How to Create the Perfect Travel Photo Book: 7 Must Haves

With a camera or smartphone in hand throughout your vacation, you captured unscripted fun, gorgeous scenery, and unforgettable moments. Now it's time to create a memorable visual recap of your adventures with a travel photo book you'll treasure forever.

Did you travel with family or friends? Then your first step should be to invite others to collaborate by sharing their own photos and memories. The more photos and memories your book includes, the better.

From there, choose your theme (or start from scratch with a blank canvas) and consider the must-have sections for painting a well-rounded picture of your entire trip. Many travel book themes include content prompts as part of their design features. Further, we’ve identified the following seven sections as essential for any travel book. Use them to inspire your own unique and creative travel compendium.

7 Must-Have Sections in the Perfect Travel Photo Book

A well-rounded travel photo book includes these seven sections:

1. Top moments
2. Food
3. Anecdotes
4. Favorite sites
5. Entries from family or friends
6. Itinerary
7. Mementos

Here's a closer look at each.

1. Top Moments

Zero in on your top vacation moments. These might be planned outings or spontaneous adventures, such as making a wrong turn on a way to a sightseeing destination and discovering the best beach on the island.

Your favorite moments with those you care about may include someone behaving completely out of character (Grandma went parasailing!), or completely predictably (Dad insisted on arriving four hours early to the airport). Were there any surprise twists? Did you do everything exactly as planned? Narrow down your favorite memories and make sure you highlight them in your book.

Related: 4 essential tips for amazing photo book layouts

2. Food

Whether it was your first time trying international cuisine or you opted for fabulous desserts every night, food should have a special place in your travel photo book. You might choose to include photos of the food's presentation or candid shots from around the dinner table, outside a restaurant, or anything else related to eating.

Many of the best travel memories include food and drink. Think about strolling down the boardwalk with an ice cream cone, sampling unfamiliar street foods at a night market, or enjoying a formal dinner where everyone is dressed to the nines. Those photos are great additions to your travel memory book.

3. Anecdotes

Everyone has a story to tell after vacation, so connect with others who went on the trip with you to pull together anecdotes that remind you of the special trip. The stories can be funny, touching, or serious, and all worth recording on paper in your travel photo book. Make notes to summarize where you went, what happened, who was involved, and what made special moments stand out. Turn these into brief captions or longer text snippets to accompany matching photos.

Related: How to make a modern scrapbook

4. Favorite Sites

Maybe you planned your entire trip around one special event, like seeing the Eiffel Tower or whale-watching. Perhaps you were winging it the whole time and wanted to simply stroll the streets of a new city. Take some time to choose the most memorable sites you visited, whether it was historic ruins, an urban jungle, or the meandering path to find a recommended restaurant. Although there's plenty of room in your travel photo book for everything you saw, designating a special section to your favorite sites can help you relive the best times.

5. Entries From Family or Friends

When you collaborate with your family or friends who shared a vacation with you, you can gather and record their impressions of the trip, too. This gives your book a broader, more well-rounded perspective.

Ask friends and family who were on your trip with you to upload their photos, which is very easy when you use Mixbook's collaboration features. If you’re usually the one behind the camera, photos from others make sure you get your time to shine!

Create special sections of your book just for family and friends' contributions so you can see your vacation through others' eyes. This section can include notes and stories, travel itineraries, favorite destinations, food, fun, and everyday activities that help you recap the entire trip.

Related: How to print photo books using Google Photos

6. Itinerary

It’s a great idea to include your itinerary somewhere in your travel book. The first section is often the best place, as it introduces the trip and the series of destinations you explored. It’s also a handy reference for reviewing all your activities and (optionally) keeping the images in a chronological order.

Your travel itinerary might be a simple list that states the main attraction each day, or it may be a more detailed review of each activity and location. Be as wordy or brief as you desire. For example, you could simply write "Day 1: Lotte Tower in Seoul," or include a more thorough recap like "Day 1: Took the KTX high-speed rail to Seoul, then took the subway to Lotte Tower – the 5th-tallest building in the world."

Remember, your photos tell the story, with custom text available to help you fill in the gaps and add details.

7. Mementos

You can create an amazing travel photo book with images alone, or a combination of photos and text, plus your chosen theme’s design details. However, you can add another dimension to your book by featuring scanned or photographed mementos and souvenirs from your trip.

Examples include postcards, ticket stubs, a collection of shells from the beach, the wine-stained menu from your favorite cafe, and crumpled up tourist maps. Use these to accent your photo spreads, or turn them into custom backgrounds and stickers.

Related: How to Enhance Your Year-in-Review Photo Book with Memorabilia

What's Your Favorite Travel Book Feature?

If you've created a travel photo book, we'd love to hear all about it. In fact, we'd love to see it – snap a few pictures of your favorite sections and share them with us on Instagram (we're @Mixbook). Your travel photo book can inspire other adventurers to create their own spectacular memory books!