Best World Map with Pins for Travellers at Home

As travellers, we're always seeking to bring a slice of our adventures, experiences, and ultimately our memories home.  We do it by collecting things like magnets and pins, and we also trinkets small  and large to display proudly at home.  One way of bringing the world home is by putting up a large world map with pins as a great way to visualize everywhere that you've been and everywhere that you still want to go.

While you'd think that there are many options out there, they're more elusive than you think.  To make your choice easier, I've organized the top world map with pins products out on the market today.

Why pins?  You might be wondering why pins specifically?  Yes, I recognize that there are regular maps that you can purchase and the ones that you can scratch off as you travel.  These are a fun way to start but I think ultimately they're not the display piece you ultimately want to display at home. 

With regular maps, you can't pin anything on it unless you're fine with a cluster of holes on your wall.  With the Scratch the World Travel Map, it's actually more difficult to scratch the map cleanly and you're kind of limited to scratching out countries as opposed to marking somewhere specific or perhaps marking places differently based on where you've been and where you want to go.

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Top 9 World Map with Pins You Can Buy

The two best market places to find these are either in a commercial market place such as Amazon or in the artisan space of Etsy.  I'll provide examples of high quality products from both sides and a few others vendors that are a bit more difficult to find.

#1 Pin Adventure Map

If you're looking for a high-quality, detailed, framed map, look no further than Pin Adventure Map. I recently upgraded from my old Palomar Pin World (see below) to this one in my home office and I am impressed with how well-built and designed this world map with pins is. It looks absolutely stunning.

The specific one that we have is the Framed World Map with Push Pins in Glacier with a Wedgewood French Cottage frame. That said, there are so many different designs to choose from.

First, let's talk about the map quality itself. I am blown away by how high of a resolution this print it. As you run your fingers through the map, it's completely smooth and even when you put your nose right up to it, you don't see any ink dot-type pixellation.

Make no mistake, this is a geographically accurate and up-to-date world political map that was designed in partnership with a professional cartographer. I love how it not only marks countries, states, capitals, and major cities, they also highlight lakes, rivers, tallest mountains, and even special locations such as Challenger Deep. You'll also find accurate mapping of the ocean depth.

Next, you'll find the Glacier model to be just visually stunning especially after you start pinning locations with the coloured push pins that are included. It adds another dimension to the artwork, and there's something about that hue of the ocean blue against the grey and white that looks so modern and slick. I also love the Wedegwood French Cottage frame that I picked which adds a rustic and textured feel to it and has its own blue threaded into the wood.

You'll notice as well that I've been able to customize the map. This is part of their personalization service. You can ask them to use one of their preset designs but if you have a special request, don't hesitate to ask. That's how I was able to get the Going Awesome Places logo on there!

Lastly, the ordering process was a cinch. Pin Adventures‘ customer service is friendly and swift. I also loved how they provided previews of the map for approval before printing it.

Pin Adventure Map is a member of 1% For The Planet Movement.

TIP: Even at the 40″ x 53″ (100 cm x 135 cm) size, it is incredibly light and since it only comes with two hanging brackets on either end, tie a metal wire in between them so all you have to do is use one of these nifty picture frame hangers on your wall. It can definitely support its weight.

#2 Water Colour Hand Drawn World Map

This is a beautiful printing of a hand-drawn rendition of the world map that has a gentle water color quality to it.  Printed on smooth matte paper and mounted onto a thick cork backing, this is the kind of world map with pin that you'd be proud to display at home.  You can either frame them or hang them as they are.

These are handmade from Montreal, Canada by the Etsy vendor BalticClub.  The also come with 50 black pins and a few colored ones.

#3 Palomar PinWorld (now called DearWorld)

This one is elusively difficult to buy especially in North America.  I ended up purchasing this in the Netherlands in one of those fun art gallery stores that you can find in Europe.

The Palomar PinWorld (now rebranded to Palomar DearWorld) is designed specifically to be a wall map diary.  When I saw this tag-line, I knew immediately that this was the one I was looking for.  This is a screen-printed map on coloured felt.  It has a simple and modern aesthetic that I know many of you will like.

I have this mounted with double-sided tape in my office and have since purchased additional pins as well.  I love the look of this map because they use a felt material instead of cork which gives it a different look.  I also love Palomar's custom pins which actually resemble destination pin markers that you find on say, Google Maps, and other mapping tools.

They have many authorized resellers around the world but chances are you're not close to one.  Your best bet is to pick this up from a reseller on Amazon.   Another store that sells this is A Touch of Modern.  You can also search for the term “Palomar – Pin World Map” for more targeted results.

For additional pins, I oddly had luck at a local art store so definitely search around.

#4 Customizable Canvas World Map

The beauty with purchasing from vendors from Etsy is that you have much more customization and personalization options than if you were to buy it from a store.  This product is by CanvasVows and they offer a canvas-based world map with pins.  While the base map remains the same, you have the opportunity to change:

• Text that appears on the map (names and/or quotes)
• Background color
• Map type – world or country
• Push pin colors

The product comes with 100 pins and is ready to mount.  They also create two digital proofs for approval.

#5 Framed Push Pin Travel Maps Canvas

If you're looking for a framed look, this is an excellent option to give it that polished look in whichever room you decide to hang this in.  This takes advantage of the canvas print but takes it to the next step of mounting it in a wooden frame.  Another thing to pay attention to this map is that it is a more accurate and detailed map compared to the others.  Where others aren't very detailed, this is one that looks to be straight from the atlas

Despite this being a product sold on Amazon, they also offer customization options.  You can choose what type of wood frame you want and you can design the map with an option pin legend and personalized text.

The map comes with 100 push pins (a mix of red, white, and black).   It also comes with wire hanging kit so it is wall-ready

#6 World Map Cork Board Kit

If you're looking for a more comprehensive kit, this cork board world map with pins is an excellent choice.  From a style perspective simple with a screen-printed map on a cork board but what I like about it is that it's framed so it's easy to mount on the wall and it comes with a collection of custom pins that allows you to tell your own story when it comes to your world map diary of your travels.  There are 3 packs of flags that you stick around metal pins – one for flags, a second one for monuments, and another foods of the world.

The World Map Cork Board Kit comes in either black or white and two large-format sizes.  The pin kit includes 194 different country flags with 100 sticks, 64 food stickers, and double-sided tape hangers for an easy installation.

#7 Burlap World Map with Mini Pins

Looking for something a little bit smaller or perhaps use at a wedding?  This cute framed, world map printed on burlap is an awesome way to highlight all of the places you've been to around the world.

The barnwood frame is naturally weathered and enhances the rustic feel of the push pin travel map.

The world map is mounted on 1/4″ cork and is ready to hang on your wall.  It also comes with 50 red small push pins.

You can get a 15% off coupon if you sign up to their mailing list.

#8 Wooden World Map

For the last one in this list of world maps with pins, I present to you a map that's not constrained to paper.  This world map is constructed by wood and creates a 3D jigsaw of countries where you can insert your own airplane pins for all the places that you've been.

If you're looking for a travel statement piece at home, this is it.  This vendor on Etsy makes this completely out of birchwood plywood and is so serious about it that they even have a patent for its design.

Depending on where you want to put this in the house or office, you'll have plenty of sizes to choose from including your choice of a map without names and borders, capitals identified or without.

At first, I thought there'd be no ways that pins could be involved but due to the softness of the wood, they're actually designed with them in mind.  That's why you can order these with your choice of either 30 airplanes, 60 airplanes, or country flag pins.  Double-sided tape is included to help mount the wooden map onto your wall.

If you're interested in buying this wooden world map, make sure to sign up to their mailing list to get a 15% off coupon.

#9 Peel Off World Map

We've all seen the scratch off world maps and the reason why I haven't included any so far in this list is because they don't have come with any pins.

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I've added this one by BoldTuesday as a bonus feature because I really love the minimalistic look to this world map and the fact that it's a peel off vinyl sticker which is so much easier (and much cleaner).

To turn this into a map with pins, all you have to do is get a little creative and pick up one of these map pointer vinyl stickers which will most certainly pop from the black.

Tips on pinning your world map

These are my top 5 tips for pinning your map based on my experience with the Palomar PinWorld and Pin Adventure Map.

1. Think carefully about where you want to mount/hang your world map
2. Before you start, have a plan for how you want to pin the map – Will you have a different pin colour to identify which family member has been where?  Will you differentiate between where you have been and where you want to go? Will you mark cities, or just countries?
3. For the maps with materials where pins are more permanent, make sure you pin carefully
4. Stay up to date!  It's easy to forget to do this once it's up on the wall.  Every once in awhile, find out where you're able to add more pins
5. Get creative with your map.  You'll be using a ton of push pins but what about using other types of pins or perhaps creating something on your own?

Looking for more pins?

The more you travel, the faster you'll run out of pins.  When that happens, you'll want to have these handy links ready so you can stock up.

• 100 Assorted colours round push pins  – These are the AmazonBasics versions that come in a pack of 100
• 600 assorted push pins – Best value price out of this entire lot
• 100 matte round push pins – The standard round push pins that comes in multiple colors
• 300 map push pins – The same style of pins but just more quantity and you can pick any 3 colors you want
• Metal airplane push pins – These are from the wooden world maps but could be used for any map
• Metallic bead head push pins – For a more glam look to your pins, you can grab this pack of 800 that will be sure to last you awhile
• Gold push pins – Add a splash of gold to your maps

Frequently asked questions

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I'd love to hear about your experiences with world maps with pins.  Have you find a different one not on this list that you're really happy with? How have you creatively set them up?  Leave a comment below to share.