Travel Turtle Family Travel Blog

The Modern 13th Century at The Augustine Prague – A Photo Tour

May 31, 2013 by Ann

When traveling with two kids two and under, there comes a time when one kid wants to nap and one wants to explore. So, on a recent trip to Prague, my son and I took to checking out our hotel, while my daughter and husband slept in the room.

We were staying at The Augustine hotel in the Mala Strana district. It is close to shops, restaurants, and public transportation. As I’ve mentioned before, my son LOVES public transportation. There was no way we could have headed outside without him running to jump on a tram. Instead of going outside at all, we went on a tour of the hotel. I’m glad we did.

The Augustine is one of Prague’s newest hotels, but it is composed of 7 buildings including a 13th century monastery. It’s tricky. The decoration is modern, Czech Cubism to be exact. Yet, the oddly angled hallways with random steps and stairwells reminds you that this is an old building. And while the structure has been updated, the layout is still the same. This combination of old and new together made our walk very interesting.

Below is a photo tour of The Augustine’s hallways.

In some places the floors slightly sloped.

A funky staircase. From the windows you can see the Prague Castle.

This little alcove between floors had a nice life-sized statue.

These simple table lamps look to be as tall as my son.

I tend to love walking around hotels anyway, but The Augustine is unique. Walking around the hotel, even with a toddler, was really calming.

Do you have any recommendations for unique hotel experiences? Please let me know in the comments so I can dream of future visits.

This post is part of Photo Friday at Delicious Baby.2014 honda accord sedan car cover apple smart case leather for ipad air digsale nissan 350z car cover uk z350 car cover

Filed Under: Photo Friday Tagged With: familytravel, hotel, Prague

Fun for the Whole Family – Organic Farms in Germany

May 27, 2013 by Ann

“We went to a farm.”

“Hmm… that sounds… fun?”

This was a common conversation with my friends Monday mornings. It seemed that at least one of my friends would visit a farm with their family over the weekend. And while they seemed to flock to farms, I was doing everything I could to avoid them.

Farms, they just aren’t my thing. When our friends would bring that option up to us, we would suggest anything and everything else. Then one day, we were tricked. And the plans we had settled on, well, they changed at the last-minute. Instead of the beautiful park walking distance from our apartment, we were going to go to a farm.

The whole drive there, I was nervous. I’m not an animal hater, but I’m not an animal lover. I didn’t want to pet anything, feed anything, milk anything, and I definitely didn’t want to clean up after anything. Our drive took us out of our city, past several cute german towns, on and off the autobahn, more cute smaller towns, and finally into a large area where we could scream as loud as we wanted, and no one would hear us.

We found the farm and walked in and I was immediately happy that we were there.

Yes, there were animals. Cows, goats, donkeys, probably other things to; I wasn’t even paying attention. The farm was filled with families! There were kids from my son’s age (2) and up!

Immediately we all noticed that there were plenty of riding toys for the kids. There was actually enough for each kid to have more than one! (And so my son and his friend immediately grabbed two each. One to ride, and one to drag.)

There was a field filled with playground equipment (a see-saw, a trampoline, swings, slide, climbing toys).

They kids could play on big tractors.

And while the kids ran, jumped, slid and played, the adults could sit outside with a cup of coffee and a slice of organic cake sold at the cafe on property. The cafe even had a small area of handmade goods on sale.

The best thing about all of this? It’s free! The snacks were typical cafe prices, but all the activities at this farm were free of charge. The crowd is definitely more local, but the staff speak great English. I highly recommend a farm visit for any family looking for a relaxing day for themselves away from a city, and some fun activities for their children.

Oh, and I didn’t have to milk any animals!

For more information on this farm:

We visited the Hof Zur Hellen, located less than hour from the city of Dusseldorf, Germany. For a small price, you can arrange a tour with the farm to learn more about organic farming. The website is in German, but translates nicely with Google Translate.

I never knew that a visit to the farm could be so fun. So tell me, is this how farms are everywhere? Have you visited a farm, what was your experience?

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Filed Under: Germany, Local Fun Tagged With: familytravel, Farms, Germany

Our First Overnight Trip with Baby, A Tale of Planning Gone Wrong

May 24, 2013 by Ann

My plan was to rent a car, pack it up, head out, allot for an extra hour in a two-hour drive, arrive into Frankfurt early enough to look for the US Consulate, have a nice dinner, and check into our hotel.

My plan had other plans.

When my husband and my dad got to the car rental shop, it was closed. They called me to try to find an open one, anywhere near us. After an extensive search, I was finally able to find a place on the other side of town. They rushed over, rushed back to the house, and rushed packing up the car. We left several hours later than planned.

That’s ok, though, right?

We did not own a car yet in Germany. We had lived here for only 8 months at the time, which meant our US license was no longer valid. We took the opportunity of my parents visiting from Florida to rent a car and go to Frankfurt to apply for my son’s passport.

My dad drove. With his brand new and very first grandchild in the backseat, my dad set off very carefully. He slowly approached every sign and crossroads. He often waived his priority, unsure of the road rules in another country. Plus, he was still getting comfortable in the rental car. Once we were on the autobahn his concentration switched. There was no priority to waive on the autobahn. Cars were zipping past us. And as they were, my dad was thinking of his brand new grandson seated in the backseat.

Then it started to snow. Hard.

Did I mention my parents were from Florida?

It was the first snow of the season. Early and unexpected. My dad turned off the radio and all talk ceased. He stayed to the right to let the faster cars (all the other cars) pass. A cry from the back interrupted the calm and quiet inside the car. My son was awake, it was time for him to eat.

He wasn’t the only hungry one. We cancelled our plans for dinner in Frankfurt and pulled into a rest stop. And here we experienced another first. Using a public changing room. Fortunately, my husband handled that situation.

While my husband and son were in the changing room, I took the opportunity to look at the shop. My parents and I chatted for a bit. We decided it was too late, and too snowy and we should just get up early to head to the consulate the next day instead. We talked about what they would do while we were in the consulate. How we would contact them since cell phones were not allowed in. They made sure I had all my documents. After a while we wondered, why are C and W still in the changing room?

I went to check on them.

In the process of changing our son’s diaper, C had managed to dirty every outfit I packed for him except for one long sleeve onesie. Our son, a three-week old baby, was going to have to face the snow and drive in only a onesie.

My dad went to the car to start warming it up. I put my jacket on my son and attempted to rush to the car without slipping on the icy sidewalk.

We arrived into Frankfurt many hours later. We headed straight to the hotel and collapsed from exhaustion. I washed one of the thicker outfits that was dirtied earlier, and let it dry on the towel warmer.

Here’s what my son wore during his first snowstorm!

I sat in the hotel room thinking about the night. Where did I go wrong? This was supposed to be an easy trip. I read all the tips and tricks for traveling with kids. I OVERpacked. I took care of arrangements in advance, allotted so much extra time for everything and still ended up getting into Frankfurt late. I was a traveling mom failure.

I grabbed stationary and took notes of what I would do differently next time.

That was 2 and a half years ago.

Since then we’ve stayed in countless hotels, survived many road trips, flights, and train trips. Things will go wrong and that’s ok. It’s all a learning experience.

When it was my daughter’s turn to have her first hotel experience we were more proficient travel-with-baby travelers. Even considering the overseas flight, time difference, and jet lag we still had enough energy to go out for her first Halloween!

Not only did we have energy after our first trip with our daughter, I was also able to get some finishing touches done on her Halloween costume (she was a ghost).

Traveling with babies requires a new sense of humor, a new normal, and a new way to approach problem solving. But, it’s so worth it. Nothing is harder than those first trips, but I promise, it gets better.

How was your first overnight trip with your children? Any tips for parents heading out for the first time?

The post is part of Friday Daydreamin’ at RWeThereYet. Click on the link for more travel tales.lingeri pour femme pas cherprotective case macbook air 11 inch Replica A556 Cowon AE1

Filed Under: Photo Friday, The Journey Tagged With: familytravel

Rotterdam Architecture Inspired Kids Art: Wordless Wednesday

May 22, 2013 by Ann

I’ve added this post to the Engineering Theme Link Up at kcedventures.

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Filed Under: Wordless Wednesday Tagged With: familytravel

Success! Rotterdam with Kids

May 21, 2013 by Ann

As I mentioned on Friday, we spent the weekend switching roles. I went to a conference for travel bloggers. My husband stayed with the kids at the hotel. We all survived to talk about it. Not only did we survive, we learned so much.

Their daily walk included crossing various bridges.

I learned that Rotterdam is now one of my new favorite cities (only because each building deserves its own moment of silence to observe its beauty and uniqueness), that I love listening to success stories (of which there were plenty), and I enjoy meeting like-minded people (yeah, I like hanging out with people who travel). I learned that my husband has no fear taking our two little ones out to explore the city (unlike myself who tends to stay closer to the hotel when I’m the trailing spouse), that my son’s love of all things transportation is still strong (and with views of the boats on the water and trams on the street this made for a fun time for him), and that I still missed them all like crazy even though they were never too far away (how is it possible that an 8 month-old can grow so quickly in a matter of hours?).

Both kids enjoying the Rotterdam Spido Harbor Tour

Since my husband stayed with the kids, here are his tips for visiting Rotterdam with kids.

Buy the Rotterdam Welcome Card. Available in 1, 2, or 3 consecutive days it gives the user access to all metros, trams and buses in the Rotterdam public transport network. It also offers discounts to many attractions around the city (and the booklet that comes with it let’s you know which of those attractions are family friendly). Plus, it saves having to buy tickets when the toddler in the group must get on the bus RIGHT NOW.
Eat a toastie, a small baguette cut in half filled with cheese and ham and melted. Be on the lookout for the toastie stand near a McDonald’s on Coolsingel. The other side of that building has a puppet theater.
Go on harbor boat tour. Sit on the right hand side of the boat (aka starboard) if you want to actually see anything. If you want to guarantee that no-one will sit with you, sit on the port side (aka left). They run 75 minutes while telling the story of Rotterdam, the city’s architecture, and the harbor. Only 10.75 EUR and kids under 3 are free.
For those with a stroller, note that there is only one place for trams on strollers, towards the middle of the tram. While waiting for the tram, stand towards that area.

We added to our collection of photos of our daughter flying over cities!

We are looking forward to a return trip to Rotterdam to see some of the many places we missed: the Rotterdam Zoo, Maritime Museum, Kinderdijk and oh so much more.

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Filed Under: Family Travel, Travel Advice Tagged With: familytravel, Netherlands, Rotterdam

I’m Leaving on a Road Trip

May 17, 2013 by Ann

Many travel-loving people worry how travel will change once they have kids. I was one of those people. Put me any place in the world and I’m usually comfortable. Make me adapt my travel plans because of little people I had yet to meet? No, thank you!

I found out I was pregnant one month before we moved to Germany. As excited as I was about the baby, I was also worried. No, I wasn’t nervous about giving birth in a foreign country (though that changed), or having no family within a one continent radius of where we lived (which is actually a blessing), or even how we were going to afford this bundle of joy (Germany has great programs for families.) I worried about how this baby was going to cramp our traveling style. We were moving to Europe! For two* years! And I had plans to travel, travel, and then travel some more. But, really, how could we do it between work obligations, financial obligations, and baby obligations?

First, I decided that I loved this baby too much to let it carry the burden of blame for why I couldn’t have the travel lifestyle I wanted. Then I decided I loved travel too much to not let my offspring experience it. And finally I decided that it was time to get crafty. And that meant business trips.

One thing my husband and I discussed before we had kids was his work and my work. My work was to stay home with the kids (which is something I wanted to do and is mostly rewarding), his work involved a lot of business travel. My husband likes travel a lot. I sleep, eat, and breath travel. I told him this: I want to be a stay at home mom (because working a 9-5 job with limited vacation time also ruins a nomadic lifestyle.) However, my greatest sadness (yes, I was this dramatic) would be to stay home while he went on all these fabulous business trips all over the world… sob, sob, sob.

So when he goes out-of-town for his work, we all go out-of-town for his work.

Except today.

Today, I am leaving for a travel blogger’s conference. And because I have a nursing 8-month old, the whole family is coming with me. And even though they won’t be at the actual conference, I’m pretty excited to have them all there. Being a trailing spouse on a business trip isn’t always easy. Now I get to see my husband’s POV when we go with him, and he gets to see mine. Even more importantly, my little ones will get to spend some quality time with their dad in a new place. I can’t wait to hear their stories at the end of every day.

Another thing I’m looking forward to? Adult conversation, about travel, with people who love it just as much as I do. Eating with people who, I’m pretty sure, don’t drop more than 75% of their food onto the floor. Using the iPad without little fingers trying to take it from me. And meeting all the bloggers. This will a great weekend.

One blogger I’m especially looking forward to meeting is Farrah from The Three Under. She’s an expat living in the Netherlands with her family. We live close enough that our families can (and will soon) get together to explore our host countries. She invited me to guest blog for her, so please go on over to her site and read more about my expat experience. Thank you for inviting me, Farrah!

*Our original plans to move to Germany for two years has been extended to indefinitely.villa in miami beach

Filed Under: Encourage, Family Travel, Thoughts Tagged With: familytravel

Toddler Tantrums at Train Museums – Lessons Learned

May 14, 2013 by Ann

Last Friday we went to see Thomas the Tank Engine. It was a weekend exhibit at Het Spoorwegmuseum (Railway Museum) in Utrecht, Netherlands.

It was crowded. Beyond belief.

I know. I know. Kids love Thomas.

We thought we were doing things right. We went there on a work day instead of a weekend. We went in the afternoon to avoid the morning rush. But, I knew as soon as we parked that no amount of “avoiding the crowds” was going to avoid the crowds.

The website says in plain English that it gets busy (on a regular day, not even a THOMAS day). Parking fills up. It’s best to take the bus from the train station

We ignored their advice. There was street parking within a 10 minute walk, and with a 10 EUR price tag for 4 hours. The worst part was walking to the museum and seeing bus after bus driving by. Each one filled to capacity. Filled with families with strollers. Knowing those families and their strollers were going exactly where we were going.

So, in honor of my very crazy, hectic, trained-filled Friday at a really cool, crowded, toddler-friendly train museum, I share with you five tips for handling crowded tourist spots at lunch time.

Tips for Handling Toddler Tantrums at Lunchtime while at Museums.

Lunch in Europe means 12:00. To avoid the rush, avoid that time. Now, I realize that this could be true everywhere. However, before kids I ate when I was hungry and that was rarely noon. My kids, though, they like their schedules. Since I’ve only had kids in Europe, this noon lunch-rush is something I associate with Europe.
If a website tells you they are going to be busy on a normal day, and you are visiting on a day when a childhood idol is going to be in attendance, and you plan your arrival to avoid the morning rush, but not to avoid the lunch restaurant-rush… then eat before you go. There is absolutely nothing worst than standing in a long restaurant line with Thomas || this far away with a toddler that has forgotten he’s hungry. Unless, of course, you love starving with screaming toddlers in enclosed locations, and people staring at you and shaking their heads.
If you spot a restaurant with an especially long line, ignore the map the attendant gave you that said there’s only one restaurant. Go ahead and just ask someone to be sure. Because some places actually do have the foresight to have more places to eat located throughout the museum grounds for this special occasion. Since they know it will be busy and all.
If your toddler runs out the restaurant door to take matters into his own hands, leaving with you no option but to leave your baby girl in her stroller to chase after him, really emphasize in your facial expressions that you made eye-contact with your husband standing only a few feet away and he’s watching the stroller. That way, people won’t look at you like you are the worst mother for either having an uncontrollable toddler or leaving the baby behind unattended or both.
Later, when you’re walk through the museum with your child satisfied with the trains he saw and no-one starving, take note. There are other families with screaming, crying children. It’s not just you. Smile and enjoy your day.

Have you had any really difficult days when taking your kids out to see something they love? Please share in the comments so I know it’s not just me.

This post is part of Travel Tip Tuesday at Suitcases and Sippy Cups and Walkingon Travels. Click on the links for more great travel tips!les sextoys pour luiadvokat Sigura binary trading signals

Filed Under: Family Travel, Travel Advice Tagged With: familytravel, het spoorwegmuseum, Netherlands

National Mill Day

May 10, 2013 by Ann

There’s just something about windmills. Part nostalgia, part mystery, part “wow those look pretty cool”, and part environmentally friendly. The Open Air Museum in Arnhem, NL has an exhibit that includes looking into a Polder mill. Looking into this mill, you can’t help but appreciate the engineering involved in moving water and air. There are almost 1000 windmills throughout the Netherlands and tomorrow, they will all be open to the public for viewing. It’s National Mill Day.

Here are some fun facts about Dutch Windmills.

There are eight mills in Amsterdam with one regularly open to the public, Molen van Sloten.
A nice day trip from Amsterdam is Zaanse Schans (pictured above). Aside from the eight windmills, you can ride a boat, see how wooden clogs are made, and see the first Albert Heijn grocery store.
Another popular place to see windmills is at Kinderdijk, a UNESCO World Heritage Site. The 19 windmills are the main attractions, with walks, bike rides, boat rides, and even horse-drawn carriage rides and small flights to see them. The story of “Cat and the Cradle” originated here.
Many of the nation’s windmills pumped water away from areas that needed to stay dry.
Windmills, though a popular Dutch icon, actually originated in France.
And one last fact, pictures just don’t do them justice.

Open Air Museum Arnhem, in front of a smaller wind-driven drainage mill. It is also known as a spidermill.

A day trip to Zaanse Schans is a nice way to escape the crowds in Amsterdam and learn more of the country’s history.

This post is part of Photo Friday at Delicious Baby.

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Filed Under: Family Travel, Photo Friday Tagged With: arnhem, Family Friendly, familytravel, National Mill Day, Netherlands, Zaanse Schans

Tips for Flying With Baby and/or Toddler

May 7, 2013 by Ann

24 tips to help make flying with babies and toddlers easier. My son’s first flight at 3 months! – TT

I love reading how people fly with their kids. There’s always something that I didn’t know, or something I forgot, or something that reassures me that I’m doing ok.

The following tips are based on things that have worked for me when I fly with my kids.

Selecting a Flight and Seats

Pick a time that works best for you, when you are most alert during the day. Logic has told me that trying to schedule flights for times when my kids normally naps. This has repeatedly not worked for me. Toddlers and logic don’t mix. I’ve had flights delayed so much that they were just waking up from naps as we were boarding. I’ve had later flights where I’m exhausted, but my kid is wired with the excitement of flight. So now, I schedule around my needs.
Pay for peace of mind. I don’t want to have to worry about sitting together, so I pay for the ability to select a seat. I consider it part of flying now and don’t think of it as a separate fee. For international flights, I upgrade to comfort seating. I need the extra space and early boarding.
Window when possible. We usually end up in the middle three seats, which means there are two aisles my son will want to try to run down. The window gives him something to look at, which he loves.
In the debate between bulkhead and back row, I pick back row. Bulkhead is nice if you get a bassinet and you have a lap infant. However, each time we’ve had bulkhead our son has been distracted by all the people waiting for the bathroom. Or worse, the people who want to cross in front our seats to get to the other aisle. Also, our son is a bit visual. Being at the front of the plane, he doesn’t really know or notice all the other passengers so he’s more likely to be loud. In the back of the plane (or, I should say, the back of the section) he sees all the other people and he’s more likely to behave. The only thing I don’t like about the back row is that he can now kick the seat in front of him, but we’re working on that!

Carry On Tips

Bring exactly what you need and nothing more.
I’ve read that a diaper an hour is a safe bet. This doesn’t really work for us since we tend to fly for longer periods of time and I’ve never actually needed 18 diapers. For diapers, pack what you would normally pack for an excursion of that length, and then add 1 diaper for every 3 diapers you pack. If you normally need 6 diapers, pack 8.
Pack an extra outfit for the kids, an extra shirt for the parents.
Make space for all the electronic things you can’t pack in your check-in.
Enough snacks/formula/bottles to get you through the flight and a extra for delays. Include snacks for yourself.
Pack a few toys. My son doesn’t need too many toys. Bring their favorite, something somewhat interactive, a coloring book and crayons, and a surprise toy for desperation.
Andrea over at Passports and Pushchairs brings her kids pillows on flights. Though bulky, it is worth the space it takes up. It helps create both a comfortable and familiar environment for children to relax in.
If you have any more space (which I don’t know any parent who does), take a look at the food and diaper supply and add more if needed.
Keep packed in a separate bag things you will need easy access to. For me this is usually a few diapers, wipes, and a changing mat. Then a separate bag of snacks and toys. Once on board, unpack that bag and place it under the seat.

At the Airport

Get there early, especially if you don’t have your seat assigned. Depending on the airline, you won’t be able to request a bassinet until you are at the airport. Keep that in mind.
If you have a lap baby, ask if there’s space for them to have their own seat.
I bring their stroller and have a baby carrier (I use the Beco Butterfly II). I let my toddler walk as much as possible and alternate carrying my daughter or putting her in the stroller. (While most airports that I’ve been to in the US will have gate-checked strollers at the door of the airplane when we exit the plane, some airports in Europe don’t do this. The gate-checked strollers are sent to the luggage carousel with the other luggage. Find out in advance so you know where to look.)
Start prepping for the security line as soon as you can. I once saw a family keep a cheap tote bag in a pocket in their carry on. When they went through security, they threw all of their loose things in that bag plus their jackets, belts and shoes. Then they just grabbed the bag and headed to the side to get themselves fixed up again.
Waiting for your flight isn’t the time to just sit and wait for your flight. You have plenty of time to do the sitting on the plane. Let the kids explore, play, walk, run, jump.
Some airlines and airports still allow families with small children to board first. If that’s the case, it can be worth it to guarantee you have enough space to put your suitcase in the overhead bin. My kids are still young enough that this is our best option. It’s likely that the next time we fly, my very active 30 month old son will need extra time to get his wiggles out pre-flight. In that case, I’ll board with my daughter and the boys will join us later.

On the Flight

Flying with Toddler

Let your children lead you to what they want to do on the plane. Within the rules, of course.
Use Andrea’s advice and use their pillows and blankets to make their space comfortable.
Draw out each activity to last as long as possible. If they’re looking at a magazine, make a game out of it. Search for certain photos, talk about what’s on the pages. If they’re eating a snack, take it out of the wrapper slowly, let them eat it without other distractions.
Let them be bored and just observe what’s going on. Don’t feel you have to entertain them if they’re not actively doing something. Some kids just want some space.
For long flights, let them walk around when the seat belt light goes off.

Aside from the tips above here are two more things to help for smooth airline travel with kids:

Keep your children involved in the whole airport process. Talk to them about flying, tell them what they should expect at the airport and on the plane, and how you expect them to behave. While on the plane, point out all the new sites and continue to tell them what is going to happen as the plane lands and you leave the airport.

Most importantly, be patient. Flying is stressful for everyone involved. Kids included. As parents, it’s our responsibility to help our kids through it and remain calm regardless of everything else. It’s ok, though, because as parents we can also book ourselves a nice spa visit once we land.

This post is part of Travel Tip Tuesday with Suitcases and Sippy Cups and Walkingon Travels . Click on the link to see more great tips.

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Filed Under: Family Travel, Travel Advice Tagged With: familytravel

What Now, Using the Best of the Bunch

May 6, 2013 by Ann

I’m a strong believer in living with our photos. By that I mean, take them off of the computer or memory stick, and find a way that the whole family can enjoy them easily.

This three-part series is going to offer tips on how to choose from the hundreds (or thousands) of pictures taken on a single trip and turn them into a beautiful souvenir that your family will enjoy for years.

(Note in this post I reference various services and products that I am using. These brands are not sponsored, nor affiliated in any way with Travel Turtle. They are just products that I have used and enjoyed.)

Let’s Review

In part 1 of this series we eliminated duplicate and blurry photos. We grouped the photos into smaller themes and from those themes we selected a few of our favorite photos. I am participating with this series using a group of photos I took from a 2011 trip to Paris. I started with roughly 400 photos and by the end of this part, I had around 200 photos.

In part 2, we created albums and slide shows. This made it easy to share a majority of our photos with family and friends. I created a photo book with Shutterfly that used most of the 200 photos from part 1.

Now I want to share ways to take our absolute favorite photos to create smaller displays for our family to enjoy.

Part 3: Ways to Display the Best Photos from Family Trips

Slideshows, large photo books and even digital frames are a nice ways to store a large group of photos. However, sometimes smaller photo collections have more impact. These smaller collections can be displayed on walls or little books that are easy for our children and family to enjoy. They can be viewed at any time without needing to be set up. Here we will look at two ways to display and create a curated collection of our photos from a single trip.

Wall Art

As I mentioned, in part 1 of this series we selected a few of our favorite photos. We will use those favorites for the pictures we want to use in our photo wall display. There are many different types of photo walls, and I scoured the web for a few options. Because the theme of this series is to keep everything simple so that we actually do something with our photos, my criteria for selecting photo wall inspiration was to look for something: easy to assemble, change when necessary, child friendly and budget friendly. The bonus, they look great on our walls! The inspiration I found is on Pinterest (you do not need to be a member to view the board). I will add to the board through time, so please follow the board or bookmark the page. Travel Memory Ideas Photo Wall

Now that we have some inspiration for our walls, let’s print the photos.

Wait! We have a few decisions to make first.

Color vs. black and white – Take a look at all the photos you want to display and ask yourself the following questions:

Do the photos have one consistent color tone throughout?
Are the photos simple images without a lot of clutter in the background?
Do you like color photos?

If you answered “no” to any of those questions, you may want to consider going with black and white photos. However, if you still prefer color photos, then do it! Or do a combination of both. They’re your photos and you can do what you want.

Editing photos – Again, editing is up to you. However, if you want a more polished look to your photos, it doesn’t hurt to spend a few minutes editing them. If you noticed that your favorite photos do not have a consistent color tone, you can use filters to achieve a uniform look. If you feel that the photos are busy, crop them. Here is a sample of three photos from our trip. The first group is before I applied filters, the second was after I applied the Saloman filter on Photogramio. They now look similar even though each was taken at a different time of the day.

Without filter:

With “saloman” filter:

These examples are just to show how filters can easily give a more uniform look, but they aren’t necessary. Remember, the idea here is to keep things as simple as possible so that it gets done.

If you choose a wall display that has different sized photos, the last thing you will want to consider is which photos should be larger. Ask yourself, what is the goal in displaying these photos? Are you more interested in showing your photography skills? In that case, a perfectly composed photo of a building, landscape or something else may be the preferred large photo. Do you want to showcase your children and where they’ve been? Then the posed photo of them in front of a statue or building may get top billing. Do you want to show your family having fun? Then maybe a candid photo of family members laughing or engaging in their location will get the honors.

Kids Story Books

Kids love to look at pictures of themselves. In part 2 of this series, I suggested creating a photo book through a service like Shutterfly and then purchasing two copies of the book. One for you and one for your kids. However, this can get expensive. Plus, some kids just are not as interested in looking through 200+ photos of a single trip often. Instead, make a photo album. It’s cheap, easy, and fun. Also, by selecting just a small portion of our hundreds of photos we can tell a story children will enjoy reading over and over again.

This is what I did: I recently went to my local photo printing kiosk and printed out 40 photos from our trip to Paris. I wanted a nice variety of photos of our family, and my son, with iconic images of Paris in the background and sometimes just the buildings and statues themselves. While my photos printed, I picked up a photo album that allowed for one 4×6 photo per page, and a total of 36 photos. To keep my son involved in the process, he came with me to print the photos and pushed all the buttons on the touch screen monitor. All the photos and album cost less than 15 Euros/20 USD. When I got home, I put the photos in the album in a way that told the story of his first trip to Paris. I also added a photo of the three of us to the cover and titled the book “Paris: 2011”. It instantly became his favorite book. He loves looking at the pictures of him in front of buildings, pointing out Pluto (we went to Disneyland Paris while we were there) and saying “Mommy” and “Daddy” when we are in the picture.

Here are some tips for you if you want to make a similar album:

If chronological order makes sense, do that, but don’t feel confined to the order of the trip. I had a photo of my son eating a baguette on the last day of our trip. However, it made more sense to be at the beginning of the book where I would have had a blank page to introduce a new section. Move things around to tell a better story.
Keep horizontal pictures next to horizontal pictures, and vertical pictures next to vertical ones.
If your photo album has more spaces than you have photos, use the extra pages to write details of your trip. Dates, places you went, and stories that your children will enjoy reading.
Use office labels to add text to the photos that could use a little more details. Especially if your kids are old enough to read, writing “Notre Dame” next to the photo of the “Notre Dame” and “Sacre Couer” next to the “Sacre Couer” will help them recognize the names and differentiate the different buildings.
Give the book to your children and include it in their evening bedtime routine. Use the photos to tell the story of their trip to Paris, winging it and changing it up a little each time. Or use labels and empty pages to write the story of their trip so anyone looking at the album with them can read the same story.
If you want to go back to the place don’t end your story book with “The End”. Instead, use “and they couldn’t wait to go back!”

Now that you have a few options on turning your large collection of photos into something that your family can look at over and over again, go ahead and make something with one of your trips. Share with me if you make anything from these ideas and I will share them here.

Thank you so much for following along!

This post is part of Friday Daydreamin’ at RWeThereYet. Click on the link to see what other bloggers favorite posts of the week.

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Filed Under: Family Travel, Memory Keeping Tagged With: familytravel, organizing photos