I like to check things off of a checklist.  I know that not everyone likes to travel like that, but I like tracking things like visiting all 3,143 counties, or visiting all 88 counties in Ohio in 1 day, or setting a world record for the fastest time to visit all 5 Great Lakes.  So I was pretty excited to get an awesome world travel map with pins for Christmas, and I’m enjoying using it to as a world map checklist to track my travels.

Where to get this world travel map with pins

I’m sure there are many places that you can get a world travel map with pins.  I got my personalized world travel map to track travels as a Christmas gift, but I’m pretty sure it came from this Groupon deal.  It was a Cyber Monday deal for $47.99 but is currently at $54.99 (57% off the retail price of $128.50).

EDIT: It looks like they periodically run sales for $49.99 – so try this link as well if the first one doesn’t work out

My world travel map with pins measures 32.5”x22.5”x1” – they also have a personalized USA travel map with pins to track your travels if you’d prefer to keep track of that.

How I map my travels using my world travel map with pins

The world travel map with pins comes with 20 red magnetic pins, 9 blue magnetic pins and 1 yellow magnetic pin.  Obviously you can use your world travel map as a trip planner map however you want, but I thought I’d share how I map my travels.

I use the 20 red pins to map my travels that I’ve already been to.  20 pins isn’t nearly enough, but I’ve used it to map my travels to some of the following places

• My first class trip around the world – stops in Tokyo, Hong Kong, Singapore, Malaysia, and Dubai
• Our trip to Europe – London, Rome, Monaco among others
• My recent trip to Seattle, Vancouver and Alaska (READ: 3 states, 2 countries and 1 crazy exclave)
• My 2 year church mission to the Dominican Republic
• San Juan Puerto Rico

I use the 9 blue magnetic pins to mark the places that are on my travel bucket list.  Again, 9 isn’t nearly enough but I’m using it for the ones that are closest to actually happening.  Currently my world travel map with pins has the 9 blue pins on

• Hawaii
• Lima, Peru – lie flat seats already booked for 2017
• Sacramento – to visit my sister
• El Paso, Texas – this is my next trip up (READ: Guadalupe Peak, the highest point in Texas and Carlsbad Caverns)
• Prince Edward Island – we have some Anne of Green Gables fans in our family
• Iceland
• Stockholm, Sweden – where my 8 year old son wants to head on our 2017 date
• Sydney, Australia
• Bratislava, Slovakia – for some reason that seems like a cool place to visit

And then I use the one yellow pin to mark home base (Cincinnati)

Now you know what I need?  More pins for my world travel map with pins!

Have you ever used a world travel map with pins like this to track your travels?  Leave your travel tracking ideas in the comments