If your kids love travelling as much as you, then having some of the best travel books for kids at home is brilliant for keeping the passion alive between trips particularly if you’ve recently had to cancel a trip due to coronavirus. It’s a great way to travel without leaving home!
We love buying different children’s books about travel for Myla as gifts for her birthday or Christmas. She loves them too. Not only do good travel books for children, get the kids excited about their next trip, but it also teaches them about the wonderful world we live in and its people.
Whether you’re looking for some kids travel books as gifts for the little people in your life or need to keep the travel dream alive during these periods of world travel bans – then this is the perfect guide for you.
In this guide on childrens books about travel – I’ve listed a range of fun travel books for kids of all ages. Whether you’re after the best atlas for kids, a baby travel book, travel books for toddlers or older children’s travel books, this guide covers it all.
I had so much fun putting this guide together and even found some great ideas for Myla.
This post may contain compensated links. Please refer to my disclaimer here for more information.
Page Contents
- 1 15 of the Best Travel Books for Kids
- 2 Quick Comparison Table of Children’s Books About Travel
- 3 Top Travel Books for Children
- 3.1 The Best Atlas for Kids: Children’s Illustrated Atlas
- 3.2 Hello World
- 3.3 Lonely Planet: First Words
- 3.4 Dr Seuss – Oh, The Places You’ll Go!
- 3.5 National Geographic: Little Kids First Big Book of the World
- 3.6 Travel Bug Goes to Series
- 3.7 This is Series
- 3.8 Lonely Planet: The Travel Book
- 3.9 Lonely Planet: City Trails
- 3.10 Lonely Planet: Let’s Explore
- 3.11 Lonely Planet: Backyard Explorer
- 3.12 Lonely Planet: Not For Parents
- 3.13 Busy Busy World
- 3.14 The Atlas Obscura Explorer’s Guide for the World’s Most Adventurous Kid
- 3.15 Bluey: The Beach
15 of the Best Travel Books for Kids
To come up with this list of the best children’s books about the world, I’ve asked for recommendations from our followers, other family travel bloggers as well as researched the best selling children travel books on Amazon. I have no doubt there are a million other great childrens travel books, but this is a pretty good list to get you started.
Quick Comparison Table of Children’s Books About Travel
Don’t have time to read the entire review on the best children’s travel books? Below is a handy table of all the books in this guide with some brief information and a link for where you can buy the book online.
Please note the age group is just a guide and will really depend on the individual child.
| Name | About | Age Group | Check Price |
|---|---|---|---|
The Best Atlas for Kids: Children’s Illustrated Atlas | Atlas with over 50 maps which contains various facts. | 8-12 | Check Price |
Hello World | A series of books from cities around the world inspiring children to travel as well as recognize colours, shapes numbers & more | 2-5 | Check Price |
Lonely Planet: First Words | A series of books by Lonely Planet, teaching children basic words in a range of different languages. | 6-8 | Check Price |
Dr Seuss – Oh, The Places You'll Go! | A Dr Seuss book about seizing opportunities and not to be afraid of failure during your adventures. | 5-8 | Check Price |
National Geographic: Little Kids First Big Book of the World | A book by National Geographic which contains a range of interesting facts about the world. | 4-8 | Check Price |
Travel Bug Goes to Series | Travel Bug is a series of books for preschoolers. Travel Bug travels to a range of cities and countries around the world. | 3-5 | Check Price |
This is Series | A series of books from cities around the world, featuring beautiful illustrations inspiring children to travel. | 9-12 | Check Price |
Lonely Planet: The Travel Book | Like an encyclopedia, this book features facts on every country in the world. | 8-12 | Check Price |
Lonely Planet: City Trails | A series of travel guides for kids, featuring fun itineraries in cities around the world. | 6-12 | Check Price |
Lonely Planet: Let’s Explore | A series of activity books for children based on different landscapes around the world. | 5-12 | Check Price |
Lonely Planet: Backyard Explorer | A book about exploring your own backyard. Includes a range of fun activities. | 5-12 | Check Price |
Lonely Planet: Not For Parents | A series of travel guides for kids detailing all the child friendly attractions in different destinations around the world. | 8-12 | Check Price |
Busy Busy World | A compilation of 33 fun stories about different characters in different cities around the world. | 3-4 | Check Price |
The Atlas Obscura Explorer’s Guide for the World’s Most Adventurous Kid | A guide book that focuses on the more unusual interesting places in the world. The book covers 100 places from 47 different countries. | 8-12 | Check Price |
Bluey: The Beach | Picture book about Bluey’s adventures at the beach. | 2-5 | Check Price |
Keep reading below for further information on these books.
Top Travel Books for Children
Let’s get into it and in no particular order, check out some of the best travel books for kids currently available!
The Best Atlas for Kids: Children’s Illustrated Atlas
The Children’s Illustrated Atlas is hands down one of Myla’s favourite children’s books about places around the world. She literally reads this book at least once a week.
Across 128 pages, this kids atlas has more than 50 colourful maps of countries around the world. Each map includes interesting facts about the country including famous landmarks, climate, native animals and its people. You can use this atlas to create a range of fun and educational activities for the kids at home.
For parents after a great children’s atlas, I highly recommend this. It’s perfect for primary school aged children.
Click here for more information or to buy now.
Hello World
Hello World is a series of gorgeous hardboard books aimed at young toddler travellers. These books have gorgeous colourful illustrations which feature famous landmarks, architecture, food and culture of various cities across the world.
As well as inspiring young travellers, these books help children recognize shapes, opposites, senses, numbers and colours. Books available include shapes in Paris, opposites in London, senses in Tokyo, colours in New York, numbers in San Francisco or sounds in Rio De Janeiro.
These are such a gorgeous series of books and make perfect gifts if you’re looking for a travel activity book for toddlers or baby books about travel.
Click here for more information or to buy now.
Lonely Planet: First Words
We all know there is a stack of great Lonely Planet kids books out there so it’s not surprisingly I’ve listed quite a few here in this guide. First up are the First Words series, which teach children some of the basic words from languages around the world.
Each book contains 100 words which are useful while travelling. Words include things related to food, transport, animals, weather and more. Each double page of the book covers one word, with a pronunciation guide as well as a range of colourful illustrations to give the word context as well as keep it interesting for little travellers.
The First Words book are available in Spanish, Japanese, Mandarin, Italian and French. These are great books for kids about to go on an overseas trip with their families.
Each book also comes with a free audio guide.
Click here for more information or to buy now.
Dr Seuss – Oh, The Places You’ll Go!
Dr Seuss is always a favourite isn’t it – with both kids and parents alike. Oh, The Places You’ll Go! always comes up on any best travel book list for kids.
In this book, Dr Seuss takes us through all the mishaps that occur while out on our adventures. It has a great message for kids, encouraging children to seize the moment, be brave and seek out new adventures, and never to be afraid of failure.
Of course like with any Dr Seuss book, this book is full of fun illustrations and easy to read text helping children to develop their reading skills.
Click here for more information or to buy now.
National Geographic: Little Kids First Big Book of the World
Myla just loves her National Geographic books, so if you’re after just one general book about the world for your young traveller, I’d highly recommend the Little Kids First Big Book of the World.
Across 128 pages, this book has a range of interesting facts about languages, landscapes, weather, animals, capital cities and more.
The book has a range of beautiful photographs, easy to read text (great for developing little ones reading skills) and a range of questions to encourage your child to discuss what they are reading with other members of the family.
If your child loves these books, I’d also recommend their yearly book, we get this for Myla each for Christmas and she again just loves it.
These National Graphic books are perfect for any parent looking for children books about travelling around the world.
Click here for more information or to buy now.
Travel Bug Goes to Series
Another great series of books for toddlers or preschoolers, Travel Bug is a cute character that travels around the world to different countries and cities. In these picture books about travelling around the world, Travel Bug includes famous landmarks, food, history and culture.
These preschool books about travel are available for Chicago, Mexico, China, France, Australia, San Francisco, New York City, Paris, Iceland, Italy, America and Europe.
These are great books to buy for little travellers who might be visiting one of these destinations or just enjoys learning about new places.
Click here for more information or to buy the book
This is Series
The This is Series of books were first published back in the 1950s and have recently been updated to bring them into the twenty first century. Available in a range of cities and countries around the world, these children’s books about travelling around the world are designed to inspire young children to travel the world.
Each travel picture book has beautiful illustrations, capturing a range of scenes from the destinations as well as plenty of fun facts for the young inspired traveller. The series is available for 18 different destinations including, Paris, Venice, London, New York and Rome.
Click here for more information or to buy now.
Lonely Planet: The Travel Book
The Travel Book takes children through every country on the planet. Every country has its own full page, where information is provided such as the country’s landscapes, wildlife, landmarks, language, people as well as random fun facts.
There are two versions of this kids world travel guide. The older version has 212 pages and in addition to beautiful photographs, it has lots of fun illustrations designed for younger children. The newer version has 408 pages and only features photographs and is designed to appeal to the older child.
With general information on every single country in the world, this is such a great book for a child who loves to travel.
Click here for more information or to buy now.
Lonely Planet: City Trails
City Trails is kind of like the traditional Lonely Planet guides, but for kids. Designed for primary school aged children, these travel guides provide children with a range of information about a particular destination.
The books take children on a trip around the city – hence the name of the book City Trails. Each kids travel guide lists out a range of attractions and places of interest within the city and what children can expect to see and do there.
The City Trails series are available for a range of cities including London, Tokyo, Paris, New York City, Rome, Sydney, Singapore and more.
These are great books to give children prior to a holiday and encourages them to really get in involved with the trip planning process.
Click here for more information or to buy now.
Lonely Planet: Let’s Explore
If you’re looking for travel activity books for kids, Let’s Explore is another one of the great series of books from Lonely Planet. These books are about two young explorers Marco and Amelia who travel to a range of different landscapes across the world including Safari, Ocean, Desert, City, Mountain and Jungle.
Each of the Let’s Explore books is 48 pages and include a range of puzzles, colouring in, have over 250 stickers as well as some interesting facts.
Whether you’re after a kids travel activity book for at home or while travelling, the Lonely Planet Let’s Explore range is a good one to consider.
Click here for more information or to buy now.
Lonely Planet: Backyard Explorer
With all of us staying at home right now, Backyard Explorer is the perfect book! Another excellent children’s book by Lonely Planet, Backyard Explorer helps children get out and explore what’s in their very own backyards.
Backyard Explorer is full of fun activities for the kids including things to make, do and find. Some of the activities include cloud spotting, making a skyline college, completing a scavenger hunt and more.
This is a great book for those kids who keep complaining that they are bored – with this book they will find plenty to do in and around their own home.
Click here for more information or to buy now.
Lonely Planet: Not For Parents
The last of all the Lonely Planets listed in this guide, Not For Parents are a series of books somewhat like the traditional Lonely Planet guides but for kids. These books include a range of interesting facts, stories and things to do in places across the world.
Each book is around 100 pages and includes stories about interesting people, details of super cool attractions and landmarks,
The books are available for a range of countries, continents and cities including Australia, USA, China, Africa, Paris, Europe, Asia, Britain, Rome, London, New York, South America and more.
These books would be the perfect gift to buy a child planning a trip to one of these destinations as it encourages them to get involved in the planning stage as well as gets them excited about their trip.
Click here for more information or to buy now.
Busy Busy World
For the younger travellers, they will love the Busy Busy World by Richard Scarry. This book takes children through 33 different places around the world including New York, Paris and Tokyo.
The book tells 33 different funny stories about a range of characters from across the world including butchers, fishermen, house painters and more. Across 96 pages, this book features bright and colourful illustrations with easy to read text which engages young children and inspires them to explore the world.
This book was written in the 1960s, yet still manages to capture the attention of young travellers today.
Click here for more information or to buy now.
The Atlas Obscura Explorer’s Guide for the World’s Most Adventurous Kid
The Atlas Obscura Explorer’s Guide for the World’s Most Adventurous Kid is another one of Myla’s favourite books. Featuring 100 different places from 47 different countries, this book focuses on the world’s most fascinating places – both natural and manmade.
Over 112 pages, this book looks at 100 different places around the world, listing out interesting facts, stories and places to visit. Popular places such as England and Mexico are featured as well as less known places including Azerbaijan and Namibia. However don’t except popular tourist attractions in this book, this book is for the serious travellers wanting to learn about more offbeat places.
Given this book is about the more unusual tourist destinations in the world, this book is better suited to the child that already has a few travel books and is now looking for something a little different.
Click here for more information or to buy now.
Bluey: The Beach
Most little ones are already fans of the TV show Bluey – so if you’re after airplane books for toddlers Bluey: The Beach is a lovely little book. In this book, Bluey’s family goes to the beach and the book is all about the fun encounters Bluey has throughout the day.
This is a lovely hardboard book, with beautiful illustrations just perfect for young travellers off on a beach holiday with their family.
Click here for more information or to buy now.
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I hope you found this guide on the best travel books for kids useful.
If you’re looking for more things for kids that love to travel, check out kids gift guide here. and the best travel themed board games for kids here.
Disclaimer: Disclaimer: As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases.
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