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Travel journals

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Keeping memories of your travels

Travel Journals are a great way to always keep a tangible memory of your trips that you can show other people and see yourself for years.

Some keep regular journals, some online blogs, and some both. Each has it s advantages and disadvantages. Go with whatever feels easier and natural for you.

The best thing about travel journals is that the focus is the experience, you don't have to be a great writer or a talented artist to create a wonderful journal to be proud of.

Things you can put in a travel journal

There are a lot of things you can put in a travel journal. These are just a few ideas to get you started.
  • Words: your experiences, interesting conversations, quotes you hear around, information of places you visit.
  • Drawings: even if you aren't the artistic type, everyone can make a quick sketch of places you visit or a rough map of your whereabouts.
  • Photos: nowadays it's extremely easy to print photos from a digital camera and have them ready in less than 5 minutes. Take advantage of that and add photos to your journal.
  • Ephemera: train and bus tickets, leaflets, brochures, interesting napkins, sweet wrappings, pressed flowers....

Some examples

Seeing what other people are making is a great way to get inspiration.

These are only a few of the many pages from travel journals you can find at Flickr.
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Prompted travel journals

If you don't feel ready to start your travel journal from scratch, you can always use a prompted journal.
Here's a selection from Amazon of journals with prompts and inspirational quotes to get you going.
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Important!

Anything goes in a travel journal.
There are no rules.

It's yours, so make it yours!

Blank journals

If you feel like making your own thing, and all you need to start a travel journal is a pen and a piece of paper, these blank journals will be perfect for you.
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Latest blog posts about travel journals

Take a peek at what everyone's posting about travel journals.
Real-time commentary and analysis from The Wall Street Journal
On Tomorrow's Show: Wednesday: Greece has problems, but it also has the Parthenon, and if you don't mind political turmoil, there are travel deals to be had. Wake up with America's first news ? The Wall Street Journal This Morning.
Silver Spirit Cruise Travel Journal - Santiago to Acapulco
Of course, the exceptional service and accommodations that Silversea is known for were also seen on the Silver Spirit. This Silver Spirit travel journal covers the experiences we enjoyed on the ship and in the ports of call.
Southeast Asia Travel Journal: The Long Goodbye
I've been living in Malaysia since early 2011, still teaching, still loving it, and still traveling whenever I get the chance, which is often. I'm off to Thailand in five weeks, snorkelling in the Perhentians 10 weeks after that, and there just might ...
SoftLayer: The Data Center Tour as Travelogue
Kevin put together a video of the experience that is one part data center tour and one part travel journal. ?Nearly every aspect of the data center mirrors what you see in WDC, SEA, HOU, SJC and DAL,? Kevin writes on the Inner Layer blog.
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Don't only journal during your travels

You don't have to be travelling to journal. You can do it before you leave home and after as well.
  • Pre journalling: write about the planning stages, what you expect to find, how you are getting prepared, what you packed, which places you are planning on visiting... You can even make a check list to make sure you don't forget anything.
  • Journalling: the real deal, writing while you travel.
  • Post journalling: write about the things you will miss, things you want to remember, whether your expectations were fulfilled or not, if there were some things you wish you had done and didn't...
  • Re journalling: get one of your entries and add some after thoughts.

Photo credits

All photos from stock.xchng and are royalty free (except those from Flickr).

From users (in order): ynsle.

Do you keep travel journals?

Tell the world your experiences, how you got started, why you do it, or anything related to travel journalling.

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  • Reply
    kiwisoutback Jun 15, 2009 @ 2:06 pm | delete
    My wife has a travel journal where she writes down everything good that we visited (and bad so we don't revisit). Nice picks, and a job well done on this lens! I'm lensrolling it to my ExSquidition Travel Journal lens.
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