Clever & Creative Travel Memories Ideas

This is a list of preserving travel memories ideas.

Traveling can be the investment of a lifetime.  While the experience may be fleeting, we all want the memories to last forever.  Here are some souvenir ideas to help keep your travel memories alive!

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PURCHASE A PUSH PIN MAP

Track your family’s travel with this customizable travel map by Push Pin Travel Maps.  We have the exact one pictured below in our home and absolutely love it.  We use different colored pins to signify our different trips: ones Phil and I took together, trips we took alone, trips we took with one of the kids and then trips we all took together.  It’s super colorful, fun, and something the entire family enjoys.

INVEST IN PROFESSIONAL PHOTOS

Pictures are worth a thousand words, amiright? And when you have photos as beautiful as the ones done by Flytographer, it can really help make your travel memories live on for a lifetime.  Plus, for those of us traveling with kids, it is a beautiful tribute to their growing up in destinations all around the world.

Flytographer is an online photography network with photographers in hundreds of locations globally.  Each one is personally vetted by the company to provide the same level of service no matter where you are in the world.  You are assigned a virtual concierge to help coordinate your time, location, and other details.  You can also specify as much [or as little] of the shoot as you’d like.

Get more details on Flytographer & read my glowing review [with a coupon for $25 off] here.

 

CREATE A PHOTO ALBUM

Speaking of photos, creating a photo album is another great idea to preserve your travel memories!  Go old school, have your photos printed, and then place them in a self-stick photo album.

Alternatively, you can leave all the hard work to the professionals and have your photos printed into a photo book.  Many stores like Walgreen’s, CVS, Walmart, Costco, and Sam’s offer photo books amongst their many photo products. Some online vendors print out professional-quality photos and allow you to completely customize your photo album.  Check out Shutterfly, MPix, and Snapfish.

 

START A SCRAPBOOK

Scrapbooks are another great idea for your travel memories!  They are similar to photo albums but you can add in other items from your trip like ticket stubs, brochures, or receipts.  Whatever you include is totally up to you and can provide a customized trip down memory lane with every read.

MAIL YOURSELF A POSTCARD

Get a reminder of your trip well after you arrive back home when you mail yourself a postcard from your vacation.  During our spring break trip to Rome, we mailed ourselves postcards from the Vatican.  They arrived about a week after we got home and made us relive the trip all over again.  The postcard [along with its super-duper official postage marks from Italy] is now one of our most treasured items in our travel memory box.

 

START A COLLECTION

Collecting items is one of the most common travel memories ideas out there.  It can be as standard as shot glasses and keychains; or as elaborate as bells and snowglobes.  For example, an old associate had the last name “Bell” so she would scour each new city she visited to find souvenir bells.  Find something that works for your family and go for it.  Need some inspiration?  Here are a few ideas:

• Keychains
• Snowglobes
• Bells
• Shot Glasses
• Refrigerator magnets
• Stickers
• Figurines
• Christmas ornaments
• Artwork
• Iron-on patches
• Coffee mugs
• T-Shirts

 

CREATE A QUILT

Did you know you can turn your old travel t-shirts into a loveable quilt?  It’s a great way to keep your travel memories close long after the shirt becomes worn.  A seamstress can take pieces of several t-shirts [or sweatshirts or even other blankes] and piece them together into a patchwork quilt.  You can categorize shirts by location, by year, or by theme [urban retreat, beach escape, etc.].  Find a local seamstress via a service like Thumbtack or check out Project Repeat.

 

BEGIN A TRAVEL JOURNAL

Diaries aren’t just for preteens!  Travel journals help you immortalize your travel memories in a way that you can go back and relive them again and again.  For kids, this is also a good way to incorporate language arts into their travels to help make the entire experience more educational.

 

COLLECT FOREIGN CURRENCY

In words of the great Cardi B, “money bag, money bag, money bag.”  Instead of cashing in your leftover foreign currency, keep it and put it on display in a decorative money box.  Once you’ve collected a bit, the money mosaic can be a beautiful [and valuable] travel memory idea.  Plus, it comes in handy for future trips.

 

CREATE A MEMORY BOX

For those of us with a more fluid style of creativity [read: unorganized], memory boxes are a great catchall idea for all your travel memories.  You can include all types of items in your travel memory box like ticket stubs, wrist bands, access passes, brochures, coins, or even printed copies of your itinerary.  This is one of my favorite travel memory ideas because of its simplicity.

DOCUMENT YOUR TRAVELS ON SOCIAL MEDIA

Documenting your travels on social media is a free, easy way to have a lifetime account of your life’s adventures.  Who knows?  You might even inspire a few families along the way to do the same thing!  Pick your social media channel of choice like Instagram or Facebook [or pick them all] and simply chronicle your travels.

 

START A BLOG

Take documenting your travels one step further by starting a blog!  Starting and maintaining a travel blog is easier than you think.  Some websites offer free services like Weebly and Blogger.

 

What are your favorite ways to keep your travel memories ideas?