The reference box
What Little Passports costs and includes
Little Passports runs six monthly lines sorted by age. This comparison centers on World Adventures, the geography line for ages 6 to 10. Each month a new country arrives with a project to build, a travel journal, stickers, and a coin for the collection. The line visits 12 countries, from Brazil and Japan to South Africa and Argentina, and Little Passports suggests moving to Science Expeditions after the 12th.
- Contents
- World Adventures starts with a poster-sized world map, a passport, a macaw mobile to build, a 22-page journal, and a coin display board. Later boxes bring a hands-on project, a new journal, stickers, and a country coin.
- The lines
- Early Explorers (ages 3–5), Animals Wild (4–6), Science Junior (5–8), World Adventures (6–10), Kitchen Adventures (7+), and Science Expeditions (8+).
- Price and billing
- $32 a month on the monthly plan, $27 a month on six months, and $25 a month on 12, the longer plans paid up front. Kitchen Adventures costs $37 a month. Plans renew automatically, and you can cancel renewal anytime.
- Delivery
- Monthly. Free in the contiguous US. The first package ships within two business days.
- On Cratejoy
- No. Little Passports sells direct at littlepassports.com, and none of the boxes below are Little Passports products.
Compare the boxes
| Box | Best fit | Cost and commitment | Delivery |
|---|---|---|---|
| Little Passports World Adventures Reference box |
A new country a month, ages 6–10 | $32 a month, $25 a month on a 12-month plan. | Monthly. Free in the contiguous US. |
| Finders Seekers Junior Explorers | World cultures as a mystery to solve, ages 5–10+ | $30 a box month to month. | Ships the 23rd for orders placed by the 21st. |
| KiwiCo Atlas Crate | Two builds from a new country each month, ages 6–12 | KiwiCo says plans start at $24 a month for most lines. Cancel anytime. | Monthly. Free US shipping. Sold direct, not on Cratejoy. |
| Backpack The World | Older kids and young teens, ages 9–15 | About $36 a box month to month. | First kit ships 3–5 days after ordering, then every 30 days. |
| Snail Mail for Kids | Weekly letters for ages 3–8 | $20 a month, prepaid three months at a time. $15 a month on 12. | A letter every week, starting within a week of ordering. |
| Mysteries in Time | A new period of history, ages 6–11 | $30 a box month to month. | Monthly, shipped from the UK with tracking. |
| BāKIT Box Bake & Explore | Families who want to bake the country | $90 a quarter for three baking kits, about $30 a kit. | Every three months. First box ships within 3 business days. |
The five Cratejoy boxes also sell longer prepaid plans that lower the price per box.
The alternatives
Closest match to World Adventures
Finders Seekers Junior Explorers vs Little Passports
Best for: A 5- to 10-year-old who likes puzzles as much as maps.
Finders Seekers Junior Explorers turns each box into a kid-sized escape room. Each case takes your kid into a world culture, with natural wonders to examine and art to make along the way, and the puzzles pull in science, technology, engineering, art, and math. The seller has six years on Cratejoy.
What feels familiar
Somewhere new every month, hands-on activities, and a story to follow. The 5–10+ age band covers World Adventures’ 6–10 with room on both ends.
What changes
The month has a mystery to crack, so it plays more like a game than a travel journal. There’s no passport, coin, or map to fill in as you go.
A build from every country
KiwiCo Atlas Crate vs Little Passports
Best for: The kid whose favorite part of the box is making something, ages 6 to 12.
KiwiCo Atlas Crate goes to a new country every month with two STEAM projects, a collectible pin, and customs, history, and recipes to explore. KiwiCo’s examples include a hanging sloth and a mini soccer game for Brazil and a carp windsock for Japan. Atlas Crate isn’t sold on Cratejoy, so the link goes to KiwiCo’s own site.
What feels familiar
One country per box, a keepsake to collect in place of the coin, and free US shipping.
What changes
Two projects instead of one, and an age band that runs two years past World Adventures, so a 12-year-old still fits. KiwiCo doesn’t list an Atlas-only price before checkout.
For kids who have outgrown World Adventures
Backpack The World vs Little Passports
Best for: A 9- to 15-year-old who finished the 12 World Adventures countries and still wants more.
Backpack The World follows Nate and his golden doodle, Zeus, to a new country each month, with 19 countries in the rotation. Each kit has a six-page newsletter on the country’s culture, geography, politics, business, and sports, plus a recipe, maps, country vocabulary, currency conversion, and a craft or product from the country.
What feels familiar
A guide to follow from country to country and somewhere to keep it all, a backpack here instead of a suitcase.
What changes
More reading and less building, pitched at older kids. The listing doesn’t state a shipping cost.
Ages 3 to 8, mail every week
Snail Mail for Kids vs Little Passports
Best for: A preschooler or early reader who runs to the mailbox.
Sunny the Mail Snail travels the world and writes about it. The subscription starts with a plush Sunny, then sends a personalized letter every week with stickers, bookmarks, tattoos, trading cards, and secret codes, plus a map to track where Sunny has been. It covers ages 3 to 8.
What feels familiar
Letters from a traveling friend and a map to follow, the way Early Explorers opens with a letter from its pen pals.
What changes
About four small letters a month instead of one box, and nothing to build. It’s a better match for a kid who likes being read to than for one who wants a craft.
History instead of geography
Mysteries in Time vs Little Passports
Best for: The kid who keeps asking what life was like long ago, ages 6 to 11.
The History Activity Adventure Pack from Mysteries in Time lands on a new period of history each month, with fiction, nonfiction, and puzzles that mix history with reading and geography. Mysteries in Time is a UK seller with four years on Cratejoy.
What feels familiar
Each month is a trip somewhere your kid has never been, with a story wrapped around the facts.
What changes
The trip runs through time instead of across the map, and the box leans toward reading and puzzles over crafts.
Cooking with the ingredients included
BāKIT Box Bake & Explore vs Little Passports
Best for: A family that would rather bake the country than read about it.
Every three months, the Bake & Explore Bundle sends three baking kits with the ingredients pre-measured, step-by-step guides, and STEM activities tied to each recipe. The recipes draw on flavors from around the world.
What feels familiar
Food as the way into another culture, the idea behind Little Passports’ Kitchen Adventures line.
What changes
The ingredients come in the box, which Kitchen Adventures doesn’t include. It ships quarterly, not monthly, and the listing gives no age range.
The honest part
When Little Passports is still the better fit
Keep Little Passports if you want one company from preschool through the grade-school years. Early Explorers leads into World Adventures, and World Adventures leads into Science Expeditions, so a 3-year-old can stay with the same brand for years. None of the boxes here covers that whole span.
Keep it, too, if the collection is the point. The passport, the coin board, and the suitcase on longer plans give a kid something to fill in month after month. Nothing on this list keeps score quite like that.
How we chose these boxes
We started from the reasons families look past Little Passports: a kid who has aged out of World Adventures, a preschooler, a wish for more building or a different subject, and a budget or plan length that doesn’t fit. Then we looked through Cratejoy’s kids’ geography, culture, and educational boxes, kept the ones with a working buy button, and chose one for each of those reasons. Several geography boxes on Cratejoy were left out because their listings have wrapped up. We added KiwiCo’s Atlas Crate because it’s the closest build-first geography box we found. The photo at the top is Little Passports’ own product image of its Early Explorers welcome kit.
Questions before switching
Which alternative is closest to Little Passports?
For World Adventures, Finders Seekers Junior Explorers is the closest on Cratejoy: a new world culture each month for ages 5 to 10 and up, told as a mystery. KiwiCo Atlas Crate is the closest outside Cratejoy if your kid would rather build.
What comes after World Adventures?
World Adventures visits 12 countries, and Little Passports suggests Science Expeditions next. For a kid who wants to keep traveling, Backpack The World covers 19 countries for ages 9 to 15.
Is there a Little Passports alternative for preschoolers?
Snail Mail for Kids is made for ages 3 to 8, with a plush snail and a weekly letter about Sunny’s travels. Finders Seekers Junior Explorers starts at age 5.
What about Little Passports’ science lines?
For Science Junior or Science Expeditions, look at hands-on science boxes. Green Kid Crafts sends science and craft activities for ages 5 to 10 and up, and our KiwiCo alternatives guide compares more science and maker boxes.
Can I send one of these as a gift?
Yes. The five Cratejoy boxes here each offer a Give as a Gift option on their listing. Little Passports and KiwiCo both sell gift subscriptions on their own sites, and Little Passports adds a gift message to the first package.
