Kids Travel Journal

A kids travel journal is the ultimate fun and memorable activity on a family vacation! You know all that time in the car or on the airplane? Use it wisely and have your kids reflect on what they’ve seen, eaten, and experienced!

Do your kids love to look back at old photos? What about old school papers and accomplishments?

Both of my kids do, especially my daughter. She is my child who likes to write stories, make lists, and have written and physical souvenirs of past adventures. If you’ve followed this blog at all you may have seen or downloaded the original kids travel journal I created for her.

While we still LOVE it, and it’s been great for past travels and adventures, the child is ready for something new.

That’s why I put together this new journal. Next week we’re heading off on a Spring Break road trip, and it requires something new and fresh for her to put her mind to!

In a hurry?

Scroll to get the travel journal bonus! Or PIN it for later here!

This post contains affiliate links, which means I receive a small percentage if you make a purchase after clicking on my links.

The journey, not the arrival matters.

– T.S. Elliot

What’s new in this kids travel journal?

First of all, I looked at quite a few ideas from my kids and others who’d used our original journal before. How could we make it better, more user-friendly, and still super-fun and engaging for kids?

One of the first things I did was change the size of the journal. Instead of a full page, I changed it to a half-sheet printout.

Why do you ask? Well, the half-sheet size is easier to travel with. It will fit in all sizes of bags, purses, backpacks, as a bookmark in a book, you name it.

It makes it easier to pull out and write/draw on any place you go whether it be in a car, a museum, or when you sit down to rest during a hike.

Another thing that’s changed is the amount of color vs. white space.

This journal has some pictures and colors, but not as much as the last one. It was done on purpose so it’s easier to print out either in black and white, full color, or grayscale, depending on your preference. This also lets the child doodle in the edges and put in their own colors.

In addition, I’ve added some more prompts to spark kids’ imaginations.

For example, there’s a page for the day with the weather, how I feel, and other things listed. But then there are also pages on what I ate today, where I’m sleeping, who I saw, etc.

Depending on the kid, you may want to use all the pages or just a few and make more copies based on the length of the trip.

List of travel journal activity pages

• Cover Page: My Travel Journal
• Name and contact page with space to draw a self-portrait
• Where in the world are you going? A world map to record where you travel.
• Where in the USA are you going? A map of the USA to record where you travel.
• The daily page includes:
  • Today’s Date:
  • I felt
  • The weather was:
  • I learned:
  • I met:
  • Three things I did today:
  • Today I traveled by:
• What I ate
• Written prompts: Three words to describe today, I miss…, I tried something new today!, I felt…
• Out my window is a place to draw what they’ve seen out their window today!
• Tonight we are staying… (where, and place to draw it)
• Written prompts 2: The best thing about today was…, my least favorite thing was…, three words to describe this city/town are…, three questions I have are…
• Today I learned a new word! This page includes a word bubble with an area to draw and a field to describe what it means.
• Today I saw this! Includes a space to draw/color and descriptive words.
• Here is a portrait of a person I saw today.
• Today I saw this animal.
• Trip Reflection page

It’s a dangerous business, Frodo, going out your door. You step onto the road, and if you don’t keep your feet, there’s no knowing where you might be swept off to.

– J.R.R. Tolkien

New Kids Travel Journal Bonus

Sign up for Explorer Momma’s newsletter and get the NEW Kids Travel Journal as a bonus! If you’re already on our list, awesome! You can still download the journal!

How to download the kids travel journal

First, enter your first name and email in the field below. Second, in a few minutes or so you should receive an email. Click on the button in the email to download the PDF to your computer.

You’ll be signing up for my super-useful emails and updates, only things I believe will be of value to you.

Congratulations and thanks for joining me!

It’s that simple! Print out the entire thing or pick and choose the pages your child would most enjoy.

What do you think of the journal?

So far the journal has met approval with my own kids. We’ll be giving it the full road trip test next week, and I can’t wait to see how it goes!

After this one, as my daughter gets older we may turn to a basic blank journal with a few travel quotes here and there.

However, for now, when they’re in elementary school, this style of a journal is still appealing. It also makes kids think a bit about their travels. Who they’ve seen, what they’ve done, cultural differences, etc.

Do please let me know if you use it with the kids in your life! I hope it’s useful, and let me know if you have any suggestions to make it even better!

PIN it here for later:

 

More kids travel activities:

1. The Ultimate Road Trip Activities for Kids
2. Kids Airplane Activities: Airplane BINGO
3. 8 Ways to Survive a Long Layover with Kids
4. The Complete Kids Carry-On Packing List
5. Pinwheel Phones: A Mom’s Pinwheel Phone Review