While at Home, Let’s Color the World

The Times’s Travel part is tasked with bringing you the world. But with the world on pause, we’re inviting you to discover far-flung locations via one other, extra interactive medium: coloring pages, impressed by a few of our favourite journey images.

Coloring books — for youngsters and adults alike — have emerged with a brand new zeitgeist as an unbreakable, noiseless and screen-free indoor activity; AdAge named them one of the key creative trends to emerge from the pandemic.

“Coloring books have been shown to reduce stress and anxiety while promoting relaxation as they help users remain present and focused, said Martha Dorn, the executive director of The Art Therapy Project, a nonprofit based in New York City. “Repetitive strokes provide temporary relief from life stressors, and the focus required to color can keep negative emotions away.”

Many hotels and other travel companies have jumped into the coloring-book game through downloadable, print-at-home pages: one effort to keep would-be guests engaged during a period of stay-at-home orders and border closures.

One&Only’s coloring books are inspired by its resorts in Australia’s Wolgan Valley (images include wombats, kangaroos) and in Los Cabos, Mexico (sea turtles, sharks). Xanterra Travel Collection, which operates Yellowstone National Park and several other parks in the United States, is transporting humpback whales and bighorn sheep to family rooms across the country.

The Leading Hotels of the World, a collection of independent luxury hotels and resorts, teamed with the Delaware-based artist Dallas Shaw to depict sketches of bucket-list stays like the Grand Hotel Fasano in northern Italy. And Elizabeth Sutton, an artist based in New York City, turned St. Bart’s, Aspen and other jet-setter destinations into a coloring book for Embark Beyond, a luxury travel agency.

Now it’s your turn to escape, by putting your creative spin on some of our best travel photography from Zadar, Croatia, to Santo Domingo in the Dominican Republic. Download, print and share the results on Instagram, by tagging @nytimestravel to have your work featured.