I was recently on vacation at Glacier National Park and as paart of the tour we went into Canada and stayed at the Prince of Wales Hotel. We sent ourselves some post cards from there and they haven’t arrived. I was wondering if we need extra postage to mail cards from Canada to the US? We were sold Canadian post card stamps and I wonder if we needed to specify that we were mailing cards to the US to get the correct postage?
Anyone know?
Yes. Canada post maintains 3 rates: 63¢ domestic (within Canada); $1.10 to the US; and $1.85 to other countries (“international”). Link. This rate for “letters” includes postcards–anything up to 30 grams.
Nothing ever goes from Canada to the US or vice versa in less than about ten days. It has to go through a customs bottleneck.
You were pretty local to me, actually–Waterton National Park, where the Prince of Wales is, is only about an hour away. I often go there for a day visit on the weekends. And I’m familiar with the Prince of Wales; as sometimes, I’ll have lunch there–there’s a great view of the lake and the mountains from the hotel.
That being said, Waterton townsite itself might as well be more remote than it seems. While the national park is open year-round, Waterton town really is a small summer town, and pretty much closes down in the winter (there is only one hotel and restaurant open all year round, and most businesses and homes are boarded up for the winter). There is only one road in or out, and it is likely that Canada Post makes one visit a day, even in summer–one truck, to drop off mail for the town, and the same truck to pick up mail from the town. Your card would go in that truck from Waterton to Lethbridge, then via truck to Calgary, and then possibly via air to the US–unless it has to go to Vancouver first.
In other words, be patient. Even if you were a few cents shy of correct Canada-to-US postage, it’s only a tourist’s postcard. I can’t imagine it being returned, and I’m sure it will eventually get to your location.
Thanks I will remain patient.
We took the red buses from one old railway hotel to the next one. I am glad we had someone else driving over the going to the sun road so that we were able to take in the scenery, The driver needs to pay attention to the road , as it is narrow and not very straight.
All of the lodges were really cool. The Prince of Wales sitting alone overlooking the lake and town in the howling wind was really unique.
I’ve seen those red buses many times outside the Prince of Wales. They are really quite unique, and as far as I know, they are only in service in Glacier-Waterton. Here’s one photo, and here’s another, for those who may not know what we’re talking about.
It is a unique place. The central lobby, extending up a number of storeys, the rickety elevator, and the “models” of the park’s topography on the lobby walls. Laura Bush visited once, when her husband was the US president, and her photo is on display, looking at the topographic models. So is that of the Prince of Wales himself–the man who would become Edward VIII, who would abdicate the throne in 1936.
You visited a very unique piece of Canadian-American history, as the Prince of Wales was a railway hotel, but unlike other Canadian railway hotels, it was not built by a Canadian railway. It was built by the US-based Great Northern Railway, during American Prohibition. In other words, it was built to give US tourists who took the railway, a place to stay and drink legally. The hotel’s “Windsor Lounge” remains open to this day, and is a testament to those Prohibition days. As I said upthread, I have often had lunch (a beer or two and a meal) in that lounge.
And the wind never lets up–you do not wear a hat, of any sort, if you plan to walk around the Prince of Wales. The wind is always howling. I’ve never known it to stop, or even slow down, when I’ve been there.
I’m glad to hear that you enjoyed your visit. Should you visit again, let me know–we’ll meet in the Windsor Lounge, and toast Prohibition–which gave us such a nice place to have a beer. 
Just curious: Why were you sending yourselves post cards? Is that something people do, and I just never heard of it?
My wife always sends postcards to us and more traditionally to other people. She likes to use them as sort of a mini traveling diary. I don’t know of anyone else that sends postcards to themselves but that is what she does.
It is fun to see how fast the postal systems of where we visit work. Post cards we sent from the Vatican arrived much quicker than post cards we sent from Rome.
We sent a postcard from Leamington, Ontario about 2 weeks ago, and it still hasn’t arrived. In Michigan. We could have driven it to its destination in about 3 hours :mad:
Usually if you ask for stamps they ask where you’re sending them too. If you were somehow obviously American (;)) then you might have been given the international stamps anyway. Do you recall if they had a value on them or just a letter or something?
Postcards from Prague took a week or two to get to the US. Postcards from Debrecen, Hungary took almost two months.
Those red busses look like a hoot to travel in. How were they?
Nitpick:
Unique is singular. There can be no degrees of uniqueness - quite unique, fairly unique. A thing is either unique or it is not.
Words have multiple definitions in the real world. Or, I guess you could say unique isn’t that unique:
Often true..but I send things to Canada from Florida, and receive things back from Canada, on a fairly regular basis. We use overnight shipping, and it works as advertised.
Granted, these are done by a major Canadian company. So postcards might be handled differently.
