No travel is complete without taking photos, but what happens to those photos once you get home? Do you print them one at a time or keep them on your phone or camera? And how do you ensure you and your family can enjoy your photos for years to come?
Photo books are the best way to keep your travel memories alive while presenting them in a tasteful manner. Regardless of who views them, photo books are sure to entertain and enchant you while telling your story at the same time.
Still unconvinced? Let’s take a look at some of the best photo books so you can see how they can organise your memories depending on your itinerary.
Why Use a Photo Book for Your Travel Memories?
Gone are the days of travelling around with fistfuls of photo film. With the widespread use of smartphones and digital cameras, you know your photos are always with you digitally. Storage is also barely a problem nowadays, thanks to the massive storage options available on our devices and online.
But what happens when it’s time to change your phone or if you lose your storage card? Sure, you can upload them online to keep a digital backup, but that makes it difficult to look through them casually. Your photos end up languishing in a digital folder that barely anybody can see.
That’s why a photo book is the best way to organise your travel memories. The sky’s the limit when designing your photo book, so you can present your photos exactly as you want them. And because they’re printed on high-quality paper, they won’t fade over the years.
My Experience of Creating Photo Books
I used photo albums for longer than most people, right up until 2018. When I had my daughter in 2019, I had less time, but I still wanted to preserve those special newborn memories. I created my first photobook to document my daughter’s first year, and I’ve sent off for 1 each year since.
To document travel, I’ve ordered photo books for many different sized trips, from spending 2 months exploring Greece, to a city break to Prague for 4 days. Prague was my first solo trip with my daughter, so it’s a very special memory. For each and every trip we go on, I make the time to create a photo book, so I can look at them in years to come.
Which photo book Is the Best Choice?
Picking the right photo book depends on the kind of travel you have. Did you have a whirlwind day trip, or did you have a long, multi-city holiday? Regardless of which holiday you’ve done, here are some excellent photo book choices for you.
Create a Photobook for Short City Breaks
If you’ve taken the plunge and taken your kids on a European City Break, even if it was a short weekend away, you should still make a photobook, so you can keep the special memories safe.
Look into creating a smaller, with a more compact photo book such as CEWE’s A6 XL square photo book.
Measuring 11 cm by 15 cm, this square photo book can hold up to 74 pages while keeping things cosy. Its small profile ensures it won’t take up too much space on your shelf or coffee table, and each page won’t overwhelm the viewer with numerous photos.
A small, square photo book such as CEWE’s is perfect for preserving travel memories with your little one. Want to introduce one of Europe’s best cities, such as Munich to your kids and keep each moment intact for several years? Then this photo book is for you.
Discover Some of the CityBreaks You Could Plan:
Start by discovering the best European cities to visit in 2023, or plan a budget trip by finding out the cheapest cities to visit in Europe.
A Photobook for Long Itineraries
Let’s say you’re spending a month or so exploring Greece. You’re bound to have hundreds of photos documenting every single day of your trip. While it’s plausible for you to upload each day’s photos online on Facebook, you likely want a better way to present them once the holiday is over.
In that case, why not opt for Blurb’s large square photo book with a dust jacket? Treat the magazine-like photo book as a detailed view of your destination; with up to 440 pages in a 20 cm by 25 cm format, there’s plenty of room for all of your snapshots. And you can even choose to get each page printed in matte, standard, glossy, or glossy laminate.
Bonus tip: customise the front cover to make it look as if it’s a detailed photographic guide of your destination! Once you have a few of them made, your shelf or table will look like the ultimate travel guide to your visitors.
Read More: Check Our our 1 Month Europe Itinerary
A Photobook for Multi-City Trips
If you prefer maximising your time by seeing multiple European cities, you will need something other than Blurb’s magazine-like photo book. Instead, you’ll need something that can better hold a diverse collection of pictures.
Bonus Print’s Portrait XL photo book will cover your needs. Even though it only has 120 pages, its 27 cm by 36 cm profile will provide lots of room for various photos. And if you like the portrait orientation but want something sturdier, why not try ASDA’s A4 hard-cover photo book? After all, protecting your photos is paramount, especially when you intend to pass down the memories.
Whether you want to keep the softcover or prefer the security of a hard-bound photo book, either one will delight you every time you reminisce about your multi-city trip.
Why Not Just Store Your Photos Online?
Let’s face it: photo books take time and effort to organise. You need to sort through your photos, decide which ones to keep, and then place them on each page individually. The temptation to store your photos online sounds more and more enticing now.
The truth is, while it might be easier and more convenient to upload a dump of photos on places like Dropbox or Google Drive, they end up sitting there unviewed. They’re forgotten until we remember that the pictures are there; even then, sharing them becomes problematic. And if you cannot access them online or lose your login credentials, you’re out of luck.
That’s why Photo Book Deals is an excellent website for your photo book needs. Instead of showing photo books from one vendor, photo book Deals offers you different options from various vendors. That way, you can explore similar photo book formats while finding the best price that suits your budget.
Final Thoughts
Keeping your holiday memories alive shouldn’t be an ordeal. You shouldn’t have to wade through hundreds of photos online or deal with the threat of losing them in case your account gets hijacked. Organising your travel pics in photo books is the way to go.
Not only are photo books fun to put together and collect, but they also serve as conversation starters. Place them on your bookshelf or coffee table, and be ready to recount your holiday memories with everyone.
So what are you waiting for? Get to organising your photos and be ready for an exciting time putting them together in a photo book.
Sylvie Simpson is the founder of European Cities with Kids. For the past 6 years, she has been travelling all over Europe whenever she has the chance, both solo, for work and with her daughter. Sylvie is on a mission to help people make the most of city breaks in Europe with kids and helps over 50,000 readers per month plan and make the most of their trips in Europe with kids.