5 Ways to Save Summer Vacation Memories

Ardith Stephanson

6 min read

Summer vacation: just hearing those words makes me smile.

Childhood memories of camping, staying in a hotel that has a pool, or just hanging out at home and playing endlessly with friends. As an adult, planning a big trip with the family or simply relaxing at home with a pile of books. 

No work or school. Staying up late and sleeping in. Sitting by the campfire. Swimming in a lake. Driving somewhere new, or somewhere fondly familiar. Flying overseas.

Everyone has different summer vacation memories. But what is the best way to preserve those memories? How do you capture those special moments for the sake of your children, your parents, your friends, or yourself? 

From vacation to staycation to long weekends, it’s important to capture summer's special moments. So let’s look at 5 ways to save summer vacation memories.

1. Taking Photos and Videos

This is the most obvious one, and since most of us carry a smartphone with a camera, it’s also the easiest one. So when you’re wondering: What is the best way to capture moments? Photographs and videos are the most powerful.  

Your photos can be your entire vacation scrapbook, with pictures of each town or city you visit, museum or gallery signs, favourite restaurants and the name of the hotel. Or, candid shots from the boat, campsite, or your own backyard on a staycation.

Photos are great, but think about doing more than taking pictures. The ease of taking photos with a smartphone means you get so many photos, it’s easy to get overwhelmed with the sheer volume, and forget the context of many of them. Whether or not you choose to post your memories to social media, that’s not the ideal way to remember your summer vacation.

Consider combining photos with one or more of our other ideas, so you get more than a collection of pictures - you get complete summer vacation stories.

2. Save Mementoes

Supplement your summer vacation memories by keeping souvenirs from your adventures. What is the best way to capture travel memories? By collecting keepsakes from everywhere you visit:

• Boarding passes from an airplane voyage

• Ticket stubs from games, zoos, museums, theme parks, galleries and more

• Sea shells from the beach

• Postcards from your various destinations

• Maps, and highlight the routes you traveled  

Some people have a specific item they collect from each travel destination, like a fridge magnet or an ornament.

And if you plan a staycation, why not treat it the same as a trip across the world? Visit special places in your hometown, and collect photos and souvenirs from your different local adventures. 

3. Keep a Journal

Not everyone is a writer, but a travel journal is an excellent way to really save your summer vacation stories. You don’t have to write a book. Simply take a few minutes at the end of each day to jot down where you went, what you did, and a few special moments from the day.

Even on a staycation, it doesn’t hurt to document a few thoughts each day. Being able to lay back with a good book instead of going to work is a special day! 

If you have kids, they can draw a picture of a memorable outing, and as they get older, they can help write in the journal. At the end of each day, ask your child: “What was the best part of today?” and at the end of the vacation: “What was the best part of your summer vacation?” Document that and your child will thank you when they get older, as you will have helped save their life’s stories. 

4. Involve the Family

Besides a journal, there are other ways the family can help with the summer vacation memory book. You don’t have to do all the work yourself!

Each family member could take turns writing in the journal each day. Kids could each keep their own journal. Let the kids take some photos, or build their own video diary. 

Ask your family for ideas to save summer vacation memories. Help your children plan their fun adventures and then remember the special times. If your kids want to collect a jar full of rocks from each destination on your trip, encourage them to do that along with some notes about where each rock is from. After all, studies show a connection between positive feelings and what’s called autobiographical memory, which are memories dealing with your own life.

If you’re traveling with an extended group of family or a bunch of friends, ask to collect memories together. Share the photos and videos as a group, create a common journal that can be shared, or build a guest book that documents everyone who attended a reunion or gathering. 

5. Do it All In One Place 

What is the best way to capture stories? By using all these ideas and more to collect and save memories. A digital tool like memoryKPR makes it possible.

This easy-to-use platform lets you create a digital memory book for your summer vacation, staycation or long weekend adventure. Build an online album that brings together multiple mementoes, lets others contribute, and allows you to share to social media if you want, or share with the whole family.

Create a story “book” for summer vacation and upload your memories. Most formats are supported, including JPEG, PNG, MP4, MP3, WAV, and more. Include photos, videos, audio files, screenshots and more. Record audio right into the story, or upload from your library.

Include those journal notes, pictures drawn by the kids, and photos of ticket stubs, boarding passes, maps and postcards. You can’t insert the sea shell, but you can take a picture instead, and leave the seashell at the beach. 

If you do post your vacation photos to social media, you can add to your story book by importing directly from Facebook and Instagram. Then, organize the memories the way you want. 

If you’re traveling as a group, invite others to contribute via email or with a QR code. When the “book” is done, it’s simple to share with the rest of the group for everyone to enjoy, including the technologically challenged: send a link by email. You can choose to share it on social media if you want.

By using memoryKPR you’ll get a full story book of your summer vacation, staycation, or long weekend fun. Include as many people and as many summer vacation memories as you want, and everyone will have a memento of a summer to remember. 

Epilogue

We wait all year for summer vacation, and it seems to fly by and be done before we know it. That’s what makes it so important to preserve your summer vacation memories for years to come.

Your vacation plans don’t have to include a trip across the country. Even a staycation in your hometown is a special time to spend with your family, or alone relaxing without the stresses of work or school. By considering our 5 ways to save summer vacation memories, you’ll be able to look back on all your special summer moments, from vacation to staycation to long weekends. 

With an easy-to-use tool like memoryKPR, it’s simple to bring those summer vacation stories together and save them forever. 

Ardith Stephanson is a freelance writer and journalist who shares some of her own stories at theardizan.com