The old saying goes, “a picture is worth a thousand words,” and when it comes to travel, photos are undeniably the best souvenirs. But in today’s digital age, how often do we truly revisit those digital albums or scroll through endless phone photos? A Travel Photo Book offers a tangible and beautiful solution, transforming your digital memories into a cherished keepsake you can access and enjoy anytime.
With a plethora of photo book makers available, each offering unique features, choosing the right one can feel overwhelming. Some specialize in affordable, simple books perfect for documenting every trip, while others focus on creating luxurious, coffee table-worthy art books to commemorate those once-in-a-lifetime journeys. We’ve researched the top options to guide you in selecting the ideal travel photo book maker for your next adventure and beyond.
Our Top Picks
Best Overall:
Artifact Uprising at Artifactuprising.com
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Easiest to Use:
Shutterfly at Shutterfly.com
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Best Themed Templates:
Mixbook Photo Book at Mixbook.com
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Best for Complex Designs:
Canva Photo Books at Canva.com
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Best for Simple Designs:
Chatbooks at Chatbooks.com
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Best for Fast Printing:
Walmart Photo at Walmart
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Best Coffee Table Books:
Once Upon Photo Books at Onceupon.photo
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Best Board Books:
Pinhole Press at Pinholepress.com
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Best Mini Books:
Nations Photo Lab Albums at Nationsphotolab.com
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Best Sustainable:
Paper Culture at Paperculture.com
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Best Overall
Artifact Uprising
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PHOTO: Artifact Uprising
Why We Love It: Artifact Uprising stands out with its stunning, high-quality products, offering a range of styles and materials to match diverse tastes and budgets, making it ideal for creating a sophisticated travel photo book.
What to Consider: The platform lacks themed layouts and same-day production options, which might not suit users seeking quick or highly stylized travel photo books.
Whether you envision a budget-friendly softcover travel photo book to document every getaway or a luxurious layflat coffee table book to commemorate a destination wedding, Artifact Uprising caters to all needs. They provide a comprehensive selection of photo book sizes, shapes, and layouts, including unique options like board books and Instagram-friendly square books. Each travel photo book promises exceptional print quality and durability, ensuring your travel memories are preserved beautifully.
Customization is key with Artifact Uprising, allowing you to personalize every aspect of your travel photo book, from cover material (softcover, hardcover, linen, leather) and color to foil stamping, paper finish, layout, and page count. While you won’t find pre-designed themes, the focus on white paper ensures a clean, elegant aesthetic that puts your travel photos center stage in your custom travel photo book.
For a truly professional travel photo book, consider their in-house design specialists. Production times range from three to eight days, with various shipping options available.
Easiest to Use
Shutterfly
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PHOTO: Shutterfly
Why We Love It: Shutterfly simplifies the travel photo book creation process by offering a free 24-hour design service, where their in-house designers create the book for you – just provide your travel photos.
What to Consider: Rush production and delivery are limited to specific products, so plan ahead if you need a travel photo book urgently.
While many travel photo book makers require manual page building or auto-uploaders with often awkward results, Shutterfly presents a third, easier option. Simply upload your travel photos and let their designers create a draft within 24 hours. Review and order as-is or customize further – the choice is yours for your personalized travel photo book.
This complimentary design service, coupled with the Shutterfly app for direct phone uploads, makes creating a travel photo book incredibly convenient. Alternatively, manual creation or autofill options are also available. With diverse templates, sizes, and cover types, Shutterfly caters to varied preferences for your perfect travel photo book. Production and delivery take 1-10 business days depending on selections.
Best Themed Templates
Mixbook Photo Book
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PHOTO: Mixbook
Why We Love It: Mixbook boasts over 700 themed templates, ensuring a perfect design for every type of vacation and travel photo book theme imaginable.
What to Consider: Free pages vary across templates, so confirm details before choosing a template for your travel photo book project.
Mixbook travel photo books come in hardcover, softcover, and layflat options, offering a vast library of over 700 templates. Categories range from year reviews and seasons to life events, including dedicated travel photo book templates. These templates cater to general travel or specific adventures, featuring themed graphics and layouts ideal for showcasing your travel memories in a travel photo book.
From Disney trips to cruises and national park expeditions, Mixbook offers specialized templates. You can also start with a blank canvas for complete creative control over your travel photo book. Landscape, portrait, and square formats are available, with varied paper and cover finishes. Production is quick, typically 1-2 business days, with several shipping options.
Best for Complex Designs
Canva Photo Books
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PHOTO: Canva
Why We Love It: Canva goes beyond a travel photo book maker, providing photo editing tools and team collaboration features, perfect for intricate designs and shared projects.
What to Consider: Canva Pro is required for some advanced templates and features, which may be necessary for highly customized travel photo books.
For ultimate creative freedom in designing your travel photo book, Canva is the go-to platform. Choose from landscape or square formats, hard or soft covers, and explore thousands of templates, including a dedicated travel section. Upload photos and fully customize templates with fonts, colors, icons, and graphics to create a unique travel photo book.
Edit photos directly within Canva, with options to crop, rotate, adjust brightness, and enhance with filters. Canva Pro unlocks features like background removal for scrapbook-style travel photo books. Autosave and collaboration links streamline the design process. Eco-friendly packaging and free standard shipping add to Canva’s appeal for creating your personalized travel photo book.
Best for Simple Designs
Chatbooks
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PHOTO: Chatbooks
Why We Love It: Chatbooks offers affordable and easy-to-use services, including a subscription option for regular travel photo book creation, ideal for frequent travelers.
What to Consider: Customization is limited, which might not suit users seeking highly personalized or elaborate travel photo books.
If you prefer simplicity in your travel photo books, Chatbooks offers stackable, collectible designs at reasonable prices. Their classic photo books provide high-quality printing while maintaining affordability for regular travel photo book projects. Simplicity is key – no fancy templates or extensive customization options are available.
Upload photos and choose the number per page (one, full-page, or bordered). Add location tags or captions for basic text. Size, cover type, spine color, and cover design are customizable. Made in the U.S., each travel photo book includes 30 pages (up to 366 possible). Standard shipping is free.
Best for Fast Printing
Walmart Photo
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PHOTO: Walmart
Why We Love It: Walmart Photo provides same-day in-store pickup for travel photo books, perfect for last-minute gifts or urgent memory preservation needs.
What to Consider: Same-day pickup is limited to 40-page books, so larger travel photo book projects require more time.
Walmart Photo offers a fast solution for travel photo books with over 80 layouts for online creation and same-day in-store pickup. Choose from square and rectangular sizes, softcover, hardcover, layflat, and premium layflat styles. Linen, leather, and die-cut covers are also available to enhance your travel photo book.
Templates are basic, but plentiful. Most include 20 pages, with a 40-page limit for same-day pickup. Home delivery is available for larger travel photo books, with free shipping on orders over $35.
Best Coffee Table Books
Once Upon Photo Books
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PHOTO: Once Upon
Why We Love It: Once Upon focuses on simple, shareable layouts, ideal for collaborative travel photo book creation and visually impactful coffee table displays.
What to Consider: Designs are basic, lacking complex templates for users wanting highly embellished travel photo books.
Once Upon specializes in visually striking coffee table travel photo books. Options include large and medium hardcover books with spine titles, and medium softcover books resembling luxury magazines. Choose silk matte or glossy pages and upload photos easily.
Layouts are simple, without themes or fancy fonts. Select the number of photos per page, and Once Upon creates automatic collages. Collaborate by sharing editing links. The first 20 pages are included, with up to 200 available. Delivery takes 6-12 business days for your elegant travel photo book.
Best Board Books
Pinhole Press
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PHOTO: Pinhole Press
Why We Love It: Pinhole Press board books are designed for kids, with wipeable pages and easy-turn bindings, perfect for creating durable travel photo books for young families.
What to Consider: Page count varies by template, with limited expansion options on some, requiring careful selection for longer travel photo book stories.
Pinhole Press offers durable board books ideal for travel photo books for babies and toddlers. Rigid, wipeable pages and spiral binding make them kid-friendly. The 5.25 x 5.25 inch size is perfect for small hands. Photos are bright and text is clear in these travel photo books.
Templates include story board books for first vacations and educational themes like ABCs and emotions, suitable for creating interactive and memorable travel photo books. “Itty Bitty” mini books and “All About” books are also available for older kids, offering varied formats for different ages and travel photo book purposes.
Best Mini Books
Nations Photo Lab Albums
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PHOTO: Nations Photo Lab
Why We Love It: Nations Photo Lab’s Buzz Books are affordable and compact, perfect for collecting travel photo books from every trip without taking up much space.
What to Consider: Customization beyond photo selection is limited, which might not satisfy users seeking highly personalized travel photo books.
Nations Photo Lab provides a range of travel photo books, including templates for various occasions. Buzz Books stand out for simplicity and affordability. At 6×6 inches, they are ideal for creating a travel photo book for each trip.
Choose from over 120 soft-touch covers or create your own. Inside, each Buzz Book features 40 pages with one photo per page on professional Mohawk Matte paper, providing a consistent and visually appealing travel photo book series. Multiple shipping options are available.
Best Sustainable
Paper Culture
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PHOTO: Paper Culture
Why We Love It: Paper Culture travel photo books are made with recycled paper, and a tree is planted for every order, appealing to eco-conscious travelers.
What to Consider: Shipping costs can be relatively high, which is a factor for budget-minded buyers of travel photo books.
Paper Culture is a certified Green Business recognized for its sustainability efforts. Their travel photo books use 100% recycled paper, and each order plants a tree. Books come in 8×8 or 8×10 inches, with hardcover, layflat hardcover, and Kraft cover options for your eco-friendly travel photo book.
Templates are categorized by travel, holiday, and wedding themes, all customizable to create unique travel photo books. Adjust layouts, fonts, colors, and backgrounds. Templates include 20 pages, with options to add more. Shipping options range from standard to express for your sustainable travel photo book.
Best Video Books
Heirloom
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PHOTO: Heirloom
Why We Love It: Heirloom adds videos to physical books, allowing you to relive travel memories with motion and sound in a unique travel photo book format.
What to Consider: Video books are limited to vertical or horizontal footage orientation, not both, which might restrict media choice for some travel photo book creators.
Heirloom offers a unique approach to travel photo books by embedding videos. Each book features a 5-inch HD screen and can be oriented horizontally or vertically. Video capacity options include 10 minutes, 20 minutes, or one hour for your dynamic travel photo book.
Upload videos and photos online to create slideshows or mixed media travel photo books. Add personal messages and choose from premade or custom covers. Expedited delivery and a charger are included with these innovative travel photo books.
Best Binding
Milk Books
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PHOTO: Milk Books
Why We Love It: Milk Books provides premium binding options, ensuring high-quality and long-lasting travel photo books that become cherished keepsakes.
What to Consider: Design options for photo pages are less extensive compared to other brands, focusing more on binding quality for travel photo books.
Milk Books emphasizes the importance of binding for travel photo books, offering premium options for lasting keepsakes. Choose from premium, classic, moleskin, and softcover book types.
Premium travel photo books offer section-sewn binding with fabric hardcovers in 13 colors, archival-quality paper, and six-color printing. Classic and softcover books use PUR binding. Milk Books focuses on creating library-quality travel photo books with exceptional binding.
You Might Also Want
Beyond travel photo books, consider these creative ways to display travel photos:
Aura Carver Digital Picture Frame: Display many photos digitally without paper. Upload photos to the frame and view them in a slideshow.
Fujifilm Instax Mini Link 2 Smartphone Printer: Print individual 2×3 inch photos on the go for instant travel souvenirs or scrapbook additions.
Tips for Choosing a Photo Book Website
Consider turnaround time
For urgent travel photo books, check production and delivery times. Some offer same-day in-store pickup, ideal for last-minute gifts. Others provide expedited shipping. Turnaround times vary by company and product complexity, so review details carefully.
Look closely at the templates offered
Match templates to your desired travel photo book style. Options range from simple layouts to complex designs with themes, backgrounds, filters, and graphics. Some templates are pre-designed for specific travel types like Disney trips or cruises.
Prioritize ease of use
Choose user-friendly travel photo book makers, especially if you’re short on time. Autofill services or in-house designer assistance can simplify the process. Designer services may cost extra but save time and effort.
Image quality is key
Ensure high image quality in your travel photo book. Choose reputable companies using quality paper and printing. Submit high-resolution photos and heed warnings about low-quality images to avoid grainy results. Use lower resolution photos for smaller spaces in collages.
Frequently Asked Questions
Can I use my tablet or smartphone when creating a travel photo book online?
Yes, most travel photo book makers are mobile-friendly or offer apps. However, complex layouts are easier to manage on larger screens.
How much does it cost to make a travel photo book online?
Costs vary widely ($20 to $200+) based on company, size, pages, and materials. Softcover books are cheapest, followed by hardcover, then premium options. Layflat binding is pricier than traditional binding. Custom covers and expedited shipping also increase costs for your travel photo book.
How can I tell which travel photo book makers have the best image quality?
Seek companies using professional printers and high-quality paper. Check customer reviews for insights into print quality. Ensure your photos are crisp and high-resolution for best results in your travel photo book.
Why Trust Travel + Leisure
Jessica Macdonald, a published photographer, researched and tested travel photo book services, comparing features, prices, and reviews to select the top picks.
Edited by Jasmine Grant.
Updated by Anne Taylor.
