We didn’t come back with any regrets from our RTW trip…except for one. We had high intentions of sending postcards to all of our favorites, from all of the cool destinations we visited. We expected to have a big stack of unique postcards we sent home covering the walls when we returned.
That didn’t happen.
I don’t have excuses…we just sucked at being organized enough to send postcards. Time flew by, we didn’t collect addresses before we left or we just didn’t think about it. We tried early on in the trip to send postcards from Cambodia and they never reached their destination. Dejected, we didn’t send another post card until near the end of our trip. We found ourselves in the most remote location yet, Easter Island, finally in search of the post office to send out some postcards.
How to Guarantee Your Friends and Family Members will get Postcards
- Create an address book before you leave for your trip – This was our first and biggest downfall. Once we were on the road traveling, the act of gathering everyones address seemed to be to big of a task. In reality this is a dumb excuse and I’m sorry I am admitting that publicly. My biggest suggestion is to start with a database of everyone’s addresses at home you want to send postcards to.
- Make it a priority on day one – Start your routine in the first country you travel to.
- Write your address clearly and completely – We attempted to send postcards once before Easter Island and for whatever reason they didn’t make them home.
- Make sure you have the right amount of postage – When your postcard is being sent internationally, I suggest you check with someone working at the post office so you have enough postage. This is a big reason for postcards to not reach their destinations.
- Don’t let yourself make excuses – Trust me we said them all. We don’t know where the post office is, it’s too far, we are on a budget, all the postcards are stupid, lack of addresses… I could go on. Don’t talk yourself out of sending postcards because your family and friends will have so much fun receiving them and when you make it back to visit all of your adventures will be waiting for you at home!
Luckily, all our Easter Island postcards made it home, after a month in the mail!
Do you send postcards home when you travel?
Sometimes it really is a pain trying to get postcards home to people, but we’ve always found it was worth the effort. We’ve had some people tell us that in this age of the internet that there’s no need for postcards, but I think the people back home getting them would beg to differ! Generally we wind up stocking up on cards and then running around frantically on our last day in whatever country we are in in an attempt to send them out… and yes, we always send one home to ourselves as well! Like you said, we hope that when we get home that we’ll have a big stack waiting for us so we can relive our trip!
You definitely will have a big stack waiting for you and I am of course jealous! We wish we would have gotten a routine going in the beginning of the trip – after a few months we just gave up!
And the internet will never take the place of a stamped postcard! 🙂
Since I collect postcards, I always send out lots of them and buy more for myself. Now, of course, I’m wishing I had one from Easter Island. That would be a coup. 🙂
As far as addresses, I usually load the ones I don’t have memorized onto my iPhone. But since I send them to the same people over and over, I know most of the addresses by heart.
A friend of mine just got a postcard from me today, as a matter of fact. She was thrilled. After all, who doesn’t love to get a postcard in the mail?
They are a great thing to collect and always exciting to receive them in the mail!
Getting the addresses were our main downfall. We had failed to gather up a list of them and I guess were to lazy to email home asking?
#UtterFail
Coulda, shoulda, didn’ts will drive you crazy, eh? I had a friend give me $20 before we left last year to send him as many postcards as we could. It was annoying at first, but became a fun little job we had and I know it will be really cool to see them all eventually. This year, we have decided to send a bunch home to our dog (us), so we will have the same experience.
Such a smart plan – I wish a friend and family had helped encouraged me to send postcards home – maybe then I would have actually done it! O well I have so many photos, I can create my own postcards 🙂
I love sending and receiving postcards but despite the fact I’ve been in England since early September, I have not sent any postcards. But if I go to France next month, I will try to send some postcards.
Sent 4 post cards from Sth America (April, 2015).One was handed to an Ecuador post office employee over the counter, two were handed to the hotel reception by our tour guide in Peru and one in mailbox in Argentina. – Not one card made it to Australia.