Most of us have taken the clichéd and tacky tourist photos whether we like to admit it or not. April Fool’s Day was a few days ago with rampant pranks and practical jokes on the Internet. I was inspired to dig into the archives for some of our family’s fun, silly and lighthearted photos. Traveling with kids comes with challenges but laughter and silliness ease the travel experience. Sure, we do the standard, smiling photos but we also relish in cheesy, tacky photos that embrace our inner tourists. Perspectives can work wonders. We hope you enjoy highlights from our tacky tourist photos collection.
How about hanging on for dear life on a cliff? The kids enjoyed doing these photos and we’ve gotten a few stares and copycats but they’re fun to do. This was at Gulfoss in Iceland.
Bryce Canyon National Park was the perfect backdrop for this shot. My daughter likes to add in her expressions of mock fear.
Big rocks are always a hit with the family. Garden of the Gods in Colorado Springs gives the illusion of my family’s strength.
I’ve always adored these photos of my giant kids next to the Washington Monument in Washington, DC. 
Tacky tourist photos run in the family. My brother took this one of the Louvre pyramid last year.
You can only take so many pictures of attractions from various angles. We do the “let the kids hold” poses to change it up a bit. This classic Statue of Liberty photo made it into the National Park’s Junior Ranger CD inside cover last year. Sometimes, a cheesy photo has its rewards.
It was a bit hard to take the Great Buddha of Kamakura in Japan with people constantly at its base but this was the best we could do.
The Atomium in Brussels, Belgium is a structure of nine stainless steel spheres connected by inner tubes that was supposed to represent a unit cell’s shape enlarged to 165 billion times. The spheres contain public spaces and exhibits. It was closed by the time we got there but we sure had fun posing with the spheres. My favorite is the lower right one.
Sometimes, you need to find your own entertainment at art museums.
My husband can’t resist being crude with naked statues. His excuse is “they’re meant to be touched”. The left statue is from Tuileries Garden in Paris. The right photo is the bronze statue of Shakespeare’s Juliet in Munich. It was a gift from Verona, Italy and like its counterpart, touching its breast is supposed to give you luck in love.
Platform 9 ¾ at King’s Cross Station from the Harry Potter movies is a very popular place tourists seek out in London. This cart is always there for tourists to pretend they’re pushing it through the wall. There’s a store next to it and the staff will happily oblige to take your pictures for purchase along with your preferred scarf color. Or you can use your cameras too. My husband decided to take it to the next level.
My son doesn’t hesitate to do these drinking from fountains pictures.
We also love doing jumping shots everywhere we go. No child was harmed in this photo. They were supposed to do a tandem karate kick together and it wasn’t coordinated very well. But, this came out better.
When you’re in Salzburg, you can’t help but recreate scenes from the Sound of Music movie.
My kids love putting their heads into these wooden panel cutouts. We have a collection that probably deserves its own photo gallery.
We enjoy looking for opportunities for the perfect silly travel photo. It’s always amusing to watch other tourists do their poses and get some ideas from them. If you noticed, I’m not in any of these photos. I mostly do the photo taking because my family is more than happy to pose and be “creative”. We hope these photos made you smile and inspire you to do some fun shots on your next trips.
Have you taken cheesy tourist pictures? Please share them with us.
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Lovely :)
Thanks Lili!
I Love These! They are superb! This illustrates why you are so good at traveling with children, you know how to have fun! The fist pump and King’s Cross are my favorites, but really they are hard to choose. Your daughter has a great “scared” face! Really, Mary, Awesome!
Thanks Corinne! I’m glad you enjoyed them. We pack so much into each trip that we really need to loosen up once in awhile. the king’s Cross is one of my favorites too.
Awesome photos Mary, not tacky at all! I love the one of the Louvre and also the Statue of Liberty. What fun. I’m going to think up a few now for our trip around Europe.
I had a really good chuckle at your tacky tourist photo collection, they’re very entertaining! Why not have some fun with your photos when travelling with the kids? I’ll be the first to admit that I ohhh and ahhh over the perfect postcard shots that I see on most travel blogs, but even if you take tacky tourist photos for your own private collection, at least you’ll have a good laugh when reliving the memories later on :-)
I have always liked that jump shot of yours from Grand Teton NP. Your family is so funny. The cliff hanger pics are great. My kids are so much more cooperative with the tacky tourist photos than the ones I try to get for Christmas cards.
Thanks Michele! My kids are so cooperative too and ask to do the funny poses after the obligatory cutesy photos for the Christmas card. I’d love to see your tacky tourist photos. I’m sure you have some great ones too.
These are great photos and you can see everybody is having a great time!
One thing is for sure: every tacky photo has a fun story behind it!
Oh yes..every tacky photo has a story behind it :) Thank goodness we don’t have to bribe the kids to do them.
These are really fun photos! Love the kids in the green tunnel.
Thanks Sophie! The green tunnel one made it into our Christmas card collage last year.
i have a soft spot for the stick-your-head-in-the-scene shots, too.
Aren’t those fun? I never knew what to call them but I like your description better.
I look forward to your cheesy photos. I love them. I have many favourites in this selection. The kids jumping in the arbor in Salzburg. (How hard to get them both at the same time). The kids pointing to the Monument is really good. Wow, that is a great karate kick your husband has. Shows how fit he is (feeling shame, lol).
Thanks Jan! The Monument one took a bit of coordination but glad it worked out. My husband was channeling his inner Bruce Lee in that shot.
What a great collection of photos! They all must bring back such great memories I believe. Which was is your favourite? I would definitely go for the one taken in Paris, France. You know why? I took the same one 4 years ago!!! :D
Thanks Agness! I knew you’d appreciate these shots. My favorite ones are the Washington Monument, Platform 9 3/4, and the karate kick. I can’t take credit for the Louvre one- I wish I had thought of that when we were in Paris. I hope your Louvre shot makes it to a post one of these days.
Oh my gosh. I LOVE these! Just showed my husband the one of your hubby jumping at PLatform 9 3/4 and told him I totally want a photo like this too! Next time we are in London it is a GO!!!!!
Thanks Keryn! I hope you get to take a picture like this of your hubby. The kids wanted to do it too but it didn’t come out right and there was a long line behind us.
Hi Mary, Love love your silly photos! They brought big smile on my face. My favorite are the photos of the kids looking like giants next to Washington Monument. Those “touching” photos of your husband is so so hilarious. You guys are fun!
Thanks Marisol! We try to inject some fun into every attraction shot. It’s fun to look back at the photos.
All of your gag photos are fun but I really liked the “cliff hanger” ones that actually looked pretty real! :)
Thank you Pat! Those are my kids’ favorite shots.
What a great post for April Fool’s! Love these photos.
Thanks Alma!
This made me smile! I love the one of the Louvre…..Great idea for April Fool’s, too!
Glad it made you smile, Molly. I hope this inspired you to do one for next year.
I love your cheesy tourist photos, they show what fun you have on your travels. I love the 2 falling off cliffs and the holding things up series. We do this sometimes, but not as often as we should. I’m going to do it more from now on, you’ve inspired me, starting with Iceland this sumeer!
Thanks Phoebe! I’m glad it inspired you. You’ll love Iceland and I wish I was going there with you.
fabulous photos! It looks like you have LOTS of fun when you travel with your kids. Great memories in these shots. Love them!
Happy travels and have a great fun filled weekend.
Thanks Jill! A sense of humor and a lot of patience can go a long way when traveling with kids.
What a fun way to start my morning! These are wonderful.Your sense of humor and creativity really show through. My favs: Bryce Canyon (made my heart skip a beat) and your husband with the naked stautes! I want to travel with you!
Thanks Lori! My husband is a goofball so he enjoys doing these poses. The Bryce Canyon shot is one of my kids’ favorite.
Love these pics Mary! You guys look like you have so much fun when you travel:)
Thanks Dana! My kids love doing those hanging photos. We need to go back to the Grand Canyon to do one. I hope you do a Jave funny poses post one of these days.
Glad you liked them, Sonja. I hope your teens participate in the photos too.
Love these! New follower bloglovin!
Looks like you’ve got the tacky photo market covered. I love them especially the ones with your husband being silly. This post made me smile Mary.
Oh yeah, we have the Sound of Music shots, the Mouth of Truth shot (cribbed from the movie Roman Holiday) and my favourite – the reenactment of the Second Defenestration in Prague. No tourist photo is ever too tacky!
http://ofmusesandmeringues.blogspot.ca/2013/11/thursdays-child-prague-castle.html
Very funny photos!!! I haven’t tried taking one of my hanging from a cliff, maybe next time haahah :D
I actually think these look quite cool. you can get away with cheesy holiday pics if children are involved! I loved the statue fist pump.
They may be cheesy but what great memories! It looks like you are having fun in all of them and that’s what travelling should be about, enjoying yourselves. :)
You’ve got to love the cheesy pictures! I’ll have to link this post in my kids and photos post so I can steal a few of your ideas :)
Oh I love them! they may be tacky, but personally I think they’re more fun than the posed fake smiles ones! Too bad I can’t get my boyfriend (who I travel with) to participate in tacky pictures… sigh
Quite tacky indeed Mary!
Shows that the kids are having loads of fun, superb memories for the years to come!!
Have a lovely Sunday :)
I recognise that Juliet! What a great collection of pics! :D
Maybe tacky, Mary, but many of those photos are awesome if you ask me. Maybe it goes with the fact that I always try to take “tacky” tourist photos, and never succeed. One in the Bryce Canyon National Park, Louvre pyramid, your son drinking from the fountain are my favorite. Good job!
Tacky, yet great memories for the family and the kids. Those images will stick in their minds so much longer with the fun involved!
This post put a real smile on my face. Thank you!
Love these photos. It must take a great imagination and a good sense of humour to get so many of the poses right.
What fantastic photos! There is nothing wrong with cheesy tourist photos once in a while. My brother and I used to do the whole hanging off a cliff thing on our holidays. Although one year we planned it without our parents – we stood next to a reservoir with our parents walking towards us. We pretended to fall backwards but actually landed on a lower tier of the walkway. We threw a large brick into the water as we ‘fell’ to create the splash. I’ve never seen my mum move so fast!!
HEE HEE HEE This is awesome!
HEE HEE HEE These are awesome! We always take photos like this too I think its fun and the kids love it! Travel should be fun which is dsigned by each traveler! Love this and love your photos! :)
Hahahahaa I was giggling throughout this – love the ones at the canyon. They do indeed look scared – until you look and can see them smirking. We try to do these photos – they never, never work out and we quit. Great memories. Big thanks for linking up with us to #SundayTraveler again.
Hahaha this was such a fun post! I’m guilty of taking cheesy pictures all the time. My friends think I’m all sorts of silly. Thanks for linking up with #SundayTraveler again!
I love these photos! It just shows how much fun you’re all having on your holidays :)
These are HILARIOUS! I love all of them! The falling off the cliff photos actually look terrifying! I also giggled at the bum and boob grabbing ones :) Having fun with silly photos on your travels is great!
Love this post so much! Your kids are adorable, and the pictures are so fun and never boring!
Your collection is great! It definitely shows how much fun you all have traveling together. Looks like your son might be taking after Dad in the statue grabbing department! :) Thanks for linking up to Travel Photo Thursday this week.
So cute Mary! As much as I have loved playing “photographer” with landscapes as I try to learn how to use my DSLR, these types of photos are always the ones that make me laugh when I look back.
I loved EVERY part of this post. We don’t really do these types of photos, but I appreciate them very much. =)
I LOVE taking tacky tourist photos! They are so much more fun than just smiling in front of something (not to discredit the joys of selfies from around the world). Though, I’m also the person who likes to pull stupid faces and “ruin” group photos. :P
These are so fun. We travel a lot and with 3 kids I should starting making more memorable pictures. Thanks for the inspiration!
Tacky tourist photos are still fun even if you don’t consider yourself just a “tourist.” I love taking these and you’ve got a great collection! Thanks for linking up to the #SundayTraveler!
I just remember my childhood on how my father always bring me to his travels.
These are so cute! Great collection.
I love these tacky tourist photos, Mary. And those “hanging on the edge of the cliff” are totally rad! Indeed, a smart way to tone down usual touristy photos!
Cheesy, yes. Fun, a resounding YES! As travelers ourselves, we always try to keep it fun, and it looks like you and your family do that well. This captures family travel at it’s best. Happy Holidays, Andrew
Oh my gosh Mary, I’m SO glad to see that someone else’s husband does those “hand on the bum” poses! Haha. You have a beautiful family that obviously loves to have fun! We had a funny picture of my son when he was about 6 months passed out in the grass in Carrowmore Megalithic Cemetary in Ireland. He refused to sit up so it looked like he was doing a “snow angel” in the grass.