When kids are involved in the process of planning a trip, even if only parts of the itinerary, it keeps them engaged and interested. It could be doing a little research about the place that they are visiting on vacation, coming up with an activity or even cooking a food item to try, gets them excited for a trip. Journaling or even talking about these during the planning stages is key to setting the expectations. It makes sure everyone has a good experience and it is not just the parents dragging the kiddos through endless museums and ancient buildings that the kids have no clue about. Travel journaling for kids encourages creativity while also making for a great souvenir to look back on.
I don’t know about your kids but mine sure don’t read the big travel books that I like to pour through before a vacation! A little Google search or an age-appropriate book, watching a movie shot in the city or country you will be traveling to helps kids visualize the trip. Bringing some coloring pages, a few stickers or a little journal to write things they see and experience might get them more interested in the culture, history, sights of the destination … who knows they might even suggest a museum or park that they would be interested in visiting. As a bonus, it keeps them busy during those long flights or drives.
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Benefits of Keeping a Travel Diary
Journaling their experience during the vacation also helps kids remember and relive the travel memories in the future. You can buy a colorful notebook or buy some Travel journal through Etsy or download the free printable travel journal sheets here and use it as a diary. My younger kid would never remember anything beyond a year… we make yearly photo albums during the Christmas holidays that catalog the trips we take during the year. Days we are stuck in Suburbia with nothing to do, we sift through these yearly journals which bring back the memories of the trip and the fun times we had. We also have a fridge door full of magnets that we have collected over the years we love to look at every day as well!
6 Best Travel Journals for Kids & Teenagers
- Lonely Planet Kids My Travel Journal is packed with writing topic suggestions, lists to complete, ideas for getting the creative juices flowing and lots more fill-in fun, this is the perfect way for young travelers to record their memories from a trip. There is space to write, draw, collage, color and complete – turning the finished journal into a wonderful scrapbook to treasure forever. With fun illustrations, a super-bright neon cover and a handy, backpack sized format, it’s a must-have item for any trip.
- A travel journal from the award-winning creative design team behind the Wee Society suite of products and apps is filled with a bunch of thought-starters so kids can capture important stuff, like cool things they spot, new things they try and people they meet. There are also adventure badges to earn, stickers, places to keep photos and other treasures, and postcards to send. Whether you’re headed to grandma’s, camping for the weekend, or taking a summer vacation, Go! is pretty much guaranteed to make your next trip even more memorable.
- Kids’ Travel Journal is another great book packed with fun pages to fill in. It includes pre-trip planning pages, daily entry pages, games, puzzles, memory and photo pages, maps, fun facts, and more!
- This journal for sophisticated Seuss fans. Older kids, tweens and teenagers will love this hardcover journal inspired by Dr. Seuss’s Oh, the Places You’ll Go! It features inspirational quotes and color artwork throughout! A “blank book” that is not quite blank, it’s 160 mostly-lined pages are the perfect place for reflecting on the Great Balancing Act (aka Life) and all the places you’ve been.
- This old fashioned Indiana Jones inspired Travel Journal is perfect for the older kids and teenagers. The Leather Travel Notebook by Maleden with a compass on the front cover is unlined and good for drawing maps, sketching ideas, or writing notes and keeping a travel diary.
- The Voyageur Notebook by Moleskine is an ideal travel journal for older kids and adults. Anyone who likes to be organized! Packed with essential journey information, it includes handy detachable packing and to-do lists, as well as a planning section that allows you to map out each day in detail before you set off into the sunset. It even has structured budget pages focusing on all-important economic issues. Once you are on the road, the journaling section provides ample space to record each day’s adventures, inviting you to add tickets, snippets of conversation, sketches and mementoes. This is a great travel journal for adults and college kids as well!
Free Kid Travel Journal Printable
If you don’t want to invest in a journal but still want your kids started on the idea of keeping a travel diary or journal, download this free printable that you can turn into a kids’ travel journal.
Download and print a fun little Journal Template here!
Ideal for the holiday travel, and adventure trips of all kinds, these imagination-building gifts will engage kids for hours on end! These journals are little time machines that help you go back in time. The photos and notes in them are not just pictures but records of your life!
Happy Trails!
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