Travelling With Luggage in the UK? Try This £3.99 InPost Travel Hack to Post Bags Home Instead

If you’re travelling by trains or planes in the UK, there’s an easier way to transport your luggage: InPost. I recently used InPost to send my luggage home from my parents in the Midlands to the sunny south coast of Portsmouth where I live – it was so easy, and cheap!

Travelling around the UK by train is one of my favourite ways to get around. It’s scenic, relatively easy, and you can avoid the stress of airports and traffic jams. But there is one downside: luggage.

Anyone who’s travelled with a suitcase, a backpack, shopping bags and a child in tow will know the feeling. Trying to juggle everything while navigating crowded stations, stairs, lifts that are out of order and escalators is not exactly relaxing.

I’ve recently discovered a simple travel hack that makes travelling with luggage in the UK much easier: posting your things home using InPost lockers.

And honestly? I’ll be doing this whenever I can.

The problem with travelling with luggage in the UK

The idea for this came after a recent trip to my parents’ house in the Midlands.

Reggie and I travelled there by train for a few days, which was straightforward enough. But as often happens when I visit, we didn’t leave with the same amount of luggage we arrived with.

My parents had given us a few bits for Reggie, and the New Life charity shop in Burton on Trent (me fave) had a special on brand new Levi jeans so I decided to buy four pairs. Total replenish of my ageing, fading, post-baby jegging selection.

Anyway, what started as one manageable bag on the way up had turned into a much bigger pile of stuff to take back.

If you’ve travelled by train in the UK with kids, you’ll know the problem. You’re trying to:

• Carry your luggage
• Keep hold of your child
• Navigate escalators and platforms
• Avoid blocking busy commuters

Doing all of that at somewhere like London Euston or Birmingham New Street can quickly become stressful.

So instead of carrying everything home, I decided to try something different.

Simple travel hack: post your luggage home

Rather than struggle with extra bags, I packed everything into a box and sent it home using an InPost locker.

If you haven’t used them before, InPost lockers are those bright automated parcel lockers you’ll often see outside supermarkets, petrol stations and convenience stores.

They’re designed so you can send or collect parcels without needing to queue in a post office.

For my parcel, I simply:

1. Packed everything into a box
2. Measured it to make sure it fitted the size category
3. Booked the postage online
4. Dropped it off at a local InPost locker
5. Waited

The locker I used was conveniently located at the Co-op down the road from my parents’ house, and I sent the parcel to a locker near my home at the Esso garage close to where I live.

The whole process took minutes. In fact next time it’d probably take a minute.

No queues, no post office, no stress

One of the things I loved most about using InPost was how quick and easy it was.

There was:

• No queue
• No counter
• No forms to fill in

You simply scan your code at the locker, the door pops open, you put the parcel in, close the door and you’re done.

That’s it.

Anyone who’s tried to stand in a busy Post Office queue with a toddler will appreciate just how appealing that is.

It also meant I didn’t have to attempt the classic juggling act of carrying luggage while managing a child on crowded London escalators.

That alone made it worth it.

It cost just £3.99 to post my luggage

Even better, that large box only cost £3.99 to send.

For something that saved me carrying a bulky box on trains, through stations and onto escalators, that felt like a bargain.

When you compare that with:

• Paying for extra luggage on flights
• Taking taxis because your bags are too heavy
• Or just the sheer hassle of carrying everything

…it’s a really smart way to travel lighter.

If you’re travelling around the UK by train this year, it’s definitely a budget travel trick worth knowing.

How long did delivery take?

I posted the parcel on a Saturday afternoon at about 2:30pm.

On Thursday, I received a message around 2pm saying the parcel had arrived at the locker near my house.

So it took 3.5 working days, or 5 days in total.

Then all I had to do was walk to my local InPost locker, scan the code on my phone and the door opened with my parcel inside.

Easy.

Perfect for UK train travel

If you travel frequently by train in the UK, this trick can make your journeys far more comfortable.

Instead of dragging multiple bags through stations, you can simply send some of your items ahead.

It’s particularly useful for things like:

• Extra clothes
• Souvenirs and shopping
• Kids’ toys and gifts from relatives
• Bulky items you don’t want to carry

It means you can travel home with just your essentials, making the journey far easier and more pleasurable and relaxing.

Also great for UK holidays

This isn’t just useful when visiting family. It’s also a brilliant hack for UK holidays, but bear in mind to send a few days in advance so it can get to your destination.

You could use InPost to send items home after:

• A weekend city break
• A festival trip
• A family holiday with lots of souvenirs
• A shopping trip somewhere like London or Manchester

Instead of squeezing everything into your suitcase, you can simply ship the extras home.

Why I’ll definitely do this again

After trying it once, I can honestly say this is a travel hack I’ll definitely use again.

It saved me:

• Carrying extra luggage
• Managing multiple bags with a child
• Dealing with crowded train stations

And it cost less than a coffee, basically.

When the parcel arrived, it felt like a little win. Everything had made it home safely, and I hadn’t had to carry it across half the country.

What a bargain!

For me, it turned a potentially stressful journey home into a much simpler one.

And for £3.99, it felt like a small price to pay for a lot less hassle. In fact, an absolute bargain!