A travel journal is a notebook in which you can write everything about the places you have been to. It’s something full of your memories, itineraries, pictures, adventures, and stories. You can even have a digital one, but the classic little notebooks are unique.
Traveling, for most people, is really fulfilling. It allows you to see different cultures, new experiences, find new ideas. Overall, you grow as a person while traveling. Depending on how far away from home you are, you are stepping out of your comforat zone. You are pushed to learn new things and understand the world you are in.
One way of making sure you make the most of your visits is by writing in a travel journal. By keeping a diary, you can remember all of your cherished memories.
Besides the fun part about it, I mean looking at it a few years later and remembering all of your adventures, it can be something very useful as it is.
What do you put in a travel journal?
1. Use It To Plan Your Trip
The fun can begin even before you start the trip.
Your journal could hold all the information that you need before a trip. Write down a bucket list. It can be about a museum you want to go to, a cool coffee shop with extravagant drinks, a rooftop where you want to eat.
The options are limitless. Doing this will help you create a program for the trip and keep you focused and excited by it.
2. Write Down Your Expectations
Think about what you think it will be like before you get there.
Think about how the food will be, your comfort with the language, the aesthetic of the architecture, the people.
It could be a very fun activity to compare the before and after expectations and your trip’s reality.
3. Write What You Experience During Your Trip
The easiest way to remember things is when they are fresh in your head. That is why you should write the details of your experience before you leave there.
You don’t have to put down on paper everything, but you can describe your favorite things, the food, the way people dress, the way they talk, maybe you talked to a stranger and learned something new or heard a story from them. The best part is that all that is happening is new.
4. Take Some Pictures And Put Them In Your Journal
A picture is worth a million words.
Even though you can narrate everything that happened to you there, nothing compares to a visual picture.
Seeing what was it is also important for the people you want to share your journal too. You may remember your outfit and the atmosphere, but a friend doesn’t, so it would be entertaining for them too, to be able to see what was there.
5. Write About Your Time There When You Get Home
Because you wrote about your experience before it even happened, the nice part is that now you can compare everything by also putting down what actually happened.
Tell your opinion about the culture, their traditional food, the way they dress, their most beautiful places and maybe what was not that beautiful, as those details are important too.
Since you wrote all about the main parts, you can also try a different method by being even more precise and take your time on each aspect:
6. Why do you want to go there?
You can have a million reasons why you want to go there, or you can have no reason at all.
People like to travel for relaxation, seeing a movie, visiting a friend, searching for something new like a hobby. Traveling is something really subjective and doesn’t have rules.
7. Write Down Your Itinerary
Being organized is a way of living, so why not take it on vacation? You can search for all the places you want to go to, mostly if it’s a cultural trip and you have a lot of museums to get to.
You can be as exact as you want to, even write the number and the name of your tour guides if that is the case.
Your itinerary shouldn’t be something that is stressing you out, just something that will help you have a clear mind of what you can do.
8. Write About The People
Did you make any new friends?
Did you meet any interesting people? How were the locals? Have you learned anything new about the culture? The people are most times the best part about a trip. Yes, the views can be amazing, but the people make it better.
9. Write About The Food
It doesn’t really matter if you are a gourmand or not, the food is a really important part of every trip if you want to experience and understand their culture.
You can learn about their history while eating and enjoy new ingredients.
10. Write About What You Liked Most
Make a top list of what you enjoyed on your trip. Your experience will be remembered in every detail.
11. Write About What You Didn’t Like
Not every single part of a trip has to be nice, there may be some negative parts, but sometimes they are the funniest when you look back at them.
12. Write About Where You Want To Go To Next
Leaving a place can be challenging, but you can already dream about your next destination. Looking forward to another adventure is always a nice thing, so make a list of places you would like to see in the near future or dream destinations.
Conclusion on how to use a travel journal
So having a travel journal could be both a treasure and some useful. It is a memory continuing to grow with each new place.
It could also be a great gift for someone special in your family, like a spouse or your kids, to cherish forever about you since it’s so personal.
Having a traveling journal shouldn’t be looked at as a job, but rather as something relaxing. Everybody could have one since they are so easy to make, it only depends on how you want to do it.
