Keeping a kids travel journal is not just a great way for your kids to remember the details of their trip, but it also captures those precious memories that may later be swept away in the fog of time.
Your kid’s travel journal will become an heirloom more precious than any other souvenirs you can bring back from your trip. Plus, a journal is an excellent way to keep the kiddos entertained during road trips, long plane rides, and other inevitable travel downtime!
While any old notebook or journal works, if you want to encourage kids to keep track of their experiences, you need to provide some travel journal ideas.
Kids Travel Journal Printables
One thing I’ve learned from my daughter is that writing is easier for kids if they are given a writing prompt. To design these travel journal pages, I talked to my girl about what things she likes to remember from her travels and what types of prompts might make journaling easier.
With her input I put together the following kid travel journal printable pages–including a cover, pre-trip overview page, daily travel journal templates, and a trip recap page. So if you are looking for a DIY travel journal for your kids, look no further!
With this free printable travel journal cover, your child can personalize their journal with their name, indicate where on the map they are going, and record the dates of the trip.
Just click here to download the free PDF of the kid travel journal printable cover.
I’ve also put together a page that your kiddo can fill out before you leave for the trip or on the plane or in the car en route to your destination.
Click here to download the PDF
There are also pages that can be copied for each day of your trip. This page lets your child record the date, location, weather, and how they felt that day. There are also sections for recording what they did that day, the best thing they ate, something they learned, and a word to capture the essence of the day.
Download daily trip report pages.
Lastly, there is a trip recap page to capture the high points of the trip and their overall feelings and rating about the trip.
Before you leave just print out the number of pages you need and staple it, bind it, or put it in a pocket folder with room to save ticket stubs, programs, and more.
If you prefer, you can also download all the pages as one downloadable, printable PDF kids travel journal file here.
When on the road, don’t wait until the meltdown at bedtime to think about writing in journals. Stick it in your day bag along with some crayons and pencils and use it as a way to keep kids entertained while waiting to be served at restaurants or other downtime throughout the day.
By the way, if you really want to get your kids involved in the travel planning as well as the travel journaling, use these vacation planner worksheets for kids!
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Tamara Gruber is the Founder and Publisher of We3Travel. A former marketing executive and travel advisor, Tamara is an award-winning travel writer and recognized expert in family travel. Tamara is a member of SATW, NATJA, IFWTWA, and the Adventure Travel Trade Association, and serves on the Board of the Family Travel Association. She is also the publisher of YourTimetoFly.com and the co-host of the Vacation Mavens travel podcast.
Would like to be able to change the size to smaller sizes to fit in 4 1/2″W x 6 1/2″ L journals. If I could open in jpg file, I could change sizes.
I only just discovered this now! It looks great and I’ll definitely save it for when our 4-year old is a little bit bigger. We homeschool and this is a great idea to save those precious memories. Thank you so much for sharing this!
I hope you like it!
I love it! I think I’ll create something similar for museum visits and other field trips we do 🙂
That’s a great idea!
Thank you. Very cute.
Thanks! This is just what I was looking for and i think my kids will love it!
Thank you I love the journal
Love it! I have 2 students traveling to Asia this month and i am sending this with them. Thank you
These are great–thank you!
LOVE this! Thank you!
Thanks for this – it is exactly what I was looking for. Will be using your lovely materials!
This is awesome! Is there an online version of this? I want to start a travel journal for my 3 year old, where we document everywhere she’s been, what she did on the trip, etc…. Would be great to be able to add pics, videos, all trips listed separately so you can go through each one at any time. Do you know of any like that? Thanks.
Dave, did you find anything for your 3 year old? I’m looking to start this for my two little ones…
Hey Sue,
After a lot of research, I settled on a journaling app called Day One. I bought it for my Mac and there’s also an iPhone app that goes along with it. It’s been great so far. I’ve entered her first Thanksgiving, x-mas, pony ride, when family comes to town, all the vacations we go on. It’s super cool. It did cost around $30, which is the only negative, as there are free journaling apps out there. But I figure it’s something I’ll use forever as long as I’m into it, so, I forked over for it. It gets great reviews when researching those apps. It also automatically backs up to their cloud so you don’t have to bother saving it anywhere. Pretty cool…
Dave
What a great idea!
We are taking a eastern state road trip starting in Niagara Falls to Maine to Boston, To New York to Philadelphia to Washington D.C. to West Virginia to Indianapolis but to our home in Michigan. This will be a great way for my boys to remember and write down all the amazing things and places they seen. Thank you for putting it out there for people to see and use!
Sounds like an awesome trip! I have some posts on Maine, Boston, New York, Philly, DC and West Virginia if you need any other help when planning your trip.
Thanks so much for sharing!
Thanks for this awesome printable. I have been looking for a great travel journal for my son. This is it! Thanks again.
Thank you! I hope your son likes it.
These are great, thanks! We’ve traditionally made scrapbooks when we return from travels but I agree that having some kind of prompt is great for children, especially younger ones.
Plus it keeps them busy while waiting around at restaurants too.
Thank you for sharing! We are taking a road trip from FL to MN this summer with two 8 year olds and a 13 year old! I think this will be great for them!
Thank you so much for this fantastic and simple journal!! can’t wait to use it on our Disney Cruise!
Great, I am so happy you like it. Have a great cruise!
Thank you so much for the wonderful travel journal printables! These will come in so handy to help make the most of an upcoming family trip!
You are welcome Liz! I hope your kids enjoy them.
I love these journals! My family of 5 is leaving in 2 weeks to visit France, Chad, and Kenya for 5 weeks. I’m printing these out to have my 10 and 6 year olds use on our travels. Thanks for sharing them!
Thanks Cheyenne! That trip sounds exciting and definetely something to document. Safe and fun travels!
I was looking for something kind of simple to help my oldest (6) document his first big trip (not to grandparents). I think this will be absolutely perfect! I also like that we could work on it together, since his writing is still developing.
Thank you for sharing!
I am so glad you like it!
So cute! Just printed for our daughter. We are traveling to Zambia, Africa for a mission trip this summer and these are going to be great!
Kristy, best of luck on your trip! I hope your daughter enjoys them.
That is so terrific to hear! Thanks for sharing.
I am going on a trip to the Murray in Mustralia and i found this really helpful for me!
Yay!
Thanks Michelle, I consulted the expert, well my daughter at least, and she thought having the visual prompt would be fun and a fast way to get into journaling. Thanks for coming by and leaving me some feedback!
I love these! I always made my kids journal about our trips when they were younger. Now they are older teens and young adults and they’ll sometimes journal on their own (if it’s somewhere really interesting). Your journal pages are great!
Thanks Tanya! Mine is only 9 and she usually journals on her own but I notice she does a lot of drawing and simple statements so I got her to collaborate with me on creating these. Thanks for sharing and stopping by to comment!
Thank you so much for sharing! I went everywhere looking for a nice journal for my children to record their trip and aren’t any nice ones for children.
Wow! I love these. We will definitely be taking them on our next trip!