How to Turn Your Summer Travel Photos Into a Story Worth Sharing

A collection of summer travel photos represents many individual moments in time. When you look through them while your adventures are still fresh in your memory, it’s easy to recall the whole story. You remember everything that happened in between the captured moments—where you were going, what you did earlier in the day, and how it all felt.

Later on, the moments between the photos are harder to recall. Instead of a cohesive story, you have jumbled up memories of select moments. The memories are still a treasure, but you might feel like the story’s not quite complete. When you’re creating a travel photo book about your summer adventures, consider the following appealing ways to add context, emphasize storytelling, and transform your snapshots into rich narratives.

Start the story at the very beginning

Your vacation itinerary has a clear “Day 1,” which is a go-to place to start when filling out the pages of your travel book. But, the story of your summer vacation didn’t start on that day. Think about the planning stages and how you decided upon a destination, picked activities, and looked forward to experiencing it all.

Showcase a few photos, plus optional written stories and captions, that represent the planning and anticipation stages. How about:

• Photos of you and your family bundled up for winter weather, with a note about dreaming of summer sunshine.
• A screenshot of a calendar counting down the days until departure.
• Photos and captions describing each vacationer’s planning priorities and preferred vacation style e.g. Dad pointing at a historic landmark he loved visiting in the past, or Mom happily lounging by a pool with a book.
• Photos from your pre-travel and travel days e.g. packing up the car for a big road trip, sitting on suitcases to get them closed, holding up new items like a snorkel set, or waving goodbye to the dog and sitter.
• If you’re revisiting an old favorite destination, start with photos from previous trips.

And end with a review

The process of creating a Mixbook also serves as a thorough review of your summer experiences. Enhance the storytelling power of your book—and capture the best memories while they’re still fresh in mind—by ranking some of the best. How about the following fun, review-style feature ideas for your photo book?

• Top 10 memories from the trip: Create a grid layout pairing text boxes for captions with photos that match the best memories. Ask your whole family or group to collaborate with their own picks.
• Best foods and drinks: Expand the memory-keeping power of your summer vacation book by evoking the best flavors of the local culinary scene. Pictures of the foods, drinks, and dining destinations you loved will spark happy memories.
• No. 1 experience for each traveler: Give everyone who joined you on your summer vacation the chance to choose a photo and write a caption that represents their No. 1 favorite memory.
• Most scenic spots: Highlight the most beautiful scenery you saw—and captured on camera—with a page or spread dedicated to landscape shots.

Tip: The photo book themes in Mixbook’s new Travel Collection include templates for review-style features. It’s easy to customize them around your own unique experiences.

Add a custom map

The Mixbook Maps tool makes it easy to create and add a custom map to your photo book. Adding a map to a summer travel book is a no-brainer. You could plot all the points along a road trip, or zoom out to show the flight path of a globetrotting adventure. Create local city maps and add stickers to show the locations of your hotel, activities, and favorite spots.

Seven different styles of Mixbook Maps are available, so customize your maps to coordinate with the aesthetic of your chosen photo book theme. The text is customizable too, and you can layer stickers, photos, and additional text over and around the maps. It’s a great way to add visual cues to the story of your trip.

Don’t skip the mundane moments

Memories of vacations do tend to get skewed with time, but in a good way. We mostly remember the highlights, while the inevitable frustrations and challenges of travel turn into funny stories over time. While you’ll want your photo book to tell a positive, dynamic story, it’s not complete without a few nods to the mundane moments.

Did you spend many hours playing card games while it rained? Include photos of those games and a scorecard. Show a photo of the pile of books you read by the pool. Add a photo of your boyfriend’s very annoyed expression when the pilot announced a delay.

Don’t skip the disappointing moments, such as hiking to a totally fogged-in viewpoint, trying to check in to the wrong hotel, or finally picking a dinner spot you all agree on, only to find it closed. If you actually remember that the smiles in that family portrait are forced because the kids kept complaining, use photos and captions to document that reality.

These not-so-great-in-the-moment, hopefully-funny-later experiences deserve to be included in the story told by your photo book.

Pick layouts that match the moments

A key part of any photo book design, choosing the best layouts can help you accurately tell the various parts of your summer travel story. Smart compositions reflect the mood and energy of the vacation overall, as well as the moments you’re highlighting.

For example, a multi-photo grid or collage-style layout packs many memories into a single page or spread, reflecting the fun of a jam-packed day. A single full-page shot can capture a single, significant memory without distraction from other pics. An amazing panoramic shot of a jaw-dropping scenic view deserves its own dedicated showpiece spread.

If your days alternated between action and relaxation, alternate photos depicting those moods. How about a checkerboard-style layout of square shots, with the “action” shots in full color and the “relaxation” shots in black and white? For photos representing those super-chill days or more mindful moments, choose a layout with ample white space, which imparts a sense of breathing room and contemplation.

Say it with stickers

Open the Stickers panel in Mixbook Studio™ and browse the recommended stickers for your theme. You can also search the whole collection of stickers, which includes many different design styles including typography, flora and fauna, travel paraphernalia, foods and drinks, and more.

How about adding speech bubble stickers for playful captions? Or decorating your pages with modes of transport, beach-themed illustrations, or exotic foods and drinks. Add stickers to your “review” pages, such as one to five stars, thumbs up or down, or emoji-style stickers.

Transform your summer vacation pics into a page-turner

It’s always best to start creating a photo book while you still remember everything from your summer vacation. The narrative will be more well-rounded and accurate, and your beautiful printed book will preserve the true story forever.

Head to Mixbook and get started today!