Tips and Ideas for Successful Travel Journaling

When you travel, you feel alive. It feels like you’ve taken your awareness on a whole new level. You’re aware of the sights, scents, sounds, tastes and overall vibe of the place. You feel like you’ll never forget this experience.

But you will.

Memories tend to lose their vibrancy and intensity as time goes by. You’ll remember those days in Peru as the best time of your life, but you won’t remember everything. You might not remember that awesome small restaurant that serves peppers in endless variations of recipes.

That’s why travel journals are so important. They preserve your memories, so you can go back to them whenever you feel like it. When you open a complete journal years after the journey, you’ll feel like the trip was yesterday.

I’m not talking about a simple diary where you write about the way your day went. I’m talking about noting down strong impressions and creating a journal you’ll cherish for the rest of your life.

Let’s see how you can do that.

Writing a Great Travel Journal: Tips on How to Do It

1. First and Foremost, Understand What a Travel Journal Is

Samantha Olie, a writer for College-Paper, explains: “This can be a plain notebook where you write about feelings, thoughts, or experience. It can be an online journal through a platform like Penzu. The travel journal may also take the form of a blog, or even a YouTube vlog. It really depends on your choice. But the thing that makes it a travel journal is a daily practice of capturing memories.”

The journal doesn’t have to be limited to text. It’s even better if you include photos, drawings, or even videos if you maintain a digital journal.

So the first thing you need to do is decide on the format. Don’t underestimate simple notebooks, though. They can also include visuals. The good thing about paper is that you can pass it down to future generations. Just check what this traveler did with his Moleskine notebook. It’s absolutely amazing!

2. Write to Remember, Learn, and Reflect

If you want to stay motivated to write this journal while traveling, you should know why you’re writing it.

Alexandra Kims, a writer from Scholar Advisor, explains what the purpose of journaling is: “The most important reason why you write a journal is so that you can remember more. You capture your thoughts on all things you saw and experienced during the trip. But you also write the things you learned through observations, reading, and conversations with people. You simply reflect on your experiences.”

That’s it: remember, learn, reflect.

3. Write about Your Plans and Expectations

You can start writing the journal before you even start the trip. You’ll write what you plan to visit and what you expect to see.

If you’re like most people, you do your research before heading off to a new place. You want to see the most important sights, taste traditional food, and go where the best parties are. Your journal can help you capture these plans.

And if you’re not that good at planning, you can always get some help from the researchers and writers at Best Essays. They will help you craft a great plan, which will be the foundation for your trip.

4. Take Your Time to Write During the Trip

Yes; you’ll be busy. Yes; you’ll want to devote every moment to exploring. Whenever you get some time for rest, you’ll want to rest. So how do you fit journaling in all of this?

You can.

Don’t wait for the trip to be over for you to write about the things you remember. Write as you experience. Take your journal everywhere with you. If you’re writing on a digital platform, you can easily do it from your phone.

Whenever you’re visiting a city, monument, or anything else, sit there and take 10 minutes to write about the things you see and feel. Absorb your environment. That’s the best moment for expressing yourself.

5. Add Visuals

You’re not that good at drawing? Who cares? Draw a picture of the meal you ate today. It’s fun! You’ll add some color and life to your journal.

If that’s too much, then print out some photos from your phone or camera and add them in your journal. You can do this later on; just leave some blank space and write what photo you plan to stick there.

6. Capture Your Impressions After the Trip, Too

It’s important to capture the experiences while they last. But some thoughts and ideas take time to form. That’s why you’ll keep writing the journal even after the trip is over. Whenever you think about the trip, take your journal and write what you feel.

Maybe this journey will inspire you to develop good habits, start a business, or change your life from its very foundation.

Anyone Can Do It

You don’t have to worry too much about style and form. Journaling is a freestyle task. It’s not an academic assignment that would require you to hire a service like ScholarAdvisor. It’s personal writing, which you don’t even have to share.

Relax. You can do it. Just allow yourself to experience as much as possible during the trip, and write about it! 

Bio

Warren Fowler is a globetrotter, fitness enthusiast, and life-time learner. His job as a writer at A-Writer.com enables him to bounce from one country to another without making commitments. He just travels and writes, and then travels and writes some more.