Here’s what to do with your thousands of travel photos

You have a lot of travel photos. That’s surely safe to assume. We all get around these days with mobile phones, sporting cameras in our pockets at all times, always able to satiate the urge to snap a shot of every single thing we see.

That attraction, that landscape, that meal, that person. Snap, snap, snap, snap.

So yes, you have a lot of photos. But do you ever get a chance to look at them? Or are they all languishing in the electronic ether, lost in your iCloud, never to be appreciated again?

Fortunately, there are some great ideas out there for making use of your travel photos in ways that are more effective and enjoyable than simply printing out a few highlights and placing them in an album, the way it always used to be done (although that’s still an option, if it’s your preference).

To begin with, you can and should embrace digital technology. If you have a modern television, then you already have the perfect photo frame – load your best shots onto a USB stick, plug it into your TV, and then follow the instructions to set your photos on a loop on-screen.

If you would prefer not to use your TV, there are also many digital frames – that is, small, framed screens that plug into the wall – that you can use to show loops of your favourite travel snaps.

If your preference is for hard copies, you again have plenty of options. One of the most popular is to create a book with your photos. It’s surprisingly easy and affordable to create something of high quality using brands and products such as Shutterfly, Snapfish, Mixbook and more.

These websites all have simple-to-use software that will allow you to upload and arrange your photos on the pages, design the cover, and then send it off to the printers, with either a hardback or soft binding.

Or here’s another idea: turn your photos into fridge magnets. Companies such as Vistaprint can take your uploaded photos and post them back to you as fridge magnets in a variety of sizes, with or without borders – perfect for those cherished photos you would love to see multiple times a day, whenever you grab something to eat.

There are, in fact, myriad ways to print your photos on all sorts of materials. Put your travel snaps on T-shirts, print them on arty canvas, turn them into posters or postcards, scan them onto sheet metal, make them into drinks coasters, or turn them into personalised passport holders, luggage tags, or even printed over your entire suitcase (Bags of Love does this, and honestly it’s a bit strange, but to each their own).

If you would prefer to just stick your photos on your wall, there are creative options there too, from arranging them around a map of the world, to creating a collage that again can be managed online, printed and sent to your home.

Free your photos. You’ll be so glad you did.