“Once a year, go someplace you’ve never been before.” – Anonymous
It’s no secret we live by this quote. As a family of travel addicts we are obsessed with exploring new places. With traveling comes adventure, excitement and memory making but there is also the other side with unexpected challenges, disappointments and potentially long travelling times.
At some point during your travels there will come a time where you will be looking for at something to entertain you, the kids or both. As a Steiner family, we try and avoid ‘screen time’ as much as possible and instead come up with other fun ways to fill the time.
Ironically, we were gifted My Awesome Sydney Adventure Journal and My Awesome Bali Adventure Journal within a couple of weeks of flying out to both destinations. These books are filled with games, puzzles, colouring in activities and maps in addition to spots where you can record your travels.
We love these Travel Journals and here are 5 reasons why!

My Awesome Sydney Adventure Journal
1. Entertain the kids during travel
Whether it’s on a flight, public transport around Sydney or stuck in traffic in Bali. These books are great to have on hand. Having an array of activities in the book helps make the journey that little less challenging. The kids can just do their own thing or make it a team effort and work on an activity together as a family. From find a word, crosswords and spot the difference to learning Bahasa and about Indonesian currency.
2. Entertain the adults too
Hubby and I found ourselves throughout our 4 week adventure doing more than a few of the activities. Not because the kids didn’t want to do them or because they were too hard, but because they were fun and interesting.
3. Educate – Learn the language, Learn some facts
These travel books not only entertain they also teach about the local area, landmarks and attractions as well as the local language and traditions. Total win win!
4. Prompt discussions
Before you know it, you will be starting conversations with the locals to ask them to help you with an activity or two… Whether it’s a crossword question, or a local attraction or cultural question. There are certainly a lot of opportunities to start conversations and learn more by using this book as a starting point.
5. Get you exploring places you weren’t planning on
There are a lot of activities that could prompt you to do more than you were planning to do. In the Sydney book, they suggest ‘Things to do in Sydney’. In the Bali book, they have a game called ‘Spotto’ where you can tick off things you have done or seen. If you have kids like ours they will want to tick them all off! This means you might be catching a Ferry over to Manly or will be off to see a Buddha statue in Bali.
If you are heading to Sydney or Bali, we’d recommend getting a book before you go. They are so much fun.
If you have seen other books like this for different countries or have a travel item for kids that you love and would recommend let us know about it. We love finding new things that make family travel that little easier and more enjoyable.
Disclosure – My Awesome Adventure provided Bound for Somewhere with My Awesome Sydney Adventure Journal and My Awesome Bali Adventure Journal free of charge, for the purpose of reviewing them during our Sydney and Bali trip. The views expressed in this post are entirely our own thoughts. For further information, please visit my disclosure page.
Want to find out more about Bali here are 20 Bali Tips
Or need a packing list check out our post Travelling with Kids: You need to pack these 14 essentials
I love the sound of this for going places, especially the tick list! Kids love a good tick list.
This journal looks great. It such a great idea to explore of your surroundings. It looks like you had a great time too
I love these journals – what a fab idea for young travellers. Jack would certainly love something like this when travelling
I think it’s great to have some information about the places presented in a fun way, and such a great idea for younger travellers x
Wow, that is a coincidence that you received the items after travelling to those countries. The journals sound like a great idea and a good way to record experiences and create lasting memories around your adventures.
Travel journals are always so fantastic for passing the time when travelling home! They’re also a great keepsake.
C x
I love the idea of these travel journals for the children. A great way for them to record little bits and bobs from their time on holiday as well as helping to keep them occupied
I love the look of this journal . I am a bit of a hoarder when it comes to journals and diaries so no doubt I’ll be buying this 🙂
This is such a good idea. Love that you live by that quote too
What amazing places you got to explore. I’m glad you all enjoyed the journals together. Mich X
I do love the idea of adventure journals, definitely something I can get behind as opposed to everyday journalling.
What a great idea, we haven’t used anything like this before but am sure the boys would enjoy it!
As a traveller, these are brilliant especially for kids. To look back on and have conversations in the future about your travels is fantastic
I love this! What a great way to record your experiences and a fab way to record all your memories xx
These adventure journals are so interesting especially for my daughter who loves journaling. She does tend to bring her diary everywhere when we travel so having a dedicated travel journal to help her document her trip would be wonderful.