I’ve tried this in a few countries (Kuwait, Saudi Arabia, USA). Each time, the postal clerks refused to do it.
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They are supposed to do it in the USA. If a window clerk denies you a postmark, ask them to bring out the Post Office’s copy of the Postal Operations Manual (USPS regulations require each post office to have one) and ask them to refer to section 231.4
“Hand-Back and Mail-Back Service
Postmarks should be used to provide the following philatelic services whenever they are available:
a. Hand-back Service
(1) When a customer personally presents an addressed or
unaddressed envelope, postal card, or other item described in
section 231.63 to a Postal Service employee for postmarking, the
Postal Service employee must examine the item to ensure that it
is clearly intended for philatelic purposes.
(2) The envelope, card, or other item does not enter the mailstream.
All such materials requesting postmarking must bear uncanceled
postage at the applicable First-Class Mail® rate. If the customer
wants to mail the postmarked item, it must be trayed or bagged
separately, and flagged “nonmachinable” to avoid being overpostmarked in processing.”
They are allowed to postmark and hand it back to you, and they are supposed to do it if you ask.
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I just came back from a week in Lisbon. I ended up sending 10 cards in travel mode. Acquiring postcards is super easy and I was surprised that every souvenir shop I encountered sold them for the same price. I think I only saw one shop that sold them for 40 Cents instead of 50 like all the others. And a few offered 10 cards for 4.50€.
Acquiring stamps was also easy but the post boxes outside the post office confused me to no end. There were 4 different ones! Since I wasn’t sending within Lisbon or within Portugal, there’s a 50/50 chance I put them in the right box. Also loved that there were 2 different public mail boxes throughout the city. “Normal” and “blue”. XD Gotta admit that’s the most complicated system of mailboxes I have encountered so far.
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I don’t trust mailboxes even in my hometown. I usually throw postcards in a box located inside the post office, it makes me feel safer.
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The mailboxes are complicated even for the Portuguese! 
It used to be that the blue mailboxes were only for express mail, and the red were for normal mail — that was simple. But nowadays, mail that goes abroad is supposedly treated like express mail, so you can post your postcards on the blue box if they’re going to outside Portugal.
In the end, I don’t think it matters much though. Things will get there… eventually!
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I think so too. I sent cards from the Czech Republic in travel mode a few years ago. When I put them in the public mailbox, it was dark and I was confused why there were two right next to each other. The next day I saw that one was for Europe and one for the rest of the world. I’d put my Chinese card in the European mailbox, but it arrived.
Might take a bit longer if it’s in the wrong mailbox, but I’m confident it’s not a big deal in the end.
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I think there were two just to increase capacity in a more busy place. There is only one universal type of mailbox.
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I put myself in travel mode to a town on an island in Maine that I am visiting tomorrow. I have one official spot available and want to request an address while I’m there. Only thing is, from what I’ve read, there is not any public WiFi on the island. If I request an address without connecting to WiFi, will it show the location from my home address or the town I set the travel mode to?
You need local wifi only to validate the country. Your sending location within the country will be put where you set it. You are still in the US so you don’t need a local wifi 
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That’s great to know. Thank you!
I used the travel mode in Spain! I hope the will all arrive. Even though I know how it works with IP-ranges and such, I was quite impressed with the fact that when the wifi connection failed, that I was reconised as Dutch instead of Spaning.
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Just got back from my first ever trip outside of the USA 
I used travel mode in Norway 
(in Flåm and Oslo) and in Sweden 
(in Trollhättan). Hoping they reach their destinations so they will be added to my map!
One of the destinations is Russia 
– I know Russia is one of the top countries on Postcrossing, so it’s not rare to many users, but we can’t send mail to Russia in the US, so it was nice. My last card to Russia was over 3 years ago 
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Oh wow, 3 years! Must be nice to send one there! I think you are going to make a few members happy as Noryway and Sweden are quite rare. 
Was it easy to find cards and stamps?
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One of the nice things about traveling is that you can send your postcards from “rare” countries. I tried out travel mode last October during a trip to Armenia and hope recipients were pleased with the postcards from Yerevan. My next trip is also planned to a rare country. It’s a pity that the local post office does not deliver postcards to Russia and we have to think about alternative methods.
I wonder how difficult it is for foreigners to get a visa to Russia? I have never visited visa countries, neither Europe, nor especially the USA.
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Well for the UK, the FCDO advises against all travel to Russia, I don’t think it is possible to get a visa or a flight to Russia from the UK.
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That was what I was excited about–sending from much rarer countries than the USA! I think at least one or two people I sent to had never gotten cards from Norway or Sweden, so hopefully they arrive.
Stamps and cards were relatively easy, but I never got to choose my stamps. In Norway I asked for them at the checkout at the grocery store (the grocery store was combined with a post office) where I got my first batch of cards, and then later I bought cards at a souvenir shop and they had stamps behind the counter and asked me if I wanted some. I was surprised because I don’t think shops really do that at all in the US. I figured I would have to go to the post office again. They gave me the same stamps both times.
In Sweden, I went to a convenience store that said online they had stamps. They also had a small rack of cards. Again they picked the stamps for me. There was a bit of a language barrier (I don’t speak Swedish) but we eventually got the right amount of stamps!
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This summer I will be traveling to various countries I have never visited before: Croatia, Hungary, Romania, Bulgaria, Turkey and Luxembourg, I am really excited to use Travel Mode a lot again 
Last summer I did the same thing, sending from Italy, Slovenia, Austria, Slovakia, Czechia, Denmark and Sweden which was such a great experience. One of the coolest things about the travel mode to me is looking at your send postcard wall and seeing all the places you have visited! Makes for a great memory in your account 
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I was looking forward to using travel mode this year in Europe (Apl,May and Jne) for my first overseas travel mode sends!!! I used it 24 times while visiting LT, LV and IE. At the present time I have 4 that have not made it! I expect/hope that at least 2 more will reach there destination! I also brought 4 Canadian post cards with me and would post them if I got a Belarus or Russian address! We can not mail to those countries but we can receive! All 4 reached the destinations in less then 3 weeks!
I recommend trying travel mode for any one if they go on vacation to another country! For me the first thing I would look for is where the PO is to buy stamps! One time I found the LT PO, we sat down at the pub near by and I drew addresses, wrote the post cards and then back to the PO for mailing! My wife thought I was crazy doing this!
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[quote=“plapp, post:636, topic:4818”]
"That was what I was excited about–sending from much rarer countries than "
[/quote] … Canada, in my case.
So I tried Travel Mode in both Vatican City and Gibraltar this spring. I was nervous about getting ‘it’ right, but all worked out fine. I gave myself two days for Vatican City: one day to get addresses from Postcrossing, and to find postcards, stamps and post offices in Vatican City (there were three locations!), then to write the cards. The next day I returned to mail the cards. Phew! Every card arrived to its destination, from both Vatican City and Gibraltar.
Gibraltar presented a different challenge. I located post office via Internet research, but didn’t factor that it would be closed on Easter Monday. So, I had to hustle to find a convenience store that sold stamps. Happily, I did, as many other businesses were closed for the holiday. The fellow had postcards, too! Such a delightful help; he even suggested a tavern where I could sit and sip to write cards. The taverna owner was amused by my stash of cards. He wasn’t open for food; just for drinks, mostly for his friends. So, I sat, writing cards, while he kept my cup full of coffee.
All part of the Postcrossing experience … finding places all over the world to write and send postcards. 
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You too, eh? 
I used travel mode during a family vacation on the Caribbean island of Sint Maarten last year. I pulled the addresses at the hotel in the morning, found postcards at a nearby convenience store and wrote the cards during breakfast. Then, I found out that the post office was on the other side of the island. While the family went to the beach, I drove the rental car over to the post office and returned two hours later. My wife just shook her head and said “So, this is what you do on vacation?”
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