Travel Photos, How to best use them? – Family Travel Blog – Travelling with Kids

Travel photos, what do you do with them? Are you one of those people that take tons of photos then come home show a few people, upload them to your computer and forget about them? I feel that if you can see them, you can relive that holiday over and over again.

Craig and I went to Vietnam for our honeymoon in 2003, I had always wanted to go to Vietnam since before Craig and I met, Craig was’t overly interested. As the wedding drew closer, I said to Craig we either go to Vietnam for our honeymoon or I go alone and get it out of my system. Craig opted to visit Vietnam as part of our honeymoon.

My favourite part of that holiday was the north of the country, particularly Halong Bay. We spent a day out on the bay and then stayed on Cat Ba Island. We took a walk along the foreshore on sunset and got the most amazing photos of the sun setting between some palm trees out to boats on the water. This was with our first digital Kodak 2mp camera. We thought it was the best thing since sliced bread. We had to go to the camera shop to get the photos downloaded to a disc.

Here our travel photos:

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Foreshore Cat Ba Island – November 2003
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Foreshore Cat Ba Island – Halong Bay, Vietnam

I have these photos in my front lounge room, either side of the window and each time I leave the house I see them as I’m walking out the door. I often look at them and it reminds me of such a wonderful time in our life. It’s a good reminder after nearly 13 years and 3 kids later! Life was much simpler then, now our travel plans are different but there’s nothing like seeing the world through children’s eyes.

The photo wall!

When we returned from living in Sydney 3 years ago, we had to paint the whole house. Since then I haven’t managed to get any photos back up on the wall. So I decided to turn one of the family room walls into our travel wall. I’ve nearly filled it and we have so many places yet to visit. Lucky there’s a few more walls in the house!

Here’s the wall:

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My family room wall as at May 2016, we have 3 countries to visit this year so no doubt it will expand!

Here are my favourite’s from the wall:

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Kota Kinabalu Sunset, October 2014

We went to Kota Kinabalu for my 40th birthday and it was our first overseas holiday with the kids. This was taken at the Shangri La Tanjung Are Resort.

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Petrona’s Towers, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia – October 2014

We have visited Kuala Lumpur many times as we tend to travel on Air Asia. I haven’t completed a post on my favourite things to do in KL but here’s one on getting to Batu Caves.

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Hong Kong Skyline – October 2014

I have been lucky enough to visit Hong Kong twice, I went on a girls trip and its when I really got my travel bug back again after having the kids. We visited HK for my 40th birthday (it was a big trip), here’s my top things to do in Hong Kong with kids.

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Po Nagar Temple – Vietnam 2015

Po Nagar is not far from Nha Trang. We took the kids to Vietnam to show them some of the places we loved on our honeymoon. I still love Vietnam and know if won’t be my last visit.

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Sunrise Surfers Paradise, Queensland – March 2016

This shot was taken from the Mantra Sun City Hotel, we stayed on the 32nd floor and I got up every morning to see the sunrise. It was magic out on the balcony before the family woke up, just taking it all in on my own.

The kids walking arm in arm in Hong Kong and Vietnam. That’s our signature shot now! If I can get that shot at every famous place in the world I would be ecstatic.

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The streets of Hong Kong – October 2014
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Notre Dame Cathedral, Ho Chi Minh City – Vietnam 2015. Look how much Alannah has grown.
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Disneyland Hong Kong – October 2014

Hong Kong Disneyland entrance, this was my 40th birthday holiday. I had always wanted to take the kids to Disneyland but our kids are very small for their ages and wouldn’t have been able to ride everything in America so we chose to go to Hong Kong Disneyland and it was a great move. They went on every ride and we were there for 15 hours! As we were walking up to the entrance, I suddenly an overwhelming feeling that I was going to cry, the kids were so excited and I was loving every minute just taking in their excitement

As you read above, I have a bit of a fascination with Vietnam. Its a long story but goes back to 1994 when I was living in London. We honeymooned there and I had always said I would love to take the kids back and show them were we spent our honeymoon. We got the chance last year and we had a brilliant time. There are so many amazing things to do with kids in HCMC, I think it’s a great place to take kids.

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Bit busy on the Mekong Delta this time round! – Vietnam 2015
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Reunification Palace, Ho Chi Minh City – Vietnam 2015

I surprised Craig with a trip to Uluru for his 45th birthday. We had 3 days there and it was just us without the kids. We very rarely have the opportunity to go away without the kids and nor do I really want to. I chose not to take them as I wanted to do adult things such as the Sounds of Silence dinner, sunrise and sunset Uluru viewing and walking the rim walk at Kings Canyon. Apart from costing us a ridiculous amount the kids wouldn’t have been able to keep up. We thank my lovely mum who gave us the leave pass!

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Here we are looking enormous in our puffer jackets at Uluru just before the Sounds of Silence dinner – August 2014

Cradle Mountain, apart from being beautiful, is an iconic spot for a photo of the Dove Lake boat shed and the cloud covered mountain in the background. Our trip to Tasmania last year was the first the kids and I had taken without Craig. We caught the Spirit of Tasmania over and Dad met us later when he flew over after work. He went home after the weekend and we stayed until the following Friday. We had a great time but we were ready to see dad by the time we got off the boat in Melbourne.

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Cradle Mountain – Tasmania 2015

Australia’s most photographed beach, Whitehaven from Hills Inlet. That was the first time the kids snorkelled and we established that Alannah could talk underwater! We loved snorkelling as did the kids and I was so proud of them jumping off the back of the boat and swimming out in the ocean to see all the wonderful sea life. We are still yet to see a nemo and a turtle when snorkelling, they are our ultimate snorkelling bucket list items. We were hoping to see a turtle at the Tangalooma Wrecks this year but we missed out again, the quest continues!

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Australia’s most photographed beach, Whitehaven Beach – Airlie Beach, Queensland 2015

My photo books!

One day I’m going to be dead and buried, like everyone I don’t know when that’s going to be. So many people say to me I’m wasting my money taking the kids to all these exotic places because they won’t remember it. So to ensure no one forgets anything I make a phonebook of every holiday we have had. Sounds expensive right, it is! I now have 36 photo books! This includes a couple of birthdays and every Christmas (for the last 3 years). The one from our latest trip to the Gold Coast has just arrived as I am uploading the photos for the post and I love it, need some more practice to perfect it though.

A small sample of the photo books I have made!
A small sample of the photo books I have made!

Why do I do it, every now and then I sit down with the kids and have a look and chat about the fun times we have had. I also include people we have met and places we have stayed. Its not cheap, the cheapest is about $40 right up to $120 per book. They take me ages to make but I love every minute of it, re-living the holidays as I make them.

Vietnam 2015
Vietnam 2015
Uluru - 2014
Uluru – 2014
I even did our honeymoon some 12 yrs afterwards when I found the photos during our move home from Sydney!
I even did our honeymoon some 12 yrs afterwards when I found the photos during our move home from Sydney!

I was using Harvey Norman Photo Centre but for this latest one I tried AlbumWorks. This is an online service where I prepare the photo book using downloaded software on my mac and upload it for production. The Harvey Norman service is an online system where photos are uploaded and the book is put together online, they can be collected from a nominated store for free or posted out for $10. AlbumWorks is postal delivery only and also costs $10. My sister uses AlbumWorks for her books and to be fair I think hers have been of a slightly higher quality so I am looking forward to seeing mine when I open it. Either way as long as it captures your memories, its doing what its suppose to do!

I have also made travel photo gifts using the personalised gift section of Harvey Norman Photo Centre, such as personalised calendars, coffee mugs, cushions and various other items. If you are a fan of the more modern canvases, you are also able to make up canvases for your walls from your personal travel phones.

Electronic Photo Frame!

These are a great idea for people who are renting or don’t have a house full of walls like I do. Its a photo frame that you plug in and insert a SD card with your favourite photos and it rolls through them all pausing for between 1-5 minutes on each.

Electronic Photo Frames - these I found on Ebay.
Electronic Photo Frames – these I found on Ebay.

I had one of these a few years ago but it was misplaced during our move to Sydney and home again. I loved it, you can have different SD cards and change them as you please. Its a really good way of displaying lots of photos as SD cards these days can hold thousands of photos!

They can be as cheap as $50 or as expensive as $150 and can be purchased online or at electrical stores. I think I will put in an order for a new one for my birthday in October!

The upcoming holiday wall!

It’s great displaying where we have been but what about where we are going you ask. We we have a wall for that too! No my house is not massive, just your average suburban house.

Where we going next mum!
Where we going next mum! I have this poster in the family room, it keeps me focused on where we are going next!

I have a map of the world on the meals area wall, I have black pins on the map of where we have been and red pins for where we are going next! It gives the kids a good idea of distances we will be travelling so that they know what to expect when flying time comes around.  I also collect travel brochures and stick them around the map so we can start talking about things we might do on our next holiday. I add or change it when we book trips so the kids always know what’s coming up next!

Now we understand just how far we have to travel.
Now we understand just how far we have to travel.

At the moment we have Singapore, Cambodia and Japan on the upcoming holiday wall. After October this will come down and the pins will be changed to black. I will then place the red pins on the places we are planning on visiting next year (USA for a white christmas) and start putting pictures around the edge so the kids can start processing what we will be doing there.

Tell me what you do with your travel photos in the comments below. I would love to hear from you and I might possibly steal your ideas! I’m always looking for new ways to display (show off) where we have been.

Safe travels, my count down is on until our next trip, next month now!

Sal & Co!

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This Post Has 4 Comments

  1. Anne

    On my to do list I have make a photo wall, it has been there for years!!! You have inspired me to get organised and do it!

    1. Sally

      That’s great Anne, get on it and tick it off the list! I had been wanting to do it for ages and my sister got started on hers which inspired me! I’m just not sure where this years shots are going to fit! Let me know how you go, you’ll be surprised how often you look at them. I say to the kids all the time, do you remember being there, where was that, do you remember? Keeps it fresh in their minds too.

    1. Sally

      I do enjoy them thanks, reminds me of all the fun we have had as a family.

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