How long parcels take from Ireland, by destination
Every price we hold carries the transit the carrier quoted with it. This is all of them, at 2 kg, for the cheapest service on each lane and the quickest, with the lanes where our own data looks off flagged rather than tidied up.
How long does a parcel take from Ireland?
Within Ireland, the cheapest service we hold at 2 kg quotes 1–3 days and the quickest quotes next day. To Great Britain the cheapest quotes 1–3 days, with next day available at €34.16. All figures are working days from collection, checked Friday, 14 August.
The number that matters is rarely the fastest one on the lane. It is what the service you are actually going to book quotes, which is usually the cheapest. Both columns are in the table below for that reason.
Lanes where the cheapest service is also the quickest
On 3 lanes this week there is nothing to trade off: the cheapest price we hold is also the quickest quoted service on the lane.
- €42.49
UPS, UPS Express®, 1–3 days
- €25.09
UPS, UPS Standard®, 1–3 days
- €25.09
UPS, UPS Standard®, 1–3 days
Prices from our weekly market check, run Friday, 14 August.
Quoted transit from Ireland, every destination
Read at the 2 kg band so the two columns are comparable. The cheapest column is the honest answer to “how long will mine take”, because it is the one most people book.
| Destination | Cheapest service (working days) | Quickest service (working days) | Services priced |
|---|---|---|---|
| Within Ireland | 1–3 days | Next day | 8 |
| Northern Ireland see note | 6–8 days | 2–3 days | 6 |
| United Kingdom | 1–3 days | Next day | 8 |
| France | 3–4 days | Next day | 14 |
| Germany | 3–4 days | Next day | 15 |
| Spain | 1–3 days | Next day | 15 |
| Italy | 1–3 days | Next day | 15 |
| Netherlands | 3–4 days | Next day | 15 |
| Belgium | 3–4 days | Next day | 15 |
| Portugal | 1–3 days | Next day | 15 |
| Austria | 1–3 days | Next day | 15 |
| Poland | 1–3 days | Next day | 15 |
| Sweden | 1–3 days | Next day | 15 |
| Denmark | 1–3 days | Next day | 15 |
| Finland | 1–3 days | Next day | 16 |
| Czechia | 1–3 days | Next day | 15 |
| Hungary | 1–3 days | Next day | 15 |
| Romania | 1–3 days | Next day | 14 |
| Greece | 1–3 days | Next day | 9 |
| Croatia | 1–3 days | 1–2 days | 8 |
| Luxembourg | 3–4 days | Next day | 12 |
| United States | 4–6 days | 1–2 days | 9 |
| Canada | 1–3 days | 1–3 days | 9 |
| Australia | 2–3 days | 1–3 days | 9 |
| New Zealand | 2–3 days | 1–3 days | 8 |
| China | 5–6 days | 1–2 days | 9 |
| Japan | 1–3 days | 1–2 days | 9 |
| United Arab Emirates | 4–5 days | 2–3 days | 7 |
| Switzerland | 1–3 days | 1–3 days | 12 |
| Norway | 1–3 days | 1–3 days | 12 |
Transit estimates as quoted by each carrier in our weekly market check, run Friday, 14 August. Working days, counted from collection. Quoted, not guaranteed.
Why Northern Ireland looks slow in that table
Because our data on that lane is thin, and we would rather say so than average the problem away.
Northern Ireland quotes 6–8 days in our check, against 1–3 days to Great Britain. That is the wrong way round, and it is a gap in our coverage rather than a fact about the road to Belfast.
Every one of the 6 services that came back on the Northern Ireland lane is a cross-border product, the same service range each carrier sells for a parcel to mainland Europe. Nothing domestic-shaped came back at all, and the domestic-shaped services are the quick ones.
The clearest evidence is that some of those services are also quoted on the domestic lane, at a very different speed:
| Service | Quoted within Ireland | Quoted to Northern Ireland |
|---|---|---|
| GLS, GLS Euro Parcel | 1–3 days | 6–8 days |
| DPD, DPD Europe Parcel | 1–3 days | 6–8 days |
So what should you take from it
Treat our Northern Ireland transit figures as the slow end of what exists, not the market’s best. Faster services to Northern Ireland are sold in Ireland; they just do not come back in our check, so we hold no prices for them and will not pretend otherwise.
For anything light, An Post is worth pricing directly: it charges Northern Ireland at its domestic rates, and no customs declaration is needed in either direction.
The prices we do hold for Northern Ireland are real and bookable. It is the speed on that lane, not the price, that this note is about.
Working days, and when the clock starts
Every estimate on this page is in working days, and the count starts when the parcel is collected or scanned in at a drop-off point. Not when you book it, and not when you pay.
The Friday problem
Book on a Friday afternoon and the collection is usually Monday. A two-day service is then a Wednesday delivery, four calendar days after you paid, and nothing has gone wrong. Most complaints about courier speed are really complaints about this.
Cut-offs
For collections, booking before early afternoon usually gets you a next-working-day pickup. For drop-offs, what matters is the shop’s own last collection of the day, often mid-afternoon and earlier on a Saturday. The exact cut-off belongs to the carrier and appears when you pick a date at booking.
What express actually buys you
On most lanes the quickest service is a multiple of the cheapest, not a few euro more. Worth knowing before paying for a day.
To the United Kingdom at 2 kg this week: €13.79 for UPS at 1–3 days, against €34.16 for FedEx at next day. That is 2.5× the price to move the estimate.
Whether that is worth it depends entirely on the parcel. For a birthday present posted late, obviously. For a Vinted sale, almost never: the buyer was told a date, not a duration.
Prices from our weekly market check, run Friday, 14 August.
What the estimate does not include
Four things, and they are the four that actually delay parcels.
Customs
No carrier includes clearance time in its transit estimate. On any lane outside the EU, including Great Britain, add whatever the parcel spends waiting on a declaration or a duty payment. A badly filled form is the most common cause, and it is the one part of this entirely within your control. What goes on the form.
Failed delivery attempts
A missed doorstep resets the clock by at least a day, and on some services sends the parcel to a depot the recipient then has to visit.
Remote addresses
Estimates are quoted city to city. Islands, glens and anywhere the van goes once a day rather than twice will run to the far end of the range, sometimes past it.
Peak
December is not a normal month for any carrier, and neither is the week after a bank holiday. Nothing in these figures accounts for volume.
Common questions
How long does a parcel take from Ireland to the UK?
The cheapest service we hold from Ireland to the United Kingdom at 2 kg quotes 1–3 days, and the quickest quotes next day. Both are working days from collection, not from booking, and neither includes time held at customs. Checked Friday, 14 August.
How long does a parcel take within Ireland?
Within Ireland the cheapest service we hold at 2 kg quotes 1–3 days, and the quickest quotes next day. Next-day delivery within Ireland generally means booked before an early-afternoon cut-off and collected the same day. Checked Friday, 14 August.
How long does a parcel take from Ireland to Canada?
The cheapest service we hold from Ireland to Canada at 2 kg quotes 1–3 days, and the quickest quotes 1–3 days. Canada is outside the EU, so add whatever time the parcel spends in customs clearance, which no carrier includes in its estimate. Checked Friday, 14 August.
Are courier transit times working days or calendar days?
Working days. Weekends and public holidays do not count, and the count starts when the parcel is collected or scanned in at a drop-off point, not when you pay for it. A parcel booked on a Friday afternoon is usually a Monday collection, which makes a two-day service a Wednesday delivery.
Are these delivery times guaranteed?
No. Every figure on this page is the estimate the carrier quoted when we asked, and estimates are not commitments. Carriers exclude delays at customs, failed delivery attempts and weather from their own estimates, and so do we, because we publish what they quoted rather than what we would like it to be.
Price your own parcel to see the transit quoted beside every price on your lane, or browse the destinations.