How to Preserve your Travel Memories

How to preserve your travel photos and memories

15 Creative Ways to Preserve Your Travel Memories as well as Travel Photos

1) Send a postcard to yourself

Postcards are a classic way to preserve travel memories. The problem is that often they’re often pretty generic and boring.

That’s all changed now that apps like My Postcard let you send your own photos as physical postcards. You can send then straight from your computer or smartphone from anywhere in the world, to anywhere in the world. How cool is that?

2) Create a travel scrapbook

I’m not the scrap-booking type, but I do have to admit that they look pretty cool when they’re done.

It honestly looks pretty easy to do: just pick up a travel scrapbook kit, use the book and stickers they provide, print out some photos, and add things like airline tickets and notes.

3) Create a memory box

A memory box (or shadowbox) is just a glass enclosed display box for displaying objects. You can even use a picture frame if you only have flat items to add.

Just add photos, plane tickets, and decorations and you’re done, like this DIY beach vacation shadowbox from MomDot, made with sand from a family vacation.

4) Collect a unique souvenir from wherever you travel

Because we travel so often, we struggled with finding souvenirs that wouldn’t take over our house. There are many things that make great souvenirs, like fridge magnets, pebbles, patches, shot glasses, and the like, but we settled on bring home a paper map from wherever we visit.

Even in the age of Google Maps, it’s easy to pick up a paper tourist map at almost any hotel or airport. We just mark places we visit, and make notes to make the maps more personal. The best part is that they take up almost no storage room.

5) Collect sand from everywhere you go

There’s something wonderful about being able to run your fingers through sand that you walked in on a tropical beach.

There are plenty of ways to display the sand, from keeping it in a bottle, to having it added to jewelry. I like to keep ours in small, separate glass bottles, rather than layering it in one bottle. One drop and it would be mixed together anyway!

You can pick up these adorable glass bottles on Amazon here.

Tip: Just be careful that you don’t take any sand or shells where it’s prohibited.

6) Keep a Personal Travel Journal

There may be things that you want to commemorate about your travels but aren’t willing to share them with the world. For that, you can keep a travel journal where you write about your most treasured experiences. It will be like a private travel diary for pouring your thoughts and feelings to.

With these unique ways to immortalize your travels, you can be sure that your memories are well-documented and will definitely last a lifetime. If you have other ideas on preserving travel memories, share them on the comments below!

7) Collect Keychains and Fridge Magnets

“Collect memories, not things,” so they say. But I love collecting them both! Keychains and fridge magnets may be cheap and small, but they are great travel souvenirs.

Whenever you see these little keepsakes, you’ll be reminded of how fun it was traveling to that place. They’re cheaper if you buy them by bulk, so don’t forget to get some for your family and friends.

8) Make Travel Videos

Travel memories wouldn’t be complete without videos. Knowing pictures wouldn’t be enough to show how frightening yet exciting it was to jump from the 43-meter-high Kawarau bridge in New Zealand, I recorded a video of this heart-stopping adventure. Until now, whenever I replay it, I still feel the anxiety and adrenaline rush I had that day.

Each time you go on an adventure travel, make it a point to record the thrilling moments, so you can watch the video anytime at the comfort of your home. If you have a lot of videos, edit them and make a short travel movie out of them.

9) Blog Your Travel Moments

If you have a way with words and can take great photos, you can blog about your travel experiences. Blogging is a good way to share travel tips and inspire like-minded people.

Start a travel blog and try to write down everything, the highs and lows, and even the good and bad experiences. Include travel photos, especially the candid ones for an authentic storytelling. Always remember that every single moment in your travel counts, so don’t try to leave out even the smallest details about the trip.

10) Print Photo Books

Looking for the perfect way to display your Instagram photos? Check out Artifact Uprising, a company that specializes in creating softcover books based on Instagram’s square photo dimensions.

Bonus: You don’t need to upload photos – just connect Artifact Uprising directly to your Instagram feed and choose the pictures you want to print. You can also use Artifact Uprising to order prints, stationery, wall art, and more.

11) Get Your Favorite Travel Moment Painted

There are many options to frame your photos and hang them on the wall – I particularly like CanvasPop.

A more interesting and unique approach is to have your your favorite travel moment painted! Do like Missy who documented years of travel painting on her Moleskine. An amazing set of visual memories!

12) Put Your Wanderlust On The Wall

This is as simple as choosing a wall back home and turn it into your personal wanderlust worship place.

Go big and a dramatic with a collage of travel photographs, snapshots and other mementos and create a memorable wanderlust gallery!

13) Build a Memory List

This is one of my favorites. It’s cute but super simple at the time. Create a shopping-list of the things you think are more memorable on your trip. Keep it on your phone or in a notebook.

You could be adding anything from the view of the top of the Eiffel Tower to the cat with a black spot on the right eye that lived on your hostel in Bangkok. When you read them again after your trip, it’s a roller coaster of emotions. Try not to tear up.

If you’re travelling with someone else this is even more fun: you can take turns adding items to the list!

14) Make a Travel Pin Map

Mark your travel memories on a map! Make a DIY travel pin map and post it on a bare wall in your room. Whenever you visit a country or city, put a pushpin on its particular place on the map and insert information like the dates and duration of your travel. You can also get a scratch map that allows you to “peel off” the countries you’ve visited. Who would’ve thought that mapping could be that fun?

15) Collect Mugs

Purchase a mug on each of your travels. Every morning when you have coffee you can relive your honeymoon in Paris or your family vacation in the Bahamas.