Turn a trip into a travel photo slideshow

Choose a route through the trip

Use date order when each day changes the story: a road trip, a hike with successive stages, or a journey from one city to another. Use place order when you revisited the same location across several days and those visits make more sense together. Either structure should let a viewer answer “Where are we, and what happened next?” without seeing your entire camera roll.

A useful compromise is place first, then time within each place. For a trip that returns to its starting city, keep both visits separate if the return is the ending of the story. Otherwise, group the city photos together and avoid labelling that group as one day. Decide the order before writing dates onto individual images.

Sketch a beginning, middle and ending: arriving at the coast, the day’s walk, a market stop and the last evening by the water. Open the travel workbench and choose Add photos. The Travel preset supplies the initial style and pace; you choose the trip’s route. Drag photos into order or use the earlier/later arrows. Add a destination opening card and a closing note in your own words.

Mark a new stop with a short caption on its first photo. There is no automatic chapter or route-map generator; the order of your images and the place names do that work. If a location change is confusing, add a genuine journey photo or a clearer location caption rather than an unrelated scenic image.

Select the moments that move it forward

First remove near duplicates within each stop. From several views of the same lookout, keep the one with the clearest subject and useful framing. Keep a second view only if it adds something different, such as a person’s reaction or a detail that the landscape does not show.

• Give each important stop an image that establishes the place, then a moment that shows what you did there. A street view followed by the meal you stopped for can say more than five similar streets.
• Include ordinary moments when they explain the trip: a ferry crossing, a rainy afternoon or a shared breakfast. Choose them for their role in the story, not just because they occurred between the other photos.
• Keep an opening and a closing image. If removing a transfer photo makes two locations seem to be the same place, restore that connection or name the next stop clearly.

Eighteen photos at four seconds each plus a three-second opening and closing card make a 78-second paid recap. For Free, the same eighteen photos at three seconds each plus the cards total 60 seconds. Choose automatic timing to divide a target length, then hold a location or caption longer where needed. Keep the full edit, including cards, within 60 seconds on Free or 180 seconds for a paid project. Remove repeated views before rushing the whole trip.

Use JPEG, PNG or WebP images, up to 20 MB each and 100 MB in total. Free exports allow 20 photos; paid projects allow 50. If a file cannot be opened, use a readable copy in one of those formats. For a trip that needs more than three minutes to tell properly, use an editor suited to a longer film.

Play the sequence once without relying on the captions. Check that the stops, main activity and ending still make sense. If the middle drags, remove the least useful repeated view; if a jump is confusing, fix the connection before adding more decoration.

Add places, dates and a soundtrack

Use Caption on the first image of a new place or day, then let the following photos show it. “Lisbon · Day 2” or “Last evening on the coast” can establish the moment without repeating the location on every slide. Check the place spelling and date against your trip records. When the date is uncertain, use the verified place name without inventing a day.

Each photo caption allows 120 characters in a fixed bottom bar. Shorten or remove a caption if it covers a person or detail. Use the separate opening and closing text cards for the destination and final note; these do not move or restyle the caption on an individual photo.

1. Try Warm Days, the Travel preset’s suggested instrumental, or choose Quiet Light or Small Celebrations. All three are available on Free and paid projects. For a track you have permission to use, choose Add your music and one MP3, WAV or M4A up to 30 MB.
2. Open Track options and set Start at (seconds) to the part you want to hear. Play it with the photos and adjust Volume.
3. Use Loop to fit video if the selected portion is too short, and listen across the repeat. If the join distracts, shorten the edit, choose a longer track or leave looping off. Use Fade out at the end for a softer finish.

Optional beat alignment uses the known BPM of a bundled instrumental when you distribute the photo timing. It does not detect beats in your own audio; use a steady automatic pace or adjust uploaded music and photo durations yourself. If a track is silent, check Volume and that Start at is before the file’s end. The slideshow music guide covers timing and troubleshooting. A silent travel story works too.

Make a version for your audience

A family recap can give familiar faces and small shared moments more time. For people who were not on the trip, keep the route clear and choose details that explain why a stop mattered. For a public edit, ask companions before including them and check images for tickets, private addresses or other information you do not want to share.

For mixed horizontal and vertical photos, begin with Whole photo under Photo fit. It preserves the image and can leave space around it. Fill frame fills the frame by cropping; it is a setting for the whole slideshow, so inspect every photo after changing it. If a landmark or person disappears, return to Whole photo or choose an image framed for that output. Check captions again at the new ratio.

Choose Export free 720p for a watermarked video without an account, or Export 1080p for a paid project without a watermark, then Download video when the file is ready. Open the MP4 and watch it through before sharing it manually through your chosen app. Download and name each finished version before changing the aspect ratio or shortening the story; the workbench keeps one local draft for your current account or guest. One project credit unlocks one paid project, with up to three successful versions in seven days from the first successful export. See pricing and limits; paid checkout is not open yet.

Sign in and choose Save project to upload a private server copy. Each unused credit provides one unexported draft slot. Find saved work in My projects; server files expire 30 days from the first cloud save. Local drafts remain in the browser until you choose to save or upload a project.

Keep the original photos and a backup of the downloaded video. The MP4 is a file you save on your device, not a hosted album with a promised retention period. If you see Draft not saved, keep the tab open and save a finished video before leaving. For a family screening, follow the TV playback guide and test the actual playback device.