I think @MattyM meant that they can’t remedy cards that don’t arrive in Russia from travel mode, as Australia can’t send to Russia. So after returning home, no way to resend those cards. Similar to what @emotis described.
I had never considered this, as Germany basically sends everywhere, but for users with limited mail service at home it really might be an issue.
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Very excited to see that a batch has arrived in Germany just now!! Sorry that it caused problems with your account, but I bet those German recipients are doing a happy dance now!
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Yes, I am facing this issue at the moment. I have three cards left travelling from travel mode, 1 to China (from UK) and 2 to Russia (both sent from the Netherlands), all to active users. The China one is fine — at some point I will re-send from Australia. But, for the Russia cards, I’m quite a bit more disappointed! I think a reasonable route would be to stamp them with a German stamp and send them to a German post office in an envelope with a note to forward them, but I didn’t keep any German stamps! So I might try to swap for some mint stamps in the future, but in the meantime I’ll just continue to hope my cards get registered!
Of course I could just let it go and accept if they don’t get registered, but that’s especially disappointing to do with travel mode cards, and honestly initially I was excited when I pulled a Russian address because we can’t send there, so I really want them to arrive!
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For my trip to Germany later this year, I’ll bring back a few extra stamps for international postcard postage. They aren’t too expensive, don’t take too much room in my luggage, and since Mom or I visit Germany every year, one of us can always take them back to Germany and use them if I don’t use them on cards to “Russia via Germany”
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Hi!
What do you think about travel mode? Are there any pros and cons?
When I’ve been travelling I have used the travel mode and sent a few postcards from my vacation location. BUT, then I don’t reveive any postcards while I am away. I love coming home and find my mailbox full!
So, I’m thinking… next time I travel I will not use the travel mode. I mean, I can still send some postcards from my vacation location but using my “normal” post card ID.
What do you prefer?
Well, there is no need for either… or…
Just switch to travel mode for drawing the addresses and back to active afterwards, so your address might be drawn again. Depending on how long you’re travelling, just be fair to only turn active when the cards won’t sit unregistered at home for a longer time. But in general you are able to switch on and off travel mode within minutes.
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Depending on your travel destination you might consider that you could draw addresses you can only send from your home country but not from the country you are currently traveling in (and vice versa but that’s not the problem)
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This is exactly what I would recommend, and what I do for shorter trips, such as a week or less. But if I am going to be away from my mailbox for longer than one week, I usually just stay in travel mode the whole time because I know that mail will start accumulating and then other Postcrossers will have to wait to draw more addresses while the postcards they sent me are sitting unregistered.
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On an example I will try to explain why I think people should always use travel mode while sending cards when they travel.
Some time ago, I got a card with an Israelian ID. Israel is rather a rare country in postcrossing. You are lucky when you get a card from Israel. But the card was sent from London and it was a card of one of the London sights.
Do I have a card from Israel? No. Is there a change I will get another card from Israel soon? Very low, because I have already got one (in system’s eyes).
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I live in the US and am going on vacation in Germany at the beginning of May. With USPS being so slow delivering cards from certain countries, especially Austria, to be fair to other Postcrossers, I’m setting my account to Inactive at the start of March but will continue to send cards from my home until a week before I leave. Sending cards is stress relief for me. (Yes, I send RAKs.)
When I actually get to Germany, I’ll change to Travel Mode, which, as I understand it, will allow me to send but not receive cards. I’ll set my account back to Active about a week after I get home.
All this to say, I love Travel Mode for when I travel outside the US. I don’t really bother with it when I travel inside the US, but my travel inside the US is usually inside my state.
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I’m really looking forward to using travel mode in Montenegro this summer, there’s less than 100 members on Postcrossing, so I actually get to send from a fairly rare country.
Still a bit unsure about my trip to Lisbon in May, though. Portugal is slightly more common than Austria, so I’m not sure if it’s worth it. Wouldn’t want someone to be disappointed because they got a card from Portugal, when they could’ve gotten one from Austria instead. I’ll probably make my mind up on the spot and compare prices.
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But senders do not like to wait until the recipient deigns to return home from vacation.
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I don’t really think either of those countries is so common that one would be disappointed! But, also, it’s fun to hear about what someone’s up to so I doubt the vast majority of people would be disappointed even if it were a super common country — they can always get matched with Austria in future.
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That’s true and a good point! I always register the day I get the postcards so that would be a bad thing.
Of course it depends on how long your trip is!
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Yes, for a trip of less than two weeks I would not make my mind up very much, but for a longer trip I set my profile on inactive at least two weeks before starting the trip, go on travel mode, when I arrive and get back to active when I wrote my final cards from there.
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I think you should send at least a few postcards from Portugal! It’s fun to look at your statistics map and see all the little mailbox icons from all the places that you have mailed postcards from in travel mode. And I like to see the stats post at the end of the year talking about how many postcards were sent by each country, knowing the small part I had in helping the country reach that number.
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I have just returned from a postcrossing meetup in Copenhagen, Denmark, and draw more addresses in travel mode than I would have done in Denmark (due to the high postage of DKK 50 (€ 6,71).
Just for a weekend I would not set my profile as inactive in advance (in travel mode it is inactive as long as the profile is set in travel mode). If I’m planing to be away for 2-3 weeks, I do set my account as inactive in advance (how long in advance depends whenever I do remember to set my account as inactive).
Next time I’m travelling is in May, when I will be in Ireland.
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I’m in Italy right now and ofcourse I send some cards (Postcrossing and private etc.) 
Not too much cards from Italy, because of the high prices. A card to Australia cost me 3,90 € 
In Germany, all international cards cost 0,95 € lol.
I saved my slots for cards from the Vatican City I love so send card in travel mode!
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I sent a few cards from Norway, when I was in Bergen earlier this month. 
The postage is quite high but the cards went to their destinations quite fast. 
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I am looking forward to sending from Gibraltar 
for the first time in a few days, I hope I can pick up a local WI-FI connection.
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