Who doesn’t enjoy traveling to new places and taking pictures to capture wonderful memories? Too bad most of those pictures end up on a hard drive or an online file storage where your family, friends, colleagues, acquaintances check out those wonderful photos only once, then they move on. And it’s very likely you will do the same. Wouldn’t it be better to preserve your memories in a much more dignified format? Like a photo book.
No matter where you turn, you will always find a photo builder company that provides travel-themed books with which you can do basically whatever you want. You and your collaborators can insert countless photos into your book and adjust them to look like true masterpieces – whether you use the photo book builder from a browser or a mobile device. All of this with just a few clicks and for friendly prices.
Travel Photo Book Ideas
We already wrote an entire article detailing how you should take travel-themed pictures. However, just to make sure, here are the key elements of taking ideal travel photos with some extra recommendations:
You need to record everything that comes to your mind from the places you visit/see to the thoughts that come to your mind while travelling as they will serve perfectly as captions, stories or quotes. You have to bring a reliable camera along with extra batteries, chargers, memory sticks etc. However, if you prefer a mobile phone’s camera, that’s also good, because it makes photo uploading easier. Instagram, for instance, is supported by most photo book companies, so using it is already a head start.
Best Photo Books of 2024
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Taking landscape pictures is highly recommended, because some of them can be used as backgrounds, so you can replace the preset background offered by the photo book builder. As for templates, there are no restrictions; just try to avoid overcrowding your pictures on one page, 4–5 pictures per page should do fine.
And what about other features and extras? You’re not creating a masterpiece, therefore a book with a simple soft/hard cover with default (regular) pages, maybe with a memorabilia pocket, is enough.
Photo Book Apps
If you are thinking ahead, you should choose a photo book builder that is available in mobile format. This way, the moment you have an idea about your photo book, you can already upload your photos from your camera/mobile device, make necessary adjustments and continue enjoying your holiday. An app is also a good solution if you simply want to avoid the hassle of storing and uploading your pictures.
Quite sadly, however, not too many photo book builders are available in app format, but if they do, they are either iPad-only – like in the case of AdoramaPix, MILK Books and Shutterfly – or they are not entirely ideal for creating travel photo books, like Mosaic by Mixbook. Mobile-friendly editors are even rarer, but Collage.com, Photobook America and Shutterfly all managed to develop decent mobile versions.
So if no mobile app is provided, don’t worry; if uploading pictures from your hard drive/Instagram/Facebook is supported, consider your photo book almost done.
Recommended Travel Photo Books
Like we said before, there is no bad photo book builder – although having a good selection of travel themes helps a lot. Still, we’d like to present three photo book builders that might be ideal for creating your travel photo book: Mixbook, Collage.com and MILK Books.
Mixbook
The super user-friendly Mixbook has a simple online editor that allows you and your contributors to easily realize your photo book with seemingly endless customization options. There are over 300 themes you can change retroactively, photos can be auto-filled to your book and you can make advanced adjustments thereon. You can also modify the layout of each page and even replace the page backgrounds.
Mixbook products are available in 3 shapes, 7 sizes, 5 cover types and regular or layflat pages, most of which can be combined with each other without restrictions. The company provides its photo books for average prices that can be reduced by various coupons and discounts, especially during holiday seasons.
Collage.com
The Force is strong with this photo book builder as it is capable of providing its services via desktop and mobile browsers. The editor is very simple and limits you in virtually nothing regarding customization options. Your pictures are auto-filled and auto-arranged in the best layout possible, which you can override with the Free Form Mode. The adjustment options you can make on your photos are almost Photoshop-like. Interestingly, your cover is made up of a nice collage of your photos in a shape of your choice. Furthermore, there are over 200 backgrounds, 2 shapes, 6 sizes and 3 types of covers you can mix with each other in any way you want.
Collage.com offers its customers non-expiring coupons and discounts, and, should you be not satisfied with the final product, a 2-year long money back guarantee.
MILK Books
MILK Books’ editor, available as an iPad app too, knows everything a photo book builder needs: auto-fill your pictures, basic adjustment options and a low image resolution warning. However, MILK Books are also capable of including videos, because they not only can be prepared with an additional CD, but they can also be created in a free online version once ordered. The builder also allows contributors to join the fun and it provides so-called editor’s tips to help you in using the software.
MILK Books are available with a linen cover, 33 preset layouts and 2 paper types in 3 sizes and 2 shapes. Although their photo books are rather expensive, there are plenty of coupons and discounts with which you can reduce the sum total.