If you’re looking for unique, easy, and affordable ways to capture your vacation memories, look no further! These ten ideas will show you how to make travel souvenirs that will last a lifetime.
I enjoy traveling, but how do you make souvenirs of your travels? Whenever I travel, I almost always bring back a souvenir with me. Many years ago, it would have been a snow globe, but now, as I travel exclusively with a carry-on, I tend to simply pick up a fridge magnet.
If you’re like me, it’s likely that when you travel, you’ll also have experiences you’ll want to remember. It’s one of the reasons souvenir shops are so successful. Everyone wants to bring back a unique souvenir from their travels to reflect the most memorable parts of their time spent in a different city or country.
But souvenir shops are now very commonplace, and your memento may very well be the same one your next-door neighbor also picked up on their travels. You can make your own keepsakes by getting ideas from the places and landmarks you’ve seen and using your creativity and uniqueness. This is why we have created eight original ideas for you to make your own travel souvenirs on your next adventure.
Create A Photo Album or Photo Book
This tip is one of my absolute favorites. I like taking pictures a lot, and I never leave home without my trusted Sony DSLR camera. It’s actually on my international travel essentials list. I enjoy capturing high-quality images of the world around me, something that my smartphone cannot do at times. There is no better way to create your own travel memories than to compile your images into a photo book and recreate your journey through images. You could print your pictures and place them in a physical album if you want to appreciate them on your shelves every day. However, if you so choose, you may also build electronic photo albums.
Write a Travel Journal
If writing is your passion and you want to put the impressions of your travels on paper, then we recommend that you start a travel journal or diary while you are visiting a city or a particular site. This will allow you to capture the impressions of your travels as they happen. If you want your notebook to look more natural, you can purchase a journal and write in it by hand or type it up at the end of each day on your computer. If you want your memories to be more vivid, don’t be afraid to get creative and add things like pictures, sketches, and patterns to it. People always ask, “How do you remember what to write about a city you’ve visited?” and my answer is always my Notes app on my iPhone. You will most likely catch me jotting down notes while I’m out and about on my travels
Create A Travel Blog
If you are an aspiring writer or enjoy writing as a hobby, consider creating a travel blog to document your travels. This is a great way to keep track of the places you visit and engage with people who share a common interest in traveling. You can share pictures, stories, and experiences that will help your readers get to know the destinations that you visited on your trip. Additionally, this could be very helpful if someone else decides to go there after reading your post. People often search for information on different locations before deciding whether or not they want to visit them, and having one’s own blog can be quite useful in this regard. Another advantage of starting a travel blog is that it serves as an online record of your experiences, which can be a great way to look back on fond memories later on.
Make a Postcard Collection
Putting together a collection of postcards from your various adventures is a fun and unique way to remember them. Postcards can be replicas of famous paintings you saw in museums, photos of famous landmarks, or just pictures that capture your imagination. You can buy postcards from souvenir shops and many other places, such as museums or other tourist attractions you visit during your trip. However, the challenge is finding ones that are truly unique and represent the place you visited. If you’re feeling creative, you could even create your own postcards to add to your collection. This way, each one will be tailor-made for each destination.
Create a Collage/Painting
Another idea to make your travels more memorable is to create a collage or painting out of mementos from your trip, such as ticket stubs, maps, brochures, and photos. This also serves as an excellent way to display all of these memories in one place without taking up too much space in your home. You can even frame the collage or painting and hang it on your wall for a more personal touch. If you are particularly artistic, you could also create an original piece of art that reflects your travels in whatever medium you choose, such as a painting or sculpture. This will make for a unique souvenir that is sure to stay with you forever.
Create a Sketchbook For Your Travels
You can transform your photo album into a sketchbook of some of the most gorgeous places you’ve ever been if you have any artistic ability at all. You can create your travel sketchbook by drawing on location and doing so whenever you have a spare moment while you are away from home, provided that you have the leisure to do so. Your trips will have a one-of-a-kind flair if you keep a sketchbook and use it to draw the many landscapes, monuments, and tourist landmarks that you see so that you can recreate them with your own two hands. You can use paper to convey the story of your trips, or you could use drawing software if you’re more of a digital artist. Both options are available to you. If you are a writer at heart, you can combine your sketches with your trip journal to create a more complete record of your experiences.
Turn Your Travels Into A Movie
There is a wide variety of software and programs available for use on various platforms that may be used to make movies and edit them into trailers and films. If you want to take videos of your trips and edit them into a movie, you can use one of these software programs and add music or voices to explain what you saw. Doing this lets you turn your videos into a movie about your travels. This is a good way to capture, for example, the atmosphere of a busy and well-known landmark in the city, as well as the scenery you see from your car or train window. Watching this could be entertaining if you spend your vacation time with other people, and it could provide an intriguing and engaging way to reflect on the time you spent away from home. You can even add a few beautiful stills to get the full story.
Make A Travel Map
Are you a map lover? If so, then creating a travel map may be the perfect way to document your travels. You can use an old world map or simply make one yourself on a poster board or foam board to record and remember where you went on a particular trip. This will include things like popular tourist attractions, national parks, cities, small towns, etc. Mark every place you have visited with colorful pins and draw lines connecting them to show the routes that you took during your trips. To take it a step further, you can use different colors for each trip that you take, as well as add labels such as dates of visit and cities/countries. Just remember to write down the coordinates of each stop so that you can accurately put them on the map when it comes time to make it. Add details about your travels, such as where you stayed, what kind of food you ate, and any other interesting stories from the places that you visited. Paper maps are nice, but there are also interactive digital versions available if that’s more your style.
Make A Scrapbook
Another great way to make souvenirs of your travels is through scrapbooking. Scrapbooking is the perfect way to commemorate your trips and adventures. In addition to the pictures that you have taken of landmarks and other places of interest, you can also add postcards, stickers, souvenirs, ticket stubs, maps, notes, and more into a scrapbook. It’s fun to look back at all the memories attached to one single book. Plus, it’s an easy project to do since all you need is some paper or cardstock and a few simple supplies like scissors, glue, or tape. If you want something more creative, you could use an online digital scrapbook too. After putting together your scrapbook, you can share it with friends and family or bring it out when reminiscing about past trips.
Collect Local Artifacts
If you love collecting souvenirs from your trips or have an interest in antiques, then collecting local artifacts could be an interesting way for you to commemorate a place or people you encountered. At any tourist site, you may find unique keychains, magnets, jewelry, and other items that are considered locally crafted artifacts. You can purchase these from the local artisans or markets and keep them as a reminder of your trip. On a recent trip to Romania, Madison and I visited a local village where local artists were selling their wares. We happened to pick up a very unique souvenir made from the horn of a cattle. Each horn is unique, so our souvenir is unique. Same as with our unique souvenirs from Australia that we happened to pick up on a trip there as well.
In Conclusion
These are just a few ideas for creating souvenirs of your travels. Traveling is an amazing experience, and it’s important to keep its memories alive long after the journey has ended. Whether it’s through a travel blog, scrapbook, video, or map – these mementos will serve as reminders of all the wonderful places you were able to explore and take in during your trip.
No matter which type of memento you choose to make, remember to have fun with it and be creative! The best way to create lasting memories is by expressing yourself in whatever way feels right for you.
