There are numerous benefits to keeping a travel journal. It’s one of the best ways to preserve memories of the places you visited and people you met, reflect and gain new insight about yourself and the world around you, and even inspire creativity.
So get yourself a personalized spiral bound book and use these tips to start.
Plan Writing Sessions
It’s easy to get distracted these days by not just work and personal obligations but also TikTok videos, podcasts, and endless TV shows. And there are a lot more distractions when traveling.
So planning your writing session is the first step to keeping a detailed travel journal.
Here’s how:
- Choose a time of day that works best for you to write. Maybe you’re sharp in the morning, or else a night owl
- Find a location that inspires you to write and helps you focus beforehand, whether that’s in your hotel room or a quiet local café
- Consider setting an alarm as a way to alert you when it’s time for your writing session as there’s a chance you’ll forget
- While there’s no need to plan exactly what you’ll write about each day, it’s a good idea to make a list of topics or prompts to help you get started
Use Specific Details
When it’s time to write, you want to be specific. Using specific details in your travel journal is how you’ll remember your experiences more vividly and bring them to life for others who may read your journal in the future.
Here’s how:
- Try to use sensory details to describe your experiences in your journal. What do you see, hear, smell, taste, and feel? For example, instead of writing “I went to a market,” write “I visited a vibrant, colorful market bursting with exotic aromas buzzing with activity.”
- Write descriptions of the people you meet, such as their appearance, and their demeanor
- Record interesting or memorable conversations you have with locals, other travelers, or even yourself
- Describe the activities you do while traveling, including the locations you visit, the food you eat, and any interesting cultural experiences
Include Visuals
Why not take things a step further and include visuals in your travel journal for a more immersive read?
Here’s how:
- Include sketches of the places you visit, the food you eat, and the people you meet. Even if you’re not an artist, simple sketches can be a great way to add visual interest to your journal
- Take photographs, print them out, and paste them into your journal under the corresponding notes, or on the back page
- Collect ephemera such as tickets, postcards, and brochures from the places you visit, and use stickers or washi tape to include them in your journal
- Add maps of the places you visit as a visual aid to help you remember where you went and what you did
- Use colored pens to add color and visual interest to your journal by highlighting different experiences or differentiating between different days
Recording your travels is one more way to keep your experiences alive. Luckily, you can easily keep a travel journal by planning writing sessions, using specific details when you write and adding visuals to further enhance your writing.
