Easy Travel Photo Books

I’ve been really struggling with how to organize and keep all the memories from our travels. My boys are young and I really want them to have something they can look back on to remember this magical time in our lives.

Photo books are one of the most picked books off the shelf by both the kids. The plan was for me to make photo books for our adventures abroad. I’m slowly working through this project and how to organize it, but honestly it has become a bit overwhelming.

My Social Book 

A dear friend suggested I look at My Social Book. My Social Book takes information from your social media pages and turns it into a photo book.

I limited my book to only my Facebook feed. My friend was able to get quite a few years into her book, but I guess I post too much, because the program kept telling me I had exceeded my page limit. Instead I opted for the “Facebook Best Of” book. Under the “Best Of”  program you can choose a 25 or 50 page book. The program picks your most popular statuses and makes a lovely little book out of your pictures and posts.

I love that the book encapsulates a time period. It is not a replacement for my photo albums, which tend to include more photos of the kids and funny things that happen on our trips, but it does take the pressure off. I know that these memories are at least printed and on my shelf! I also love that these books include the comments people made about the pictures.

There is limited editing you can do on the book which was rather frustrating, but honestly that’s what makes this book such a good idea. The photo books take me forever as I try to pick out exactly what I want. It was nice to be able to create a book in under 25 minutes. I did mess around with the cover a bit.

My Social Book offers lots of different options including being able to print a book combining your status with your significant other’s, friends or your family. I may try one of these for my 2016 book.  There are also plenty of upgrade options to make your book fancier. I stuck with the soft cover book and regular pages and am quite happy with it.

Best of all for you expats, I was easily able to ship the book to my Netherlands address with no issues. Shipping only cost me €1.50!

Past Book

I thought I would try something a bit different for my Instagram feed. Past Book is another easy option to put together your photos from just about any social media site you like. There are limited options for editing which makes the book a snap to put together.

You choose which Instagram photos you want featured. I chose to sort by date, but you can choose to limit your book to certain hashtags. Once your photos are selected you can choose your background color for the whole book You can also edit your cover with a photo and title of your choosing.

The book features two photos on each page with your original captions beneath them. If the caption is long the software will print the caption on top of the selected photo.

These books are hardbound which adds a nice touch. The company was unable to ship to my U.S. P.O. Box but the company upgraded me to international shipping for no additional fee. Past Book’s webpage seems to offer lots of specials, so keep your eyes peeled for a promotional code.

Shutterfly 

These little 8×8 Shutterfly books are easy to create through Shutterfly’s mobile app. Choose 20 photos from your phone and it turns them into a cute little photo book. The app claims you can make a book in 2 minutes and they are not far off.

These photo books are best used to encapsulate small trips or for gifts as you are limited to 20 photos. Each time I go to use the app, Shutterfly has made it a little bit more user friendly.

You’re able to do some editing like moving photos around and choosing your theme. Layouts are standard but the kids love these little books nonetheless.

When I get around to making them, Shutterfly is typically my “go to” for photo books. They have introduced a new service “Make My Book” where you select the photos and (for a fee) a team member will put the photo book together. I used the service to put together a book from our Morocco Trip. I found that it saved me time in selecting which photos to use in the book, but I ended up doing quite a bit of editing on the book before ordering it. If you are someone who can let go of control or the subject matter is easy, this is a great way to get a book done.

Shutterfly always has promotional codes. If there isn’t one that works for you when you’ve completed your book you can save it in your profile and order when one comes up. I nearly always wait for a 40% off or greater coupon before I order.

I would love to know what you are using to preserve your travel memories as I’m always looking for better ways to capture our memories. Feel free to comment with companies you’ve tried and what has worked for you.

This is not a sponsored post. I ordered My Social Book on my own with only prompting from a friend who also has no connection with the company. Past Book provided me with a referral link  for credit toward a new book for purchased books. Shutterfly is a personal favorite but they have never sponsored this blog nor have they provided anything for this review. We hope this review helps you preserve some memories of your own.