Here’s a great keepsake for your kids! It’s free, fun, educational, and functional. Find a decent map of whatever city you happen to be visiting and give your son or daughter a highlighter and a pen. At each destination, highlight the route that you’ve just completed, mark and annotate where you are and what you see. Want to make a really cool map? You’ll have to be willing to walk a long way! Keep the maps from various cities as a reminder of where you traveled, what you saw, and what your kids enjoyed most.
Random Bits of Travel Advice and Philosophy
An Annotated Map: Free, Fun, and Functional
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I take home maps from wherever I travel. The stairwell in my apartment is wallpapered with travel maps. Reykjavik next to Bangkok (Including annotations made by a guy trying to scam me, I knew about that scam and didn’t fall for it but it gave me a unique souvenir) next to Montreal next to a very small map of a XC skiing area in Laramie, Wyoming where I went skiing with my friend Merav some years ago.
Of course I have my local area map there as well. A good place to take a look and plan for future trips in the local area. Of course being a charter boat operator it makes sense to have that particular map available at all times.
If I ever move, or if I have to remove one of the walls to make more air in my living room, I’ll just start over. I’ve had to limit myself to a max of 2 maps per trip. Otherwise the whole place would be filled, although that might in fact be a great idea.