Help Needed With A Spanish Address Please

[Misky]

I don't really know which category to put this in so I'll try "travel". My parents-in-law have moved to Spain (again). I forwarded a parcel of UK post to them in January and it reached their local post office where they collected it. When I sent another parcel in February, using the same address, it's been returned to me marked "address unknown" (but in Spanish). They had been checking with their post office regularly, with the tracking number I gave them, but they were told it hadn't arrived. I'm hoping someone on here can let me know if I should do anything differently. The address I used was "first line - name; second line - street and number; third line - Urb Brismar No 377, fourth line - Santa Pola, fifth line - Gran Alacant 03130, sixth line - SPAIN. I have looked on the various websites but some have different instructions to others, so I thought maybe someone on here might live in Spain, or write to Spain regularly, and could help me out ...

[calmck]

Do I understand correctly that the parcel was returned to you?
Do your parents collect their post from the post office or is it delivered to their address?
If they collect from the post office you need a box or apartado number to go on the package.
I would put Urb. Brismar 377 on second line then street and number on third line.
I always put recipients phone number on packages
Hope this helps

[Misky]

Thanks Calmck. Once they told me the post is delivered to their address, and another time they told me they go to the Post Office to collect it. The first parcel I sent (which they collected from the PO) was collected by them by reference to the Royal Mail tracking number I sent them. I'll try changing the order of the address as you say, and putting their phone number on it too. And yes, the second parcel was returned to me in the UK marked "address unknown". Thank you

[ABerrant]

The address style I am familiar with is:

Name
Street, No.
Urbanizacion ............... Urb. Brisa Mar
Post Code & Locality .... 03130 GRAN ALACANT
Province ...................... ALICANTE
Country ....................... SPAIN


The postal code always precedes the locality.
The next line should be the province.

[Buenchico]

This screen grab, from the website of an estage agency in the same area, shows how the locals write addresses (which basically seems to be the way you've done it anyway):
http://www.upl.co/uploads/Address1553120454.jpg

[Misky]

Thank you both. I think I'll just have to make sure I put a return address on the parcel and hope for the best. I guess there was no hard and fast "correct" answer, when the first parcel was delivered but the second one wasn't! Thank you though x

[ABerrant]

I suppose the closest to a hard and fast "correct" format for addressing is that supplied by the Spanish Post Office (Correos) kindly reproduced in English by the Universal Postal Union.

http://www.upu.int/fileadmin/documentsFiles/activities/addressingUnit/espEn.pdf

[Misky]

Thank you Aberrant - if only the address I have didn't have two extra lines... I've posted it now and will keep my fingers crossed.