How to use My Travel Maps: a beginner's guide

My Travel Maps is a set of five free interactive tools for tracking where you have been in the world. No account is required. Everything runs in your browser, and your data is saved automatically on your device. This guide walks through every tool, step by step, so you can get the most out of the platform in your first ten minutes.

Tool 1: The world travel map

The world travel map is the flagship tool and the homepage of the site. It combines a full-screen world map with a US states map in a single interface. Here is how to use it:

1. Open the tool. Go to mytravelmaps.org. The world map loads immediately — no sign-in required.
2. Choose your mode. In the top-right corner of the map, you will see a mode toggle with two options: “Visited” and “Want to visit.” Click the one you want. Visited mode marks countries in green; wishlist mode marks them in sage.
3. Click a country. Click any country on the map. It will fill with your selected color immediately. Click it again to remove the mark.
4. Switch to US states. Use the small “World” / “US States” tabs above the map to flip between views. Both views share the same tally, so your stats stay in sync.
5. Watch your stats. The bar at the bottom of the map shows your running count: countries visited, percentage of the world, continents touched, US states, and wishlist count — all updated live as you click.

That is the core loop: pick a mode, click countries, watch the stats grow. Everything saves automatically.

Tool 2: Countries visited map

The countries visited map is a dedicated countries-only view. It works identically to the world map but without the US states tab, giving you a slightly larger map area. It also shows a hover panel with the country name and continent when you move your cursor over a country. Use this tool if you want the cleanest possible country-counting experience.

Tool 3: US states visited map

The US states visited map is a dedicated US-only view, zoomed and bounded to the continental United States plus Alaska and Hawaii. It is built for domestic travelers, road trippers, and anyone tracking their progress toward visiting all 50 states. The mechanics are the same: click a state to mark it visited or wishlisted, click again to remove.

Tool 4: City pins map

The city pins map is different from the other tools. Instead of filling in countries or states, you drop individual pins on specific locations — cities, towns, landmarks, anything with coordinates. Here is how:

1. Click anywhere on the map to drop a pin. A marker will appear at the location you clicked.
2. Name it. A popup will appear asking for a name. The tool auto-suggests the nearest city name using reverse geocoding — you can accept the suggestion or type your own.
3. Edit or remove. Click an existing pin to change its name or delete it.

The pins map is ideal for travelers who want more granularity than country-level tracking — for example, marking every city you have visited in Europe, or every National Park you have been to in the US.

Tool 5: Road trip planner

The road trip planner lets you plan a driving route by clicking stops on the map in order. The tool then calculates the actual driving route between each stop. Here is the flow:

1. Click your first stop on the map. A numbered marker appears.
2. Click your next stop. A second marker appears, and a driving route is drawn between the two stops. The total distance and estimated driving time are shown in the sidebar.
3. Keep adding stops. Each new stop extends the route. The tool recalculates distance and time live.
4. Reorder or remove. Drag stops in the sidebar to reorder them, or click a stop to remove it.

The planner uses the OSRM routing engine, which calculates real driving routes on actual roads — not straight lines. It is useful for planning road trips across the US, Europe, or anywhere with a connected road network.

Downloading your map

Click the “Download map” button in the top navigation bar (or in the stats bar at the bottom of the map). The tool captures the visible map area as a high-resolution PNG image and downloads it to your device. The download includes your visited countries, wishlist countries, and the basemap — but strips the zoom controls and attribution for a cleaner image.

The downloaded PNG is 2× resolution by default, so it looks sharp on Retina displays and prints well at A4 size or larger.

Sharing your map

Click the “Share map” button in the stats bar. On mobile, this opens your device's native share sheet (so you can send the link via WhatsApp, iMessage, email, or any other app). On desktop, it copies the page URL to your clipboard. For a visual share (on Instagram, for example), download the map as a PNG first, then upload the image. We have a detailed guide on sharing your map on Instagram.

How your data is stored

All of your selections — visited countries, wishlist, city pins, road trip stops — are saved in your browser's local storage. This means:

• Your data never leaves your device. Nothing is sent to a server. We do not have a database of your maps.
• It persists across browser restarts. Close the tab, close the browser, reopen it tomorrow — your map is still there.
• It does not sync across devices. If you open the site on a different computer or phone, you will start with a blank map. Cross-device sync is a planned feature.
• Clearing browser data resets it. If you clear your browser's local storage or cookies, your map data will be lost. Download a PNG before clearing if you want to keep a record.

Tips and tricks

• Use the hover tooltip. On the countries map, hovering over a country shows its name and continent — useful if you are not sure which country you are looking at (the Balkans and the Caribbean can be hard to click precisely).
• Zoom in for small countries. Monaco, San Marino, Vatican City, Liechtenstein, Andorra, and the Caribbean islands are all clickable, but you may need to zoom in first.
• Use the “Clear all” button carefully. The red clear button in the top-right wipes your entire map (both visited and wishlist). It will ask you to confirm first.
• Check the blog for context. If you are not sure whether a country counts, or how many countries there are in the world, or what the EU vs. Schengen distinction is, the blog covers all of it in detail.

Frequently asked questions

Does it work on mobile?

Yes. All five tools work on phones and tablets. The maps support touch gestures: tap to select, pinch to zoom, drag to pan. The stats bar and navigation adapt to smaller screens automatically.

Do I need to install anything?

No. Everything runs in your browser. There is no app to download, no extension to install, and no account to create.

Can I undo a click?

Yes — just click the same country or state again to remove the mark. For pins, click the pin and choose “Remove.”

Is there a limit to how many countries or pins I can add?

No. You can mark all 195 countries, all 50 states, and as many city pins as you want. Local storage is generous for text data like this.

For a full list of questions and answers, see our FAQ page.