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Map My Trip for Kids | Charting Travel with a Free Map Template

The “Map My Trip” activity teaches children about directions, maps, and mileage. Download a free map template and coordinating cards to chart travel.

“Are we there yet?” … “How much longer?” …. “When is the next stop?”

Have you ever heard any of these questions on a family road trip? Well, now it’s time to put the answers to those questions, back into the kids’ hands with a “Map My Trip” travel activity. 

"Map My Trip" for Kids! A travel activity that teachs children about directions, maps, and mileage. Plus, kids can chart travel on a road trip. Free Printables! by Craftivity Designs

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"Map My Trip" for Kids! A travel activity that teachs children about directions, maps, and mileage. Plus, kids can chart travel on a road trip. Free Printables! by Craftivity Designs

Included in the kit is a USA Map Template and a set of Travel Cards to chart your next road trip. Whether you are traveling across the country, taking a road trip, or a weekend trip to a big city, kids will love having an overview of the trip and an activity to complete along the way. Plus, they’ll learn travel skills such as directions, mapping, and tracking mileage.

Map My Trip: Supplies
Map My Trip: Instructions

First, download and print the Map Template and Travel Cards. You’ll only need one copy of the Map Template but will need multiple copies of the Travel Cards. The number of Travel Cards will depend on the length of your road trip and how many cities you want to chart on the route.

In our case, we are traveling to Disney World from Kentucky. I’ve chosen 12 cities along the route to act as markers for charting our travel. Since there are 4 cards per page, I printed 3 copies to have 12 cards.

"Map My Trip" for Kids! A travel activity that teachs children about directions, maps, and mileage. Plus, kids can chart travel on a road trip. Free Printables! by Craftivity Designs

Next, cut out the cards and use a corner punch on the corners, if you’d like. Once they are cut out, punch a hole in the top-left corner of each card, and thread a binder ring through the stack.

"Map My Trip" for Kids! A travel activity that teachs children about directions, maps, and mileage. Plus, kids can chart travel on a road trip. Free Printables! by Craftivity Designs

For the map, laminate it, and mark off the route with a dry-erase marker

As I mentioned, we’ve got 12 cities, or landmarks, along the route. Each dot on the map represents one of these points. The cards coordinate with the dots and are marked 1 through 12, with the city listed next to Location on each Travel Card.

Don’t write in the mileage yet, let your kids chart those details on the road trip. Teach them to use the GPS or a paper map, and determine the completed mileage vs. remaining mileage at each point.

5 Tips for Smooth Travel with Kids, Travel Games, Travel Map, Free Printables by Craftivity Designs
"Map My Trip" for Kids! A travel activity that teachs children about directions, maps, and mileage. Plus, kids can chart travel on a road trip. Free Printables! by Craftivity Designs

Would you like to download the free printable? Click the button, below, to sign up for our newsletter and gain access to the freebie library. Once subscribed, you will receive an email with instructions to access the library.

If you have any problems signing up, please send an email to loragreen@craftivitydesigns.com, and I will sign you up manually.


My son will love charting his way, reading the GPS, and figuring out the mileage math. Now, if only, our Disney Countdown was close to zero {wink}. The trip is still a few months off, but I’m excited about the road trip activities we’ll get to complete on the way.

More Road Trip Activities and Travel Printables

Joy Hudson

Wednesday 7th of April 2021

Long road trip from San Antonio to Raleigh with two children. Love this activity for them

Kayla Ragsdale

Sunday 19th of July 2020

looking forward to using this map for our upcoming trip.

Lora Green

Sunday 26th of July 2020

Hope you enjoy them! Have a great trip!