From the Ends of the Earth: How to Send a Postcard from Antarctica

Did you know that approximately 70,000 postcards are sent from Antarctica every year?

Now you may be wondering how to send a postcard from a place that doesn’t have a government, let alone a post office.

As it turns out, there actually is a post office in Antarctica. Read on to learn about the journey a postcard takes from the Penguin Post Office in Antarctica to its final destination and how to send a postcard.

How to Send a Postcard from Antarctica

Like a scene right out of a Disney film, there’s a Penguin Post Office located at Port Lockroy in the Antarctic Archipelago.

What is Port Lockroy?

Port Lockroy, a former British military base and the first permanent base in Antarctica, was established during World War II. Following the war, it was used as a research station until the mid-1960s.

In 1996, Port Lockroy was renovated and turned into a museum and post office. Today, it’s a popular stopover for cruise ships passing through Antarctica. The island is shared by about 2,000 penguins and four humans. This tiny, tight-knit staff look after the post office and museum from November to March and receive about 18,000 visitors a year.

How to Send a Postcards from Antarctica: Snail Mail

Sending a postcard from Antarctica is the same as anywhere else in the world! You pay for a stamp and drop it in the post box. But from there, the journey from Antarctica is a little different than if you were sending a postcard from France.

Sending a postcard costs USD$1 to anywhere in the world and they are then franked by hand by the staff at the Penguin Post Office.

Once this is completed, the postcards are packaged, weighed and transported to the Falklands. The time that this process takes depends on numerous factors including the frequency of ships and the amount of ice in the region.

From the Falklands, they are received by the Stanley Post Office who send them on a weekly Royal Air Force flight to the UK. Once the postcards reach the UK, they enter the regular postal service to be distributed throughout the world. It’s a long journey for sure.

Any postcards that haven’t been sent by the middle of February may even spend the winter at the Penguin Post Office.

Send Postcards From Anywhere Online

Not everyone wants to wait such a long time for their friends and families to receive their postcards. Not only that, but with snail mail postcards, you’re limited to the postcards that are available at your destination.

Did you know that you can also take advantage of modern-day technology and send postcards online? While we love the romanticism of a handwritten card and stamps from around the world, online postcards are a faster and, in their own way, a more personalized alternative.

Not only can you use your own travel photos making your postcards more meaningful than store-bought postcards, you can send them from anywhere you have internet access. It’s much easier than needing to buy stamps, figure out how much it costs and finding a post office!

Start Sending Unique Postcards

Learning how to send a postcard has never been easier. With the MyPostcard app, you can send postcards right from your phone.

You simply upload a picture from your phone, type in the message you want to send and the app takes care of the rest.

We love being able to send pictures that we’ve actually taken or, if it’s for our family members, pictures of us from around the world. They love receiving these personalized postcards from our trips.