Postcrossing Blog

This is such a great feature. I am curious, when in travel mode, do you "count" as a Postcrosser in the country you are traveling in? For example, I have more than 1000 cards sent and am traveling to Peru. If I go into "Travel Mode" while I am there, will I be listed as the top Peruvian Postcrosser, or is only people whose home base is in a country who appear on the list?

@ColorfulCourtney Your travel destination is not made public anywhere... so I'm afraid you won't be showing up on Peru's rankings.

Any postcards you send from there will count as sent from that country though! So by the end of your trip (or when the postcards are registered), Peru will have a few more postcards sent from there. 😊

That sounds like a great new feature! I will definitely try it out on my next trip!

This is a great feature for expats who travel back and forth between their home country (postcrossing speaking) and their country of origin. I’ll certainly try it out when spending the yearend holidays with my family.

This sounds so great and I might have to find an excuse to go travelling now...

Thank you very much for implementing this!

Great ! What a wonderful idea ! I will use that new feature as soon as possible i.e. this next March from Indonesia instead from France ! Cool !

Hey, this is a fantastic new feature and brings more variety into countries you can receive! Thank you for adding it! I will def. use this feature on my next trip! 📮

I've sent some postcards in travel mode last week while on vacation in Hongkong. It felt a little strange to write HK-... instead of DE-..., but it is way better than sending a postcard with DE ID will on vacation abroad. Well, let's see how the recipients think about it, but I like this new feature:-)

Great news for all active travelers!
Thanks.

Really nice also to send/receive from special countries! Such as the Aland Islands, African countries etcetera!

That sounds like a wonderful feature! 😊✈︎ I will be in a different country for four weeks over Christmas so I am wondering if I should set my account to travel mode a bit earlier so postcards don't arrive while I am gone? 🤔

Awesome!! I'm so happy to see this new feature!

I am glad that you've introduced this. Sending postcards to near and dear ones when on a holiday has been a long-established tradition. I am sure many postcrossers will gain from this.

@Honeysong We'd recommend setting your account inactive some weeks in advance, so that postcards stop being sent to you. You can keep sending them while inactive, if you'd like.

When you're in your travel destination, change from Inactive to Travel Mode... et voilà! :)

This is great, thank you for that!!! :)

@meiadeleite Wonderful, thank you :)

If the travel mode hadn't been implemented I would have just sad it to inactive, so this is a lot more exciting 🎉

I love it! Thank you!

This is perfect for me!! Can't wait to use it during my next travels!

I'm glad to see Lynda helping the site by using her trips abroad to send postcards!

I love this so much!!

Thank you!!! I'm very excited about this! I travel to rare (for Postcrossing) countries for work and always send cards. People are excited to receive cards from Ethiopia, Mozambique, and Bangladesh, but sad when they register them as US-###. Is there a way to go back and re-class old postcards?

Also, for US Postcrossers, USPS now has a service that emails scans of your mail (envelope/back of postcard only). So, it is possible to register cards while away.

I can't believe you've made this happen, I wanted it for so long! Thank you, can't wait to try it :)

Something so simple and sooooo amazing! :D

This is absolutely great! I am longing for my next trip to try it. :-)

How do you make sure that this new feature is not abused? In the FAQ you write: "If you're traveling abroad, the Postcard IDs will also be from your travel country — but you'll need to physically be in that country in order to request addresses, so that we can check that your location is a match." But how will you check that people are really where they pretend to be? I already see my mailbox flooded with cards from Germany, but exotic postcard ID.

Ooooooooooooh, what a GREAT idea!!!
This shoul'dve been available when I travelled to Armenia :-))) I sent a lot of postcards from there to private contacts, and I would've loved to send official pc cards with an Armenian ID.
Thank you for introducing this feature!

As an avid traveller, this is a feature that I will certainly use often !!! Thanks for this great initiative.

This sounds wonderful - I will definitely use this when I am abroad next time. I always felt awkward to send a card not from my country and a different stamp with an Irish ID.

@Samuraiko We've got a new intern that checks everyone's Facebook/Instagram for holiday pictures! 😜

Nah... we mostly look at the IP addresses. Truth is, there's always ways to cheat and people willing to go around the rules in place... but this is nothing new. As always, if you see something weird on the site, just get in touch and we'll have a look!

Given that PXers from rare countries also like to travel, I reckon it's a good bet that if I ever receive a card from a Peruvian Postcrosser it will have an ID of the USA !!

Such a great feature, I've been dreaming about this! I'll definitely try it out on my next trip :D

Wohooo this is the best thing that has ever happened!!!! :D
Okay, I'm getting too enthusiastic here but I always found it very frustrating that a lot of Postcrossers don't want postcards with a 'wrong' country ID, as I love to send postcards from holidays, and my home country is not the country I live in (but never spend enough time at home to change my official location), so holidays always meant refraining from Postcrossing rather than enjoying it to the max, as I thought would be the case when I signed up.......
Though now I will end up sending so much more! Argh! ;)

Oh, and I received an official from LyndaC! (from Canada). Hello!

But really, thanks, this was really needed :D

Hello Lynda!!! So fun to see you on the blog! Thanks for sharing and have fun traveling....see you in the C2C Facebook group!!

I am surprised but I've never thought about all of this! I'm happy to get cards from other countries no matter what the postcard ID! In reverse, I don't like it when postcrossers from another country send me a picture postcard of some city in my own country! This happens occasionally and there is no way to prevent it. I prefer a card from where you are at the time it is sent.

I'm so happy about this! Thank you!!!

How exciting!!! :D

This is great.
I know PostCrossers were happy to receive my cards when I traveled to Cambodia but I'm sure they were a little sad they couldn't officially add Cambodia to their country list on the website.

Yay! Thank you for this great feature!!!

Yes! Time to send and get more cards different~
And this feature will solve a big problem in PC : Cards from small countries such as islands in Caribbean can be found again.

I'm looking forward to sending someone a postcard from Oman. February.

Interesting idea ...

As a little statistics geek: do the travel-mode-IDs count as regular-IDs for the respective country? If so, next vacation-season we may see some countries' output increasing fast with help by their postcrossing-tourist-friends.

Well, I guess it's far to difficult to implement a travel-mode statistic, but I will deal with it ;-)

Now I have to think if I will use this for my trips aboard. But obviously, it's an interesting option for some users.

Great new feature! For me as a traveller and also for me as eventually recieving now more cards from rare countries...
Thank you!!!

@mousytrap Just make the Chinese characters reeeally big on your screen and try drawing them. It's not as hard as it seems, and the result will look like when children draw letters... but it's actually super legible and no problem at all to read.

@minizdiary I'm afraid not. Only postcards sent from here onwards will have the right data.

@Stevvy Yes, they do! So for instance, if you send postcards from Peru, Peru's total number of sent postcards will increase. No plans for travel statistics at the moment though.

Yeah! This is awesome!

I‘m going to travel the world in 2020 and allready worried that I would have to stop my New Hobby then, because I don’t really want to Send my cards with the ‚false‘ ID :D

A great feature, I have to admit. Hopefully it works perfect. Anyway I have two questions:
1) You know in Europe are a lot of countries and when I'm on a trip, I may visit several countries. Now the question, is there any problem to switch the country from one foreign country, which is not my home country to another foreign country in cose fo being in travel mode?.
2) I'm not sending postcard inside my own country (which is germany), how does this work in the travel mode, do I get addresses from my home country (germany), do I get addresses where I'm actrually staying (travel country)?

Totally brilliant ID. Just looked at LyndaC's sent cards. Somehow it is a nice reminder what cards one sent from abroad - and from what countries...
Can't wait for my next trip....

@linos203 1) You can keep updating your travel destinations as you move from one country to another – no problem! As long as you have access to a local internet connection in your travel places, things should work fine.

2) Essentially, we consider your country to be where your address is. So it all stays the same: if you've chosen not to send postcards to your own country, you won't get addresses in Germany while traveling (and vice-versa).

An exception: traveling members won't be given addresses in the country where they're staying while in Travel Mode (for privacy reasons and to keep things simple).

Hope that helps! 😊

This sounds so great!
I'm really looking forward for a chance to use it

interesting. That make the chance to get postcard from rare county will be increase. And sure make me want to travel to another country.

Makes a lot of sense. Thanks for constantly improve this lovely service you offer, guys!

As someone who cannot travel I am happy to get cards from places I have never seen with the ID of that place on. I do get cards now from people not of their country but with their own ID on but I don’t mind as I get to see somewhere different. This is better as I get a new ID to add to my country list.

This new feature is really handy! Many thanks to the postcrossing team, you are awesome as usual! :D

Great idea. I’ll use it soon ...
Obrigada Ana

Great idea!

A very useful feature, thank you. I look forward to trying it out on my next trip.
Maybe some day it would be possible to have both 'sending address' and 'receiving address' which will make inactive mode unnecessary.

What a great new feature! Thank you!

I recently mailed Lynda a postcard! How great to see her!

This sound like an awesome thing to do, I have been waiting for this to come. Going to Ireland in a few weeks and it would be sort of a dream come true to send a card from Ireland with Irish postcard ID. I have been dreaming of living there for many years and in my heart I'm Irish for sure so this is great way when dreams can come true as well. THANK YOU for doing this

That's what make this community a great place, you are always improving and making it better! Thanks for the new feature!!

I have a lot of postcards from my travels when I was younger. Unfortunately I do not send them because they are from other countries other than my own and a lot of people do not like them. Can I use this feature? Send previously bought postcards to postcrossers from the countries I have visited and have them registered in that country?

I’m an expat currently living in Prague. I expect to be here for the next year or longer (I’m teaching English). I’d like to start sending again, partly because I’d like to use the postcards as part of my lessons but also because I just love getting postcards.

Is it better for me to use Travel Mode or simply change my address and country?

@csusy I'm afraid not... not unless you visit those places again. In order to use the Travel Mode, you need to physically be in the country which you set as your travel destination.

@hstrykid If you're there for more than a few months and have a local address where you can receive your postcards, then there's no need for the Travel Mode — just change your address/location to that country, so you can both send and receive postcards there! 😊

I have two traveling cards i already requested, bit didnt send yet. Can i change the ID's so i can send them from abroad? (We're currently traveling)

@ilini I'm afraid once addresses are requested, we can't change their data.

I was just in Morocco at the post office and wondering if it would be possible to do this. Thanks for reading my mind Postcrossing - a great feature I'm looking forward to using in Ireland next month!

Good idea, thank you!

Yaaaaaay! This is amazing!
That this wasn't possible before was the one thing that always made me a bit sad on Postcrossing. I didn't expected you to ever implement a solution to this, so this is a huge surprise. Thank you!!!

Thank you SO MUCH for this amazing feature! I often do trips to the Czech Republic and love to send cards from Czech Postcrossing Meetings, but I am always a bit unsure if people will be happy to receive a czech card with czech stamp and german ID... Because I am always a bit sad when I receive a card which stamps/origin doesn't match the ID. This feature will help a lot! :)

Just a quick heads up. On the new FAQ page there's a link that's supposed to go to the Account Settings but it's wrong and leads nowhere. It should be https://www.postcrossing.com/edit/account (instead of /settings).

Great feature!! Last year I went to New Zealand, and most of my postcards did get there. However trying to figure out which street mailbox (international) to use was confusing, and people weren't helpful. And I didn't know how much postage to use either! I sent many postcards to friends not through Postcrossing, and they never got them. I think I used too much postage! When I got home to the States, I later heard that their postal service is not very good. So it was a miracle that most of my postcards through Postcrossing got to places!

@Bellatrix Fixed! 😅 Thank you for the heads up.

I did this recently when I was in Morocco and I sent out cards. It worked great and I received a notice yesterday that one card has been received.

Wow this is the best new for decades, thank you PC :-)

this is a lovely idea! thank you <3

What's about situation, when recipient is traveling, but his friends or family get access to mailbox and send info about inbox mail to owner? F.e. I'm not in home, I haven't physical access to postcard, but in fact - I have all needed information. I would be glad to have an opportunity to indicate that now I am traveling but my mailbox is active

Brilliant idea, truly genius! Now we'll see a lot more cards from small exotic countries coming through. So great!

@Eva_tls We believe all postcards deserve to be enjoyed in their intended recipient's hands — so we'd prefer to send them to you only when you have time to enjoy them.

that's such a nice feature!! thank you :D

Sounds interesting but I rather stay Active 🤔
I always continue with Postcrossing when on vacation. So far no one has complained about cards from Florida with US—stamps but a german ID. And thanks to my in—laws I am able to register all cards that arrive at my home 😊

Definitely the best way to send mail through Postcrossing now! I love it. I mean, I always wanted to send something through Postcrossing as well, but it did not make any sense, since it did not measure any real distances! Thank you!

Great feature! Recently I got a card from Tanzania, with a beautiful Tanzanian stamp... but German ID :)

I'm just about to try out this new feature now . . . . . . . .

This is awesome! I wish I had had it over the summer, during my internship. I would have sent postcards then!

@meiadeleite After reading all your previous answers, especially this one: "Essentially, we consider your country to be where your address is. So it all stays the same.", I have another question:
I guess this also means that the sender's home country is still the one being relevant when the system decides where to send this card to, does it? So a travel card from "rare" Peru that comes from a German postcrosser would still go to someone who's supposed to receive a card from Germany next?

Well, I've just called up my first address while on travel mode and GB-952663 is going to a German address. It's also the first time I've uploaded a picture of a postcard using Google Photoscan and I believe it has worked very well. I'm now looking forward to having the postcard registered.

Wow!! This is a GREAT feature. Can't wait to try it out on our next trip :)

I love this new feature, cannot wait to use it! I was always wondering if something like this is possible, as I travel a lot. My last trip was to an 'exotic' postcrossing country Montenegro, would have been nice if I could have used it already ;) next time for sure!

I love it! Will certainly try next time I am on my way.

@Bellatrix I think I understand your question, but this is not how Postcrossing works. There are no pre-determined lists of countries you're supposed to exchange postcards with. It's mostly just random!

Such a great idea! Cant wait to try it out :)

Great feature and it works very smoothly !

Sounds great! I'll give it a go next week!

@beauty_of_russia Sure! You can use it wherever you go traveling, abroad or in your own country. Verification is done at the country level only and is instantaneous, so you don't need to do anything special... just use the website as normal. :)

This looks very promising :) Actually, it is a feature I dearly missed on Postcrossing. I am really happy that this is possible now! I will try to save some of my 13 possible cards for when I am on holiday abroad :)

Cool feature!

Well done! We are going to visit Thailand so we will test it soon.

I have a short question: I will not be on vacation but for work on a containership for 3 months. Can I just change the location where I am on my voyage and where I'm sending the postcard from? Cause we have several ports in China, Japan and Australia, not to forget South Korea :D

@Nannika You can — travel is travel, whether it's for work or for fun. But please note the Travel Mode will only work if you can use a local internet connection to request addresses from the countries you're in. Give it a go though, and let us know how it works!

Wow. Great feature. Now I look forward to seeing more cards from more exotic places. Unfortunately, that means I will be having more travel-envy!

Amazing feature! Thank you to the Postcrossing team always improving the experience!

Great! When i traveled to fr.guyane i wanted to switch my country but that would be a Big trouble :-) ......great solution this new feature !

Cool. I'm in India for 2 months next year. How many cards will one be able to send while in travel mode?

Such a great idea! Thank you so much! I'm working abroad for two months and can now continue with Postcrossing while away. I'm so excited!

Great feature...! I wonder when will I able to use it, excited >_<

I wonder if it works if you're traveling within your country...

Really good idea! I am going to have to try this out... can someone buy me a holiday, please? I NEED to test this! :)

What a wonderful idea! I will try it out next month when we will be travelling.

I too love this idea! Thanks!

What a great idea! Thanks a lot!!

It's so nice idea! I'm traveling now and I have already tried travel mode. I wish everything go well:) Thanks!!

Dear Postcrossing Team, Thank you very much for this new feature! I look forward to trying it at some point in the future. I think it is a creative idea. Thank you for all you continue to do for those of us who love this hobby so dearly. Tres

I like this idea. I have the question if the German Post will do the Stiftung Lesen Project this year again. And another question is if the people visiting Germany during December are able to participate in the project too. So far I did not find anything about it.

It looks like great idea! I had to change country to send cards from vacation and wait 2 month to change country back after it :)

It's great for me too : I live in Switzerland, but only a few minutes away from the french border. People are often disappointed when I send them a french view, even if it's so much nearer to my home than Zermatt ! I'll give it a try right now.

I think this is a great idea. One question- If I travel WITHIN my country, will the map change? For instance, I live in Virginia on the US east coast. If I travel to California on the west coast, I will still get a US ID, but will the map be different? thanks.

What a fantastic idea! I ❤ it!

@LovelyLindaPost Yes! The map of that postcard will reflect its Californian origin, as well as the statistics relating to its distance. So feel free to use the Travel Mode even if you travel within your own country! 👍

Thank You for this! 2 summers ago I was spending time in Faroes and I felt bad that while I was able to send postcrossing cards with Faroese stamps and images they didn't count toward folks statistics as being from there. Also it brought down the travel time for postcards from Newfoundland because, crazy enough, cards get EVERYWHERE faster from Faroes than they do my Newfoundland and Labrador!

I just tried this out on my trip to Toronto. I sent about 12 postcards from there, so it will be fun to see them reach their destinations.

I did start to write US for the Id out of habit, rather than CA, a few times and had to cross it out. The other thing I realized is that I can't request names and then decide to send a card when I get home, because it now has a CA id. For example, I was matched with a Postcrosser and thought I had a great card at home to match her interests, so I would wait and send it when I returned home two days later. That is why I sent 12 cards instead of the 6 I originally intended. LOL

Fab idea, can't wait to try it!

I don´t like it. You write as an individual registered in one country only. I wrote postcards from countries like Zambia, Kyrgysztan and many more with German ID. You can always add a charming text. The card is stamped abroad, so it is a card from that specific country. Why care about the ID!

And the cards I receive at home are registered by my wife.

This is so cool! I cannot wait to try this all the way from Hong Kong and Mexico :D

I sent 27 official postcards with the Portuguese ID during my few days there! What a dream to send mail worldwide for as little as 0,85 euros! Sadly, I'm back in Italy now and will have to get used to our crazy postal fares again... 😟

It is a wonderful new feature! I've sent some postcards from my trips before but like many others, I've been worried about not having the right ID of the country of origin. Today my first card from Japan, sent using the Travel-feature, was delivered to the Netherlands after just 5 days! Thank you so much! :)

great new feature! I ve tried it and worked great . some postcrosser will be surprised and i hope happy ,to
receive a postcard with the id ” GP ” ☺️

oh cool! it will be easier for me since I'm study abroad and will only be back once a month. time to find more postcards!

I'm excited..Sun...splash....sand....this features adds what is missing a hint of mystery. I won't forget travel mode on my trip...cheers!!!!.....

Pity Vatican City is too small and travel mode doesn't work because the site cannot recognize one is really in Vatican and not in Rome :(

Travelling by sea between Scotland and Northern Ireland recently I changed my location from Arbroath to Belfast. I tried to send some postcards but could not call up an address because the Postcrossing system thought I was in Norway 😪. I wonder if that is where Stena Line is registered and could this be the reason?

Wow, this sounds so cool! I wish I was going someplace as I love to send official cards even from my holidays.!

What an excellent idea! Whoever thought of it, and whoever programmed it should be VERY proud of themselves and deserve a big THANK YOU!

Lovely! Thank you.

I have tried the Travel Mode while in Japan. Finally I can send Japanese postcards in Japan (and enjoy Japan Postal Office in the process). Travel mode motivates me to visit the postal offices of the countries I travel with my family and send postcards from there.

I am about to leave to Brussels on a short business trip and can hardly wait to fill my 14 free slots with BE ID. :-) I hope it also works if I take my own notebook to ask for the slots. Because I don't have a smartphone - and I don't want one. Well I guess so... :-)

Brilliant feature, thanks for implementing it :)

I tried it out on a recent trip to Lisbon, Portugal. On the last day, I managed to send 4 cards after using my hotel wifi. Then the taxi to the airport arrived. Because our taxi lady was awesome we saved time, and the Lisbon airport has a postal office, so I figured I'd log on to the airport wifi and send some more cards.

My location was displayed as 'unknown', so I couldn't - not sure what happened?