Travel journalling appeals to a variety of travellers; whether you’re a solo woman, family group or pushed-for-time business traveller, the idea of recording what you saw or ate, where you stayed or visited, is appealing. It can be a record of your memories, adventures and personal discoveries made along the way, which can be kept and treasured for years to come. So instead of just taking happy snavi, why not add journaling to collect your travel memories?
A travel journal is your space
to create notes of your unique travel experiences. It is a record of your adventures, memories and personal discoveries, and can enhance your overall experience and provide a keepsake of your trip. In years to come, your travel journal could be a reliable source of special details to share with family and friends or can help plan another trip.
When travelling, you’re exposed to different cultures, amazing landscapes and exotic food, but you are also on your own journey of discovery and growth. The experiences you have can offer new perspectives, ideas and alternative lifestyles. As you become pushed out of your comfort zone, travel can open up your mind and offer new perspectives on life that you may want to recall in your journal.
Different Types of Travel Journals
Whatever type of traveller you are, you’re sure to find a travel journal that suits your style. It could be either a hard-copy notebook or electronic version, recorded in an app. There is no correct way to journal, the important thing is to find what works for you!
Hard-copy journals come in different forms; some are simple notebooks with lined pages, while others are complete with lined and dotted pages, global maps and even stickers. A hard copy journal may allow you to escape the distractions of your phone – who says pen and paper are dead and gone!
Hard copy travel journals
- The Voyager Refillable Notebook is an all-round winner because of its versatility for writing, drawing and sketching – it contains lined, dotted and blank pages, plus handy pockets.
- The Rocketbook Smart Reusable Notebook is a smart journal that uses QR codes to store your entries securely in an app, pages are dotted and it comes in a range of different sizes.
- The Letterfolk Trip Passport Journal is a compact option for those short on space and writing time! There are many versions that each have a different trip theme.
- The Mark and Graham Leatherbound World Travel Journal is a traditional style, tome-like notebook that comes with many full-colour maps. While the leather-binding keeps your words protected, 320 pages might make this a little on the heavy side.
- The Promptly Travel Journal contains questions and prompts to help you remember all your trip details, which is handy for those who don’t know where to start.
Travel Journaling Apps
These days, there are some e-journaling options for you to record your trip. If you like the idea of having everything stored in a central location or aren’t one for writing down reems of words, you may find a computer, tablet or smartphone is the best way to journal.
Here are some of the top journaling apps;
- The Penzu Travel Journal app allows you to write in, and access your journal, with or without Wi-Fi. It creates posts in categories, connected to locations, as a private diary.
- The Day One Journal app has a Twitter-like interface and connects with your phone or laptop functionalities to collect memories, pictures and locations.
- The Tripcast app is a travel journal that uploads your pictures onto a map while you travel, which can be shared with friends and family in a private feed and also create albums to share with other app users.
- The Esplorio app is one of the best travel apps to share your trip with family and friends. It allows you to map out routes and automatically checks the places you visit using pictures to create a journal.
- The Bonjournal app is great for sharing pictures without Wi-fi, set up your photos offline, create private posts and tags on social media. You can also print out your travel diary for those who don’t have a smartphone.
How to get started with Travel Journaling
If you aren’t already in a regular writing routine before you go away, you might not know where to begin. A good way to get started is to set some clear intentions for journaling.
If you want to do it once a day, choose a time that works best. For example, if you’re a morning person, you can dedicate that time to set up a journaling habit, but if your more of a night owl, you may choose to write as the sun goes down, in the afternoon or evening.
You may wish to set up a reminder on your phone to help get started on your new routine. The key is to keep your expectations realistic to create a regular writing routine – there’s no right or wrong way to journal.
Here are a few ides to get your creative juices flowing:
- Describe what connected with you; the places you visited, stayed, who you met or what you ate
- Use journal prompts to structure your writing
- Get creative and use photos, voice recordings or reels to document your trip
- Develop your itinerary and plan ahead
- Let go of judgments and find a journaling style that works for you
Mindful Travel Journaling
A way that you can increase your peace and focus in each full travel day, is by making mindfulness part of your travel journaling. Mindfulness is about creating awareness and intention around your activities, while travelling and writing.
You can be thankful for the experiences you have and people you met, by recalling them with gratitude, and may wish to include a gratitude element to prompt your journaling.
Brainstorm single words that may help you reflect on your experiences and increase awareness around what happened. You may come across events, people or places that require more journaling than others. Be open to what you need to express in your journaling and you will get a lot out of it, including memories to reflect back on in years to come.
As you travel and learn about the wide world around you, your trip can become a rich internal adventure as much as an external one.