I had a little fun with this printable. Since this month is all about Family Road Trips and I’m all about Printable Friday (not a thing-thing, just what I seem to do most Fridays), I thought a road trip journal would be fun. I did this one a little different than other journals I’ve done on this site. First, it’s smaller – 4×6. Meant to be print on a specific type of paper, which I’ll talk about below. And it’s also an activity journal. So scroll down and read all about it. Then share this post with your friends because it would really mean a lot to me.
I went with 4×6 because of a discovery. Yes, last year I learned that the photo matte paper for pictures you print at home is very similar to card stock. And it’s very not similar to actual matte photo paper you’d get at a Kodak kiosk or your favorite printing establishment. I don’t know how all printers work but the only way I can get things to print at home to print at full bleed (where the image goes all the way to the end of the paper) is to print on photo paper.
It works great for this journal. I like this size for kids because it’s manageable. You can take the finished journal and put it in a photo album that holds 4×6 photos (ie. most albums) and pair it with pictures. Actually, you’ll see more 4×6 journals in the past.
You can also print this on regular paper and cut it down to size. It’s up to you!
Matte Photo Paper
Before we go further, the paper. I know, I know. Where do you get it? Well, Amazon of course. There are quite a few varieties, but I like the one by Canon the most. That might be because I have a Canon printer. You may want to use the brand that matches your printer.
Road Trip Journal and Activity Book
One key thing to note is that this is geared towards U.S. Road Trips. The reason is simple: most of my road trip tips for road trip month are for U.S. road trips. And most of my audience is from the U.S., too.
Road tripping outside of the U.S.? No problem! Our family does that a lot too and I can add more places if there’s interest. In the meantime, just remove the pages (there are two) that don’t apply to your trip. Anyone can use the rest of the trip.
Before I explain the journal pages, I’m going to share the images below. You can click on each image to save and print as a .jpg or regular photo:
Download the images to print on 4×6 photo paper (it’s a .zip file with jpegs).
Download the pdf to print on letter/cardstock paper and trim to 4×6.
I made a video of me flipping through this and talking about it a little.
How to use this Road Trip Travel Journal
What I like most about this size is that it’s easy to carry and pack away on the trip. Then when you’re home you can keep any part of it you like and add it to a photo album with pictures from the trip. Recycle what you don’t keep.
What do you think? Do you want to see more travel journals in this size? Let me know in the comments.
