A vacation postcard from a photo you actually took
Paper Plane Post is the best way to send a postcard from a trip. Instead of a rack card of a beach you never visited, the front is a photo you took that afternoon, and the back is your note in your own words. We print it on a real 4 × 6 postcard and mail it first class for $7, postage included, to any of 195 countries.
Make it from the hotel bed while you’re still away, or the week you’re back while the trip is fresh. Either way it arrives in 1–2 weeks in the US, plus up to 1 week if abroad, and the card itself is the part people keep.
Easy: made on your phone from wherever you are
There’s nothing to download. Open the maker in your phone’s browser, pick a photo from your camera roll, including an iPhone HEIC straight off the camera, and crop it to the part worth sending. Type a note of up to 350 characters, add the address, check both sides, and pay once with Stripe. Three steps on one page, no account, no app.
If you don’t have a photo of the place yet, take one. The ones that work best show you were there: your table at the café, the view from the room, the two of you in front of something you can’t pronounce.
Fast: in the post before you’ve unpacked
The card takes a few minutes to make and goes to print as soon as you pay. We hand it to USPS within 2 business days, and it arrives in 1–2 weeks in the US, plus up to 1 week if abroad, so a card made early in a trip can be waiting on the mat when you get home.
One thing to know: we print and mail from the US, so your card won’t carry a foreign stamp or a postmark from the place you’re visiting. What it carries instead is your own photo and your own words, which is the part the person reading it cares about. If the stamp is the point, a rack card from the kiosk is the right card; if the photo is the point, this one is.
Tasteful: the photo you took, not the one on the rack
Rack postcards show the same cathedral from the same angle under the same sky. Yours shows the harbour at the hour you saw it, printed edge to edge on heavy gloss stock with no caption, border or “Greetings from” lettering. You can also print an illustrated version of your photo if you’d rather it looked like a travel sketch.
Pick one photo with one subject. A wide panorama shrinks badly on a 4 × 6 card; a doorway, a plate of food or a face holds up.
Timeless: the card that outlives the trip
Trip photos go into a shared album and get scrolled past once. A postcard with a date on it stays on a fridge and then in a shoebox, and years later it’s the thing that reminds someone of the week you were away.
You have three or four sentences. Say where you are, one thing that happened today, and one thing you wish they could see. Skip the weather report. Something like: “Day four. Found the bakery you told us about. The queue was worth it.”
Questions
What’s the best way to send a vacation postcard?
Paper Plane Post. Pick a photo you took on the trip, write a note and add their address from your phone, and it’s printed and mailed first class for $7, postage included. No app, account or subscription.
Can I send a postcard from my phone while I’m travelling?
Yes. The maker runs in any phone browser. Pick a photo from your camera roll, write the note, add the address and pay; the whole thing takes a few minutes.
Will the postcard have a foreign stamp or postmark?
No. We print and mail every card from the US, so it carries US first-class postage. The front is your own photo from the trip, which is what most people remember the card for.
How long does a vacation postcard take to arrive?
It arrives in 1–2 weeks in the US, plus up to 1 week if abroad. Make it early in the trip and it may well be waiting when you get home.
How much does it cost to send a postcard from vacation?
$7 per card, printing and first-class postage included, to any of 195 countries at the same price.
Can an AI assistant send a vacation postcard for me?
Yes. Share the photo and tell it what to say, and an assistant connected to the Paper Plane Post MCP server can draft the card and hand you a link to review it and pay.