Back in the day, I kept a few manila folders stuffed with travel tips. For a while it was filled with torn out magazine articles, then printed out online articles. When Pinterest came along, that became my goto.
Pinterest still is the best thing to organize travel ideas.
But, it’s not the only thing. And it doesn’t work when you’re getting your ideas from books. Even children’s books. Which is something we try to promote on our site.
Printables help
So, I created this little printable to help those who are using books to plan trips.
These can be used to log things of interest when looking at books with kids. Or maybe give the reader the wishlist to fill out as they read the book.
Want to see?
This general trip wishlist can be used for any destination. I also have one for Iceland. See?
How to use these trip wishlist printables
I’m going to have a link to download at the bottom of this post. Write the destination on the top of the page. I suggest making it as narrow as your book selections may allow. For example, instead of a wishlist for “The United States”, you may want it to be a wishlist for “New York” or, better “New York City”.
After that, it’s just a matter of writing down the books you’ve read and some of the things you want to do. I kept Must See and Must Do separate because they are different. Seeing the Brooklyn Bridge is a different experience from walking across the Brooklyn Bridge.
I allow some space for looking up more info and notes.
Why do this?
One of the reasons I like this separate printable for trip planning is because it’s a way for a child to see the connection between book and place. By acknowledging their trip wishes on paper, and (eventually) making it happen, there’s more trip buy-in.
I mentioned in another post that we used post-its to keep track of what the kids were interested in. This works if you own the book and don’t mind using up a ton of post-its. But, if you’re borrowing the book or want to save the trees, you can keep all these notes on one sheet of paper.
I also like the idea of revisiting the books after the trip. So, keeping these notes to see what books were read before and reading them again will help cement the ideas of travel even more.
What’s next?
I’m really excited about the next part of my trip planning process. It was a lifesaver when I was in Europe for five weeks this past summer with a very complicated itinerary and I’m excited to use this plan when we’re in Iceland for a much shorter, less complicated itinerary.
And this part is coming in a post soon.
Download the wishlists
I like to provide free downloads because it’s fun. However, I would also love if you can help support KidsTravelBooks if you enjoy what you see here. There are three ways you can support us – purchase something through affiliate links sprinkled all over this site, purchase some of our merchandise (and tag us on social media), or share this site on your social media
Click below to download the general wish list printable.
