11 Creative Ways to Track Your Travels around the World
Trying to figure out how to track your travels and keep your memories alive well after your trip? Don’t worry, there are lots of creative ways to document your travels. You can take pictures, make videos, use social media, start a travel blog, really the options are endless!
However, for the avid travelers out there, keeping track of your travels can be more difficult but also a sense of pride and joy. Not to mention, travel is a great conversation starter and finding ways to display your travel memories will help others learn more about you and your life experiences.
Let’s take a look at some of the best ways to track your travels!
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1. Keep a Push Pin Map or Globe
Push pin world maps are a tale as old as time, but they make a great, professional way to track your world travels on a map – not to mention they are great conversation pieces! Another more creative option is a cork globe. These can be used just like push pin maps for tracking your travels, but they are in 3D and don’t require wall space!
One of the best parts of a push pin travel map or cork globe is that you have the option to track places you want to go or can track multiple people’s travels using different colored pins! This makes it perfect for couples who may have traveled separately and together.
2. Use a Scratch Off Map or Globe
Looking for another type of map to track your travels? A more recent creation for travel tracking are scratch off maps. These handy maps are awesome in that they can be displayed or rolled and unrolled in-between trips as they don’t take up a lot of space – and they were designed purely as maps for tracking your travels! If you’d rather see your travels in 3D, there are also scratch off globes available.
Another cool aspect of these are you can get different types of scratch off maps. Select a global map to mark off countries as you travel. Choose a specific country, like the USA map, to scratch off states or district as you go. Or, go even more specific with National Park scratch off maps to make sure you hit them all!
3. Send Yourself a Post Card
Create a personalized collection of travel post cards that you’ve sent to yourself on your trips! This option is a cheap and easy option to document your travels, and it can be done in real time. Fortunately, most postcards are the same size as a standard print picture, so they fit easily into travel photo albums and photo displays too!
Simply, select a post card you like from your destination and write yourself a message. Write about things you’ve done, places you’ve gone, foods you’ve eaten, and more to remember your trip better later on. Then mail it to your home address to have a unique memory of your travels – including stamps and postage from your destination!
4. Create a Photo Map
While you travel you’re no doubt taking pictures. Trying to decide what to do with your travel photos? Make a photo travel map. Similar to the scratch off map idea, but a bit more personalized, travel photo maps are full of memories from your trips.
Photo maps to track your travels are most commonly done for smaller territories, like the US, versus creating a world photo map due to the complexity in scaling them. To get started, you simply select a picture from that destination, cut it to fit the frame of that specific state or destination, and pop it into the frame!
5. Put Together a Scrap Book or Photo Book
Document your travels with a personalized scrap book or photo book! These can be homemade, outsourced to a crafty friend or professional, or even printed online. It’s a great way to collect and display your travels including boarding passes, maps, photos, tickets to museums and events, and more!
One of the best ways to create them quickly is to use an online source. There are endless options available for printing photo books. I’ve personally used Shutterfly, Vistaprint, and Snapfish. Keep your eyes open for coupons and discounts as they’re regularly available!
6. Create a Souvenir Collection
A popular way to commemorate your travels are the endless travel souvenirs that you can collect along the way. Consider mugs, shot glasses, keychains, magnets, patches, art, jewelry charms, t-shirts, the options are actually endless! Some companies, like Starbucks, even created travel series, like their Been There mugs.
The trick with collecting souvenirs of a certain type is making sure you can find them everywhere – that’s why the above recommendations work so well! They are common to find and typically not too pricey or large to carry. At home you can then create a display case for shot glasses or mugs, make a t-shirt quilt, stitch the patches to your travel backpack, cover you refrigerator with magnets… anything!
7. Build a Custom Charm Bracelet
Italian charm bracelets offer you the opportunity to replace links with custom tiles making it possible to create a custom travel bracelet. These can be made with flag links from the countries you’ve visited, travel related charms, like an airplane, or other tiles that remind you of your travels.
One of the best parts of a travel charm bracelet is that you can wear it everywhere you go so your memories stay with you day in and day out! Not to mention, the charms are readily available online, making it easy to order new ones as your trips come and go.
8. Collect Coins and Local Currencies
Another creative way to track your travels is to collect coins and local currencies. This could mean simply keeping what left over change you have at the end of your trip, or purposefully selecting one of every coin, or maybe keeping the equivalent to $1. There are endless options for your travel coin collection!
Keeping the coins is great, but knowing how to display them is the challenge. You can simply put it all in a vase on display, separate the different currencies into marked envelopes or bags, or try something more “professional” like a coin collection album. These offer a great way to be able to admire and share your travel collection!
9. Use a Unique Travel Hashtag Online
Make it easy to find your trip memories online by using a unique travel hashtag on social media any time you post about your trip (#thecureforcuriosity). Tag all your posts with it and you’ll be able to easily find all of your photos, where you’ve eaten, people you’ve met and more!
This option for tracking your travels is not only free, but it’s also a great way for your friends and family to follow along with your travels! Unfortunately, it does mean you don’t own the memories though, in case a social media channel becomes obsolete (RIP Myspace and Google+!).
10. Get Artsy with a Cross Stitch Map Kit
If you’re a patient person, you can try your hand at a cross stitch map. While there are plenty world map cross stitch kits available, to track your travels, you’ll want to use one meant for that purpose. These are similar to the wall maps to track travels, but you hand stitch each country in as you visit!
This custom travel tracking project may take some work up front to stitch in all of your previous trips, but on an ongoing basis it will be short spurts of time for your handmade masterpiece! Best of all, it can easily be hung on the wall or framed making it a piece of art between your trips.
11. Use an Travel Tracking App
As the world continues to become more digital, there are tons of apps and websites popping up to help you track your trips. Using a travel track app helps automate your memories and make them accessible anywhere you might be. It’s perfect for the nomads of the world!
Some of the best apps to track travel are:
- Google Maps: Did you know it offers a location history feature? Just sign into your Google account to turn it on, and then it will auto track your trip! View full details about this travel map app to get started.
- Polarsteps: This trip tracking app was built to plan, track, and relive your travels. It automatically records your routes, making it easy for you to be present while you travel the world.
- myFlightradar24: This popular travel map app tracks all of your flights around the world. Not only can you see where you’ve been but you also get fun stats about your air travels!
Have other creative ways to keep track of trips? Let me know in the comments! I’m always open to finding new ways to track my travels!
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