The Perfect Vacation Countdown Ideas

I love summer, even despite the Phoenix heat, because summer to me means time for vacations and creating those lifelong memories that bond families. One fun way to keep up the excitement for your upcoming vacation is by counting down to the big day!

I’m all about hanging up countdowns, checklists, and to-dos right where it’s easy to see everyday and remind me of what I’m working towards. In this case, I took these adorable free summer destination printables and turned them into these unique vacation countdown ideas!

I received compensation and samples for this post. All opinions are my own. 

Summer Vacation Countdown Ideas

First things first for vacation planning, is narrowing your list of amazing destinations to just one (or a couple that are close in proximity). Once you’ve settled on your vacation spot, the rest of the planning is all downhill from there.

Our favorite destinations for family vacations are the trips we’ve taken to California; Orlando, Florida; and Mexico! There are so many amazing places to visit, but those tend to be great options with kids of all ages and they’re close enough to be inexpensive. East coast families can opt for Florida while west coast families can pick California.

Your destination is set in stone, find or create a cute coloring page to use for your travel countdown. I used this free printable set illustrated by Evelyn Henson, Staples Summer Coloring Book.

You can grab the free printable Staples Summer Coloring Book on their Prismacolor landing page. Just click the top banner and your PDF coloring book will open in a new tab. This adorable coloring book includes top destinations including:

• Spain
• New York
• Paris
• Mexico
• Italy
• England
• China
• California
• and 7 general summer themes to fill-in your own summer plans!

When you’ve picked out your favorite printable (or two or three) just print out the pages you’d like on regular printer paper or cardstock. Now, you’ll want to hang up your trip countdown somewhere you’ll see it daily. That could be an office space, the front of your fridge, in your bathroom, or wherever it makes the most sense for your family.

You can then fill in important tasks and to-dos to your chart to help with your planning. Such as:

• 6 weeks: Book flights
• 5 weeks: Book hotel
• 4 weeks: Book activities
• 3 weeks: Confirm trip schedule
• 2 weeks: Rent a car
• 1 week: Start packing your packs
• 1 day before: Check-in to your flight

Of course, your tasks and checklist may be completely different then my ideas. Breaking down the responsibilities throughout the week will keep up that excitement for your trip as well!

Finally, take a little bit of time each day or each week to color in your vacation countdown printable to show your progress and how much time has elapsed. When you’re filling in your chart, turn to Prismacolor!

They offer a premium line of art products including colored pencils, watercolor pencils, and the tools you’ll need to make beautiful creations, or simply unwind with a fun coloring page. This countdown will be such a beautiful, visual, way to see how much time you have left until your fun family trip you have been planning and saving for.

Coloring is a wonderful way to spend a little time in the evening after a stressful day tending to the kids or spent at work that can help you de-stress and relax. You can score 20% off all regular-priced Prismacolor products at Staples now through 7/31/2016 with the coupon code 51563.

Where are your summer travels taking you?