How to Keep a Travel Journal

A travel journey can be a wonderful resource for keeping in touch with your feelings, recording your activities, storing photos and mementos, and collecting information to share with others about your trip.

Instructions

1

Consider purchasing a guide to journaling to carry with you on your trip; these books are filled with exercises and reflections from others who have kept a journal. This may inspire your writing along the way. If it becomes a burden, you can always pass it on to another traveler.

2

Remember that there are no set rules for keeping a journal, and give yourself permission to use your journal as you see fit. Don't let expectations about what a journal "should be" keep you from writing with spontaneity and freedom.

3

Consider numbering your entries, recording the name of the location where you are writing or making a sketch of your surroundings before each entry. This may ease the pressure of feeling you need to write every day.

4

Carry pencils, colored pens, crayons, glue stick, tape and watercolors, even if you don't consider yourself the "artistic type." Anticipate that your traveling may inspire you in ways you hadn't imagined.

5

Let locals, children you meet or new friends make entries or sketches in your journal (another good reason to bring those crayons along!).

6

Make lists of things that are part of your day-to-day travel experience. Some ideas might include: "what people eat on trains"; "what I'm carrying in my fanny pack"; "the kinds of pets people have here"; "what I wish I could steal from my hotel room."

7

Contemplate keeping a journal that is a collection of letters to a beloved friend or family member back home.