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I’ve been looking for a good travel map–especially one to help me document my travels around the USA. (I want to hit all 50 states!)
But the traditional kind is a little boring to me:
Even with those little pins in it, it’s hard to tell how much of the travel map has been conquered.
I’m a huge fan of Jeffsetter’s travel map:
The color of the places he’s been vs. hasn’t is stark and easy to see. (please note, he’s still in the process of filling it in, which is why it is so empty).
I realized I wanted something like this to put on my wall. I could print out a paper and color it in with crayons, but that didn’t seem quite fulfill what I was looking for.
Then I discovered Scratch Off Travel Maps:
The outer layer of this map is a shiny foil type substance, so when you scratch it–it is really noticeable.
When I conquer the entire United States, it will be really obvious–and really scratched off.
I also like that in scratching off the map, you have the option of deciding whether or not you visited specific regions of the state, or want to scratch off states entirely. Since my goal is to visit each state in the entire country, I’m choosing to scratch off state by state.
They also have a travel map of the world, which I’m still deciding on:
The reason I hesitate with this one is because I think I would want to scratch off the entire country I’ve visited. I’ve visited a large amount of the larger countries in the world. Besides getting a bad case of carpal tunnel as I make my way through Russia, Canada, and the United States, I’m not sure this world map would have the same cool-looking effect the map of the United States would have for me.
(I would be interested in continent by continent maps though!)Â But I also think that Antarctica will sit there at the bottom of the map–taunting me for years to come.
I might even consider a scratch off check list version of a travel map, where I can make progress through the countries of the world in a more visually appealing way. It’s just that as is, the countries are too different in size from each other–which makes sense because it is a map, but I don’t think the scratch off concept works as well.
Would you scratch your way through the world?
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Chris got the world version of these maps as a going away present when we left DC. We haven’t put it up yet but I think it’ll be a cool way to showcase our travels (I agree the state one might work best visually speaking, though). For the bigger countries I was considering scratching the whole thing off but also adding a pin to the specific city(ies) we visited.
That’s a really good idea! I thought it might feel weird scratching off all of Russia when I’ve only been to three cities, but then the pins would solve that issue–you can “add” to the map as you see more.
Finding the perfect map is definitely not as easy as it should be – that’s why I had to create the one on my site. I’m considering whether I can make it into a plugin for others to use at BA.
Thanks for the reminder that I need to update my map! I haven’t touched it in months.
I love the idea of the U.S. one, but that may cause some tension in our house since I’m down to only 4 states left to go to and I’m pretty sure the hubby has at least 8! 😉
The map looks pretty nice. Scratch Map is brilliant. Its the perfect way to show off where you’ve been travelling while livening up your wall with a colorful world map.
Scratch off maps are great and have come a long way. Check out Voyage Mapper for one of the best, new customized maps on Amazon