Some of my favourite family memories are from travel, like discovering the foodie side of Pasadena or a little one-on-one spa time with my teen daughter. With these memories still fresh in our mind record your family travel moments, saving little details that sometimes get replaced with school lessons or new memories. Lonely Planet is a great resource for travel inspiration but they can also help preserve those memories.
Not only will this keep kids entertained on long rides or when waiting for commute connections, it provides a number of unique ways for kids to record their travel moment in time. Create stars based on rating various aspects of your trip such as if it was relaxing, offered great food or was a luxurious getaway. What a great way to turn a rating into a personal star. There’s a page to glue postcards from some of your child’s favourite spots and build a tower of ticket stubs from attractions you visited together.
This hard bound book provides spots to write, draw, doodle and adhere a variety of memories. Your child can fill up every page or just the ones that are relevant on the trip. At the end they’ll have a saved memory that they can look back on. Maybe they’ll start their own Travel Journal library.
A travel journal is a great way to record details for a special vacation but not all trips have to be grandiose. Sometimes a road trip to Nashville or Washington D.C. can bring with it a mini adventure. This foldout wall size travel map is a great way to record all those family escapes, both near and far. The included stickers invite you to mark places you’ve been and places you want to visit. Add weather and transportation stickers as well as markers for where friends and family live.
Flip the map over for an interesting fact on each of the 226 locations marked on the map. Did you know:
- The Netherlands gained 17% of it’s land by claiming it back from the sea
- Zambia is home to the world’s tallest waterfall, the Victoria Falls
- The smallest bird in the world, the Bee Hummingbird, is only 5 cm long and can be found in Cuba
Keep a record of all your family travels on this map and continue to plan the next adventure.
I kind of like this colouring trend as a form of meditation, attention to detail and just another way to spend time together as a family that doesn’t involve a screen. This colouring book shares line drawings of 100 of the best places on the planet. Whether you want to bring to life the places you’ve visited, plan to travel to or just dream about visiting, this book will inspire the whole family’s love of the world beyond their backyard. The back few pages provide tidbits of information on each destination in the book. What places would you love to bring to life with coloured pencils?
Boredom Buster: Games for the Road
This collection of backseat distractions includes ideas kids can play on their own or with others. I especially love the games where becomes an element in the fun, like when the page becomes the divider between two players or using the book as the game board. The dice printed in the top corner of the book mean you don’t need to worry about loosing dice in the car.
This book will easily become a travel companion staple, creating memories of favourite games the family play over and over whenever the travel bug hits.
Do you keep a record of your family travels? These are just a few ideas from Lonely Planet and Raincoast Books. For more travel fun try some of our other non-tech travel games.