There is no hangover quite so strong and painful as the days or weeks following a long holiday. Sitting in an office lamenting the lack of hot weather and thinking of brilliant white sandy beaches and restaurants that served seafood and cocktails and… regular life just doesn’t cut it in comparison.
However, I’ve found a few ways to overcome the winter blues and replace them with ocean blues…
Share it on social media
Social media is a great on-the-go way of preserving and sharing your memories. It can also be a method for shaping the trip as it goes. You never know what mid-trip suggestions or hookups you’ll get via social media. Try using hashtags and asking questions about recommended restaurants, great drinking spots, activities and cultural locations. Who knows — maybe one of your friends will be in the same spot at the same time!
You can also use Pinterest to do the heavy lifting of planning beforehand, just by searching for your desired destination and seeing what pops up. It’s also great for keeping track of all the places you’ve visited. I made a Pinterest board and Pinned all the places I’ve traveled to, and when, with a comment or two and my favorite picture from that trip.
For public photo sharing, use Instagram to record and show off your superb images; a private account for your kids will let them record their photographs on-the-go. There are lots of services that will turn your Instagram pics into albums, magnets, posters, etc. with almost no effort from you.
I also like to make private Google Photos albums and share them with friends and family. If you install the Google Photos app on your phone (and Picasa on your computer), you can set it to automatically backup all your photos (you may want to set this to WiFi-only if you’re not on an unlimited roaming mobile data plan), just in case you lose your phone.
When I have the time, I make photobook yearbooks and albums of all the places we went. I print them up for myself and my parents — they love them, and it’s a nice way to look back and appreciate the past years. I’ve tried a bunch of services for this and found MyPublisher to produce the best quality photos in their photobooks. Although they have less fun design options (like stickers, etc.), the ones they do have are sophisticated and elegant, which is what I like. And they have lots of sales, so sign up for their newsletter and you can make the photobooks now, and wait for a sale to buy. Make sure to save an ‘export’ / backup of the photobook file somewhere safe, and always get ‘super gloss printing’ (it’s worth it).
Turn it into wall art
Once you’ve booked epic trip number two (or maybe more), it’s time to relive other adventures, in giant form. Photobox personalised prints are a great place to start. They can help you make collages, montages or giant scenes and print them on hard-wearing canvas. These can then be used to breathe life into plain rooms at home or revitalize an office.
Who remembers digital frames? No-one seems to have them on their shelves anymore, for various reasons (lack of interactivity and picture quality). Sales fell through the floor but the newer models prove the product might be on its way back, such as this 4k Klio version.
Write about it
Writing about your experiences is a great way of reliving them, and preserving memories that might fade away. You could try writing an article about the destination you went to and submitting it to established publications like Urbanette. It’s a great boost to your CV, and a published article is a great memento of your trip (and writing acumen!)
It might even push you into learning coding/design, although new web templates allow you to upload and create splendid galleries with little technical knowledge. Remember to always break up text with video, pictures and social media statuses.
Go old-school, in a new way
I know, I know. Who uses paper calendars anymore? My mom, for one. Digital is in nowadays, but there’s something to be said for old-school paper calendars. Not only do photo calendars enable you to plan your year ahead – including that trek through Europe that you’ve always wanted to tackle – but they also let you relive past glories. It’s a year today since you reached that temple in Cambodia and five years since the week in Morocco – awesome times.
Don’t want a monthly calendar? Get a cool daily one using 365 of your Instagram photos. Same your favorites and stick them on a cork board.
Make your memories POP
Whatever you make with your photos, make sure to edit them first. And I don’t mean to remove wrinkles or zits. BeFunky will make your photos POP by adjusting the brightness, contrast, saturation, etc. You can even add filters, text and cool effects. Oh yeah — and you can fix that pesky zit, too.
Go again
The easiest way to reduce the symptoms of travel sickness is to book another trip. Perhaps you’ll visit the same twisting lanes and street food again, or maybe this time you’ll trek jungles or mountains. Devote a morning to researching the possibilities (check out our Destination Guides or Adventure Travel articles), recruit friends and/or family, get out your credit card, and set off on another memorable trip!
What do you do when you want to relive your vacations?
Where do you want to go next?
I would tell myself to travel…travel…travel….spend any extra money and travel haha 🙂 . Thanks for the creative ideas Hilary! ❤️
These are all great ways to relive travel memories, Hilary. I’ve never had the patience for making collages and you’ve got some lovely ideas already. I love taking pictures of our travels and i love to store them in albums. I’m a souvenir hoarder, you will see them everywhere in my house(lol). Thank you for the great ideas.
Great advice. I’m going to try that wall art tonight!
xoxo
Helen
Really sweet post, Hilary. It’s nice to have a tangible thing to keep and to look back on. I gave my son his own journal because i think it’s an excellent way to keep him writing throughout the Summer. I’m thinking of making a wall art in my son’s room, collages is a timeless craft and it never goes out of style. He will remember our good times together and it will be a keepsake for years to come.
I adore these! I absolutely want a wall of prints ❤️❤️❤️ I’m currently using an app called Field Trip. It’s like Pinterest with the map, but it’s for holidays / vacations and shows you what’s around you. 🙂
Cool! I use that one too!
These are really unique and creative display ideas. I have so many travel photos sitting on my laptop and mobile phone. I’m always searching here for ideas and advice, i’m always happy to get suggestions and advice from you. Love the idea of the wall art and calendar!they would also make an amazing gift. Great post, Hilary! I am so going to try these.
So in love with your ideas. Can’t wait to try them! On my travels I take a small digital tape recorder. Each day, I record a journal of our activities, what we saw, what we ate, who we met,funny incidents, negetavies, — everything I can remember. When I get home, I download and transcribe it on my computer. The journal helps remind me for captions for photos. It is fun to read later, when looking at the photos. Sometimes, the journal helps in planning the next trip. I also make a computer screen saver of my favorite photos to help remind me. Sometimes when I sit down to computer, I watch for a few minutes. Fun. I keep the screensaver up until the next trip. It certainly does extend the trip. My computer is in a prominent place where I pass it frequently when moving around the house. I would be less likely to plug in a digital frame. Another idea is that I buy a Christmas ornament from the trip. When decorating and enjoying our tree, it is filled with memories of trips. If I cannot find a Christmas ornament, I sometimes get a key ring and make one of that with a bit of ribbon.
Great ideas, Hilary! I especially like writing online articles idea. I always intended to write in a journal but never follow through well. Can’t tell you how many half-written travel journals I have piled on my bookshelves! For that the blogging / writing is a great idea to me 🙂
Love all the ideas you spoke of! I continue to follow the social media feeds of my destinations’ tourist boards. Before a recent trip to New Mexico, I started following the Facebook feeds for Albuquerque, Santa Fe and Taos’ tourism offices. The pages were useful for building ideas for my trip. But I’ve found it even more enjoyable to follow them in the months since. 🙂
I love the idea of doing a personalied prints wall! We’re currently exploring Eastern Europe and the Caucasus, and totally going to be doing ordering my prints on the way home!