in the post office (usually a no-no in most countries), he is asked with a smile and treated with respect.

For more information on how to ship packages from Thailand to the United States, check out Thailand Post’s website.

You can also find the location of the closest post office to you from their website, and even calculate how much your package will cost with their handy online calculator.