How to Keep a Travel Journal

A travel journey can be a wonderful resource for keeping in touch with your feelings, recording your activities, storing photos and mementos, and collecting information to share with others about your trip.

Difficulty: Easy

Instructions

Things You'll Need:

• Calligraphy Pens
• Crayons
• Glue Sticks
• Tape
• Pencils
• Acid-free Papers
• Art Papers
• Ballpoint Pens
• Binders
• Colored Ink Pens
• Colored Pencils
• Construction Paper
• Felt-tip Pens
• Fountain Pens
• Mechanical Pencils
• Notebook Papers
• Pencils
• Tape
• Writing Papers
• Polaroid Cameras
• Cameras
• Pencils
• Tape
• Cameras
• Crayons

1. Consider purchasing a guide to journaling to carry with you on your trip; these books are filled with exercises and reflections from others who have kept a journal. This may inspire your writing along the way. If it becomes a burden, you can always pass it on to another traveler.

2. Remember that there are no set rules for keeping a journal, and give yourself permission to use your journal as you see fit. Don't let expectations about what a journal "should be" keep you from writing with spontaneity and freedom.

3. Consider numbering your entries, recording the name of the location where you are writing or making a sketch of your surroundings before each entry. This may ease the pressure of feeling you need to write every day.

4. Carry pencils, colored pens, crayons, glue stick, tape and watercolors, even if you don't consider yourself the "artistic type." Anticipate that your traveling may inspire you in ways you hadn't imagined.

5. Let locals, children you meet or new friends make entries or sketches in your journal (another good reason to bring those crayons along!).

6. Make lists of things that are part of your day-to-day travel experience. Some ideas might include: "what people eat on trains"; "what I'm carrying in my fanny pack"; "the kinds of pets people have here"; "what I wish I could steal from my hotel room."

7. Contemplate keeping a journal that is a collection of letters to a beloved friend or family member back home.

Tips & Warnings

• Think about carrying loose-leaf paper that you can then put in a three-ring binder when you return home. This will allow you not only to travel lighter, but also to arrange your entries with photographs you took along the way.

[ALTERNAtraveler]

on 10/4/2007 Great article! I enjoyed it so much that I linked it on my travel website. I plan on trying lots of these tips. =)

[Blurberati]

on 8/22/2007 Another great thing to do with your travel journal after you return from your trip is to turn it into a quality book with Blurb by scanning your journal, adding photos, and dropping it all into Blurb's free software. Then you can share it with friends and family, or simply have an archive of your trip with all of your content pulled together!

on 8/8/2006 I use a Canson 8 1/2" by 11" sketch book as my travel journal. A few weeks before I left for Greece I cut out Victorian pictures from magazines and "ephemera" of old luggage tags, airline labels, etc. I'd printed from the Internet along with Victorian type stickers from my scrapbook supplies. I applied Mod Podge decoupage glue (a few coats over a couple weeks) and let it dry thoroughly. I entitled my journal "Odysseys" to record my exotic travels in writing, "found" paper and sketches. I will be taking it with me to Israel and Jordan in a few weeks.

on 6/30/2006 I transfer my journal into the computer and try to remember to put hotel/restaurant names and addresses, food ordered and prices (etc.), along with all that we do so that I have the record for later. This is handy, as a friend going to the same area can have all the accumulated information. My friend, a travel agent, uses my notes all the time for her clients.

on 11/22/2005 To add thought to the cover, you could not only add pictures (and other flat items) to your plain journal, but after your done placing the pictures on the cover you can laminate the cover to protect your pictures from fingerprints.