This 1 October is World Postcard Day, a chance to share the joy of travel with the ones we love. And this year’s theme – “Wish you were here” – encapsulates that perfectly.
While travel is undoubtedly about excitement and adventure, it’s also about those we share it with, whether in person or in our thoughts. And the latter – that moment when you look out over a beautiful view and think about a loved one far away – is exactly what a postcard is for.
If you plan to travel in retirement, you might be doing so alone, with a partner, or making memories with your whole family.
Keep reading for a look at just a few of the bucket list destinations you might travel to and send a postcard from.
But first… a history lesson.
A very brief history of the postcard
Postcards have been around for a long time in one form or another, but picking an exact date isn’t easy. Their invention was more of an evolution, linked to the rise of printing presses and organised postal services.
While 1840 saw the arrival of the Penny Black, the world’s first adhesive stamp, it was another three decades before an Austrian Hungarian doctor named Emanuel Herrmann suggested a replacement for standard letters for shorter messages. His template featured space for an address and a postage stamp on the front, and a short message on the back.
By the 1880s, his original postcard design featured illustrations of famous landmarks and a decade later, photographs arrived. By the 1910s, the classic “Greetings from…” format had been designed, and postcards were firmly in their golden age.
3 bucket-list destinations perfect for a once-in-a-lifetime postcard
1. Japan: Cherry blossoms, tradition, and the world’s deepest post box
If Japan is on your retirement bucket list, you might want to time your trip to coincide with the annual flowering of the cherry blossom (known in Japan as “Sakura”).
For the Japanese, the country-wide cherry blossom festivals speak about life and death and our fleeting existence, but they’re also a beautiful natural phenomenon that entice crowds from around the world.
For this reason, some of the key sites – including at Fuji Five Lakes, where Mount Fuji provides the breathtaking backdrop – can become busy.
Elsewhere in the country, you’ll find traditional tea houses and historic temples in Kyoto or take a trip to Susami Bay.
Around a six-hour train ride from Tokyo, here you’ll find the world’s deepest underwater post box, perfect for sending home that all-important waterproof postcard.
2. Vanuatu: A post box on the lip of an active volcano
If you’re compiling your bucket list of worldwide destinations to visit in retirement, you might, alongside witnessing Japan’s cherry blossom, be considering a:
- Railway trip through the Canadian Rockies
- Whale watching cruise in Alaska
- Norwegian fjords river cruise
- Greek island-hopping tour
- South African safari.
You might also choose a grand tour of Australia. With so many incredible sites to visit, from the Great Barrier Reef and Uluru (formerly Ayers Rock) to Sydney’s Harbour Bridge and Opera House, you’ll be spoilt for choice.
But you might opt to break up your Australia sightseeing with a cruise. An 8-10-day cruise could see you visit the South Pacific island of Vanuatu.
This volcanic archipelago is home to breathtaking scenery, from tropical rainforests and stunning waterfalls to sweeping white sand beaches. You’ll also want to visit Mount Yasu, one of the world’s most active volcanoes.
Although not for the fainthearted, you can walk to the very top of the volcano and peer into the crater. Not only that, but there’s a post box up there too! The Volcano Post provides its own unique and highly sought-after stamps, so sending a postcard is a must.
3. A postal system with a difference in the Galapagos Islands
We’ve all mailed a postcard, then arrived home from our holidays before it. So why not take that one step further and not even put a stamp on it?
The Galapagos Islands are famous for their incredible array of wildlife and the part these animals played in helping Charles Darwin arrive at his theory of evolution. But the islands also have their own take on the postal system.
At Post Office Bay on the island of Floreana, a wooden barrel has stood in as a post box since 18th-century whalers placed it there. Visitors still use it today.
Simply drop your postcard into the barrel and wait. You and any other visitor that passes by are free to look through the post box, and if they find anything addressed to a location near them, they’re free to take it, either hand-delivering it or posting it from home.
It could take weeks, months or even years for the postcard to arrive, but it will be all the sweeter for the wait.
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