Traveling can be the perfect escape. Time away from the confines of job and home can stimulate creativity by offering new sights, sounds and cultures. Travel journals are an ideal way to document these escapes. By spending even a few minutes a day writing while on the road, a lifetime of memories can be captured.
Why Keep a Travel Journal
After a time, memories of a trip fade. Journals help us remember. A journal can be the portal through which the writer can recall not just the obvious memories of a trip, such as the place, time or geography, but the smaller encounters that often give perspective not so easily perceived back home. Humorous moments like that bus driver who looked as if he should have been commandeering a pirate ship or generous moments like the family who owned absolutely nothing but offered to share their dinner. Travel journals are also a great place to escape to when things are difficult. They can serve as a reminder of better times and help us anticipate better times to come.
How to Keep a Travel Journal
Note that there are no rules to follow when keeping a travel journal. Journal writing of any kind is an individual effort. If the plan is to document a trip, whatever the chosen format, it should be one that is fun, inspires and draws the traveler back to the empty page every day. However, there are a few small things that are worth considering. Bring the pen that is easiest and most comfortable to write with. In fact, bring two or three pens, especially if the trip is to a remote place.
Forms
Travel journals can be created in various forms. The standard is a variation on the diary; everything is written by hand. But there are other options. One is to combine your writing with items picked up along the way--bus tickets, receipts, maps, notes from people met on the road or entry tickets to favorite sights that will create their own story. Another idea is to keep an online journal through a travel blog. Blogspot and Wordpress offer free space online to keep a journal along with numerous looks to choose from. Along with text, photos can be uploaded to enhance the story.
Types
Choose a journal type that suits the trip. The size of the journal should be considered. If backpacking across Mali to Timbuktu, a three ring binder might not be ideal. Instead, go with something smaller, like a sturdy little Moleskine journal. Choosing an attractive journal that will inspire a traveler to write is just as important. Also, consider purchasing a hardcover journal, because writing in a floppy binder can be difficult if there is no table nearby.
Famous Travel Journals
There are many famous literary travel journals, or travelogues. Some examples are "The Travels of Marco Polo," Che Guevara's "The Motorcycle Diaries," Ibn Battuta's "Rihla," Mary Wollstonecraft's "A Short Residence in Sweden," John Steinbeck's "Travels With Charley: In Search Of America," Jack Kerouac's "On The Road," and Mary Kingley's "Travels In West Africa."
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