Looking for creative ways to capture your travel memories? If you are like most people, you have taken some amazing photos while on vacation. The last thing you want to do is keep them stored on your cell phone or computer only, where they will never be enjoyed. Here are a few ideas to inspire you to do something with those amazing memories that you’ve already captured. Create a personalized postcard through the MyPostcard App for a loved one or create a photo book or photo wall displays for you to display in your home. Keep reading for inspiration and ideas that are simple, easy, and beautiful!
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Creative Ways to Capture Travel Memories
Create & Send Personalized Postcards Through A Postcard App
The MyPostcard App is a perfectly sentimental (and easy) way to capture travel memories in the moment. Everyone loves receiving traditional snail mail, but if we are being honest, most people rarely send postcards when they travel these days. Why? Traditional tourist shops around the world still sell postcards, but the photos on them are often impersonal. It can also be difficult to hunt down postage stamps when you’re traveling abroad, and then you have to find a place to mail them. And… if you make it this far in the process, it can take weeks for the postcard to make it to a foreign destination. (True story: A family member sent us a postcard from Germany, and we received it in the USA 2 months after they returned home.)
Is there a creative, fun, personalized solution? Yes! Enter MyPostcard, the best Postcard App! I came across this app quite awhile ago, when we were on vacation in Kauai. I wanted to send a postcard to a few loved ones (I’ve always loved snail mail), but I couldn’t find any postcards that I liked. The stock photos looked cheesy or had greetings that didn’t fit my personality. After looking for the perfect postcards in several tourist shops, I gave up and turned to the App store. I was pleasantly surprised when I found MyPostcard right away. I downloaded it, quickly designed my own postcards using my own photos that I had taken, added greetings, and hit “checkout”. The postcards were printed and mailed to our loved ones within days, and we were hooked. Since then, we have used MyPostcard to create personalized postcards on our vacations around the world. We have also used them at home to create beautiful birthday notes, holiday cards, get well soon messages, and other “just because” postcards.
Here are a few examples of personalized postcards that I created recently using our travel photos from Oahu and Scotland. I used the Trio template with an added heart graphic that I upgraded to XXL, the Golden Birthday template (for my mother-in-law’s upcoming birthday!), and the Scotland Highland Template.
My husband and I added personalized notes on a couple for our daughter to keep in her memory box. I love that you get to choose from a variety of font colors, styles, and sizes.
The app is incredibly easy to use! Here are the steps from start to finish. It took me just 4 minutes. The price includes printing, postage, and mailing. Once you hit “checkout”, your work is done.
The MyPostcard App is available in both the Apple iOS and Google Play App stores. They are currently offering 30% off when you use my referral link and enter promo code AIC2019 at checkout. Click here to see MyPostcard’s most recent deals.
Create a Vacation Photo Book
My husband and I love to create a photo book for each major vacation that we take. I design the photo book, and my husband does the journaling (he takes awesome travel notes while we are away). We love using Shutterfly photo books, because they have stood the test of time, and we love for our vacation photo books to look uniform on our shelf.
We always create a black 8 x 11 photo book with white text, but Shutterfly has a ton of design options to fit every style. You can create your own and personalize every detail (my preference), or upload your photos and have Shutterfly fill in the pages automatically (so quick and easy).
If you prefer to print your photos to fill a traditional photo album, Etsy has several beautiful, personalized photo album options, like this map photo album or this simple 4×6 photo album.
You might also be interested in: Souvenir Ideas for Minimalists
Create a Travel Photo Display
Creating a travel photo display in your home is a great way to capture your memories and enjoy them daily. My husband and I consider ourselves to be minimalists, but that doesn’t mean our walls are blank! We love filling our home with photo memories of our travels.
We discovered PhotoBarn several years ago and fell in love with their wood photo boards. Here are a few examples of the photo boards (3/4 inch birch) that we had created of our favorite photos from Ireland. We have also purchased personalized Christmas ornaments and photo cubes from them.
We also love decorating our home with photo canvases. Shutterfly, Canvas on Demand, and Easy Canvas Prints all make great quality photo canvases in a variety of sizes.
Gallery walls are also a great option, as you can switch out the travel photos in the frames over time. You can buy beautiful, matching frame sets (like this black frame set or this white frame set) to keep the look sleek and uniform.
Keep a Travel Journal/Diary
Keeping a travel journal or diary while you’re away is the perfect way to capture memories. You can write down your memories every day in real time, so you won’t forget the details. I will admit that I’m terrible at this…but my husband is great and is our official “travel journal-er”. He keeps track of our itinerary (what we did and what we ate), funny stories (there’s never a dull moment when traveling with a toddler!), things that surprised us about our destination, etc. We love looking back on his travel notes and reminiscing. There are things we think we’ll never forget, but we do!
There are so many travel journals and diaries out there. You can use a simple pocket-sized notebook or invest in something personal for your family, like this personalized name leather notebook. This is a great way to get your kids involved in capturing your memories too! Consider purchasing them their own journal to keep them busy on long travel days.
Pro Tip: Hire a Professional Vacation Photographer
If you love the idea of capturing your travel memories with a personalized postcard, photo book, or wall canvas, you will want to make sure that you have quality photos from your travels to work with! When it comes to capturing travel memories, we love to hire professional vacation photographers. Some say that a photo is worth a thousand words, and we couldn’t agree more. As much as we appreciate iPhones, tripods, and selfie sticks that allow us to capture our own photos, each trip deserves a few non-selfies. Don’t you agree?
We love using Flytographer to book professional photographers around the world. They work with local photographers in over 250 cities worldwide, making them the perfect choice for finding the perfect photographer for you. The company makes it so easy to select a photographer with a style you love and to find a location that will capture the beauty of your destination. They work with travelers of all kinds- including solo travelers, couples, families, and large groups. They use flat rates, have a fast turn around (we always receive our photos while we are still on our trip), and are so easy to work with!
We have used Flytographer three times so far, and we have loved every experience. You can read about our experiences in Paris, Edinburgh, and Oahu if you would like to learn more!
Sign-up for your account here to save $25 on your first photo shoot. If you love the idea but aren’t ready to book a photo shoot, simply create your account, and the $ will wait in your account.
You might also be interested in: 15 Reasons to Book a Photo Shoot with Flytographer on Your Next Vacation
MyPostcard App provided me with product credit and compensation in exchange for my honest review. All thoughts and opinions are my own! I genuinely love their app and have used it for years.
I would love to hear from you! How do you capture travel memories? Do you have a favorite way to display your memories?
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56 Comments
Sandra Ans
These are very good and inspiring ideas! I am having a dream about a world map on my new flat wall with photos from all my destinations. I believe, it will look amazing!
Leah
That sounds like a wonderful idea!
Laura Axtman
I love your ideas to capture and keep a record of your travels. The postcard is just the perfect way to keep a memory and the addition of writing a message to your daughter for her memory box is priceless! I am going to make a postcard during my next trip- I love the nostalgia of the hand-written note and the stamp to send it away. I have gotten into the habit of purchasing an ornament during our adventures- it always represents the most-stand-out portion of the journey, then during the holidays while we decorate our tree we can reminisce about our special times together. Your ideas are a great addition to our tradition~ Thank you for sharing!
Leah
Great ideas! We love starting the new tradition of sending our daughter a post card. The MyPostcard App makes it all so easy to do straight from our phones.
Sarah
I love this post!! So many great ideas. Thank you for sharing
Leah
I am so glad! 🙂
Linda (LD Holland)
I must admit that most of the time we sort our photos and send them to our Apple TV to view with friends. But I do love the idea of creating customized postcards. It ads a little personal touch. And can be personalized for the receiver. Good to know there is an app to help. We have so many awesome photos. The task to choose just a few to frame would be huge. But so much better to decorate the walls than some of the bought art we now have. My hubby hates that I have other people’s travel pics. But none of ours! The idea of hiring a photographer sounds interesting. It would free us to enjoy sights more!
Leah
MyPostcard makes the process so easy and fun! I agree that it is fun to have your own photos displayed, rather than someone else’s photos. And yes, hiring a photographer does allow for you to enjoy the sights more. They do the work, and you get the photos. 🙂 We love it!
Joella
I love the postcard app it is a great way to send personalized messages with your pictures. And it is super fast and easy to use. I also create photo books for my travels and my kids love looking back at them. I have not tried PhotoBarn yet so will need to check them out. Thanks for all these ideas.
Leah
You are welcome! I’m glad you liked my ideas! 🙂
Nancy
Excellent suggestions! I’ll be making travel photo books shortly.
Leah
Have fun! They are always special to have!
Anda
Your post made me smile because I have compiled so many travel photo albums over the years that I have nowhere to store them anymore. A few years ago I had to stop printing them, so now I only come up with one every few years. I like however the idea with personalized postcards.
Leah
I bet you have so many lovely photo albums! 🙂 Personalized postcards have become one of our favorite ways to capture memories in a small way.
E. J Requina
These are very creative and fun ideas. Would love to have a travel wall on my flat. I enjoy taking photos and i was really looking for ways on how to add some twist to the photos im taking.
Leah
Have fun! We love decorating our home with our own photos.
Blair villanueva
I love the idea of creating a travel book. Still the idea of flipping pages and remembering the moments are still gives good feeling. Also blogging about every adventure also helps.
Leah
Yes, I agree! 🙂
Karen
Love all these ideas! I’m always looking for new ways to keep our travel memories alive. These would make fantastic xmas gifts as well!
Leah
Yes- I agree! We love making personalized gifts for family!
Vanessa Ball
MyPostcard app looks very cool and versatile too with the different options. I’d have too many books on the shelf to do the Shutterfly books, however, I have considered picking out my best shots for the wall and loved the wood boards concept. Thank you for sharing your ideas, I need to start getting creative now!
Leah
Have fun! 🙂
Sarah Wilson
Love the postcard idea – I’ve done (& love all of the others). Postcards provide such travel notalgia.
Leah
I agree! I love that you can use your own photos through MyPostcard. So personal and so easy!
Clarice
These are brilliant idea! We have actually started photo books and any major events and trips and we just love it. Though we have been using another company, I would love to try Shutterfly’s service.
Super love the uniform look of your photo books. This simply makes me want to redo all the previous photo books we have (haha!)
Leah
Thank you! I am so glad you liked my ideas!
Jay Artale
Getting kids into the habit of keeping their own travel journal is a great idea. Even if it’s just to use as a travel scrapbook or to sketch images. If they’re going to use them to capture their words – a good approach is to get them to focus on their five senses … what do they see, hear, smell, touch, and taste … capturing these will really help to recreate the experience years from now.
Leah
Wonderful tips! I love the idea of using the five senses!
Jay Artale
Yes I think the more guidelines you can give kids the better to overcome their fear of getting things wrong, and once they have the confidence, they’ll be more comfortable about letting their creativity take over.
Leah
Agreed! 🙂
Karen
Some great tips here, I really like these. We used to do a photo album after each holiday and a framed collage. Although with full time travels, I do struggle with what to do with my images. Thanks for the suggestions.
Leah
You are welcome! 🙂
Adele Gee
Thanks for these great ideas. I always have the thought to showcase my photos but then in the hustle and bustle of everyday life after returning from trips , the thought gets lost. So its really great that you provided the app itself as it saves work to find something suitable.
Leah
Yes! So easy to use!
Karthika
I love the idea of a photo journal and photo book for each of your travels. I wish I was that organized to do it 🙂
Leah
It is never too late to start! 🙂
Jennifer Mostert
I always do a photo book after a big trip. There is nothing better than a trip down memory lane with a glass of wine in hand a couple of years later as you reminisce about your trip.
Leah
I agree!
Anna Intrepid Scout
When I saw your post, I thought that I need to check it out to get some ideas to see what I can do with some of my memorable photos from many trips.
I like the idea of a photo album! Great tips on how to get it done!
Leah
Good luck! 🙂
Julie
What great ideas for saving and sharing your travel photos. I’m off to create some books for my grandson for his Christmas present now.
Leah
Great! I am sure that your grandson will love them!
Lesley
These are great ideas! I’ve always thought about how to do better with my photos than to leave them on my phone, and your ideas have inspired me to try a few of your suggestions. I particularly like the idea of a photo book and a photo collage. Thanks 🙂
Leah
Have fun creating these! 🙂
Candace Wafford
Such wonderful ideas! I have several projects I’ve done with travel photos and I love them!
Leah
So happy to hear this! It is so special to have photo memories to look back on.
Joanna
Just some other ideas to add to your great suggestions…
I bring my best photos into iMovie, add voice over and music and burn it to a DVD.
I also use travel diaries app to combine my journal and photos and have it printed as a book.
Leah
Great ideas! We love creating short videos of our trip clips too. I have heard of Travel Diaries and would love to look into them more! Thank you for sharing.
Farrah
I love the idea of personalized postcards with travel photos! :]! I’m hoping to do some photo canvases to decorate my walls someday when I have a house!
Leah
I’m so glad that you like these ideas! 🙂
Ann
You always have such great tips, thank you!
I have had an idea of developing one image from each place we have visited, and put them into different frames and then make a travelwall 🙂
Leah
I encourage you to do! You would probably love the result! 🙂
Anna
Interesting ideas! I collect postcards from my travels but there are places where postcards are (strangely) not available to buy, so creating one with the photo app would be a super idea!
My other favourite from your list is to book a photo shooting while on holiday. I recently saw someone on social media and I found it a really nice memory plus finally a chance to get good pictures of ourselves 🙂
Leah
I’m so glad that you like these ideas! 🙂
Lisa
Great ideas. We do the travel photo books. Recently I started sending postcards from an app. I had to laugh when an elderly relative asked how I got my writing so neat on the card!
Leah
Oh, this is hilarious, because I had a relative compliment my handwriting too! Haha! 🙂