Travel Journal Ideas, Tips and Writing Prompts – How to write a travel journal that will be your favorite souvenir

Why keep a travel journal

When we are traveling, we usually eat new foods, see amazing sights, meet interesting people, and discover new experiences. After we return home, we look through our pictures, tell stories to our friends and family and bask in the glow of our latest adventures.

But after a few weeks or months, it can be difficult to recall the details of the trip. Pictures will remind you of the big moments you recorded. But will you remember how you felt as you watched the sun rise over the lake? And what was the name of that town where you ate that amazing pasta?

Using a travel journal to document your thoughts, feelings and observations while traveling will be a great gift in the months and years after you return home. 

I’m not a journal writer at home but I do journal when I’m traveling. Even though I find it difficult to journal every day at home, I enjoy the process when I’m traveling. I try to take time at the end of each day to capture what I did and where I went. I also jot down my feelings about the new place I am visiting. 

Travel can stir up a range of emotions that we may not encounter in our daily lives back home. Whether your experience that day was stressful, exhilarating or filled you with a sense of wonder; writing it down allows you to explore your thoughts and feelings more deeply than you might during the actual experience. 

Keeping a travel journal may also help you slow down and experience your surroundings more deeply. It’s easy to feel like you must rush from one experience to another, especially if your time is limited. Knowing that you will be writing about your day is a great reminder to slow down and observe what is happening around you. 

Like a Gratitude Journal, a travel journal will help you appreciate your travel experience more deeply. Let’s face it, travel can be stressful. Dealing with transportation, reservations, and unfamiliar surroundings can take the fun out of a vacation. And once we are back home, these negative experiences tend to stay in our memories longer. Research actually shows that people remember negative and emotional events with more detail than happy or neutral events. Writing down the everyday activities and emotions you experience while traveling allows you to focus on them in the moment, and remember them better later.

Types of Travel Journals

There are as many different types of travel diaries as there are travelers! Some may buy a brand new book with stiff pages waiting to be filled. Others may grab a spiral notebook left over from school. Some like the flexibility of blank pages that they can later assemble into a notebook. Others prefer typing their thoughts into their laptop or tablet. And as diverse as the journals themselves; what goes into a travel journal has no limits.

Handwritten Journals

Hand writing your travel journal does make it a bit more personal and relatable. You can add tickets, maps, brochures, etc. into the journal as you go with tape or glue stick. Neuroscientists say that the slower pace of handwriting activates parts of our brains that connect more deeply to our experiences. Handwritten journals are also a gift for family after the person who wrote them have passed away. Seeing a loved one’s handwriting is a wonderful way to keep those connections alive for future generations. I have a box full of letters my grandmother wrote of her travels. I can almost hear her voice as I read the words she wrote. My travel bucket list includes visits to the places she wrote about.

Electronic Journals

My personal preference is to use my iPad or laptop and capture my thoughts electronically. After our safari in South Africa, I combined my photographs with my writings and created a hardbound travel journal with Shutterfly.  For those of us who are artistically challenged, Shutterfly makes it easy to produce a beautiful record of our travel. In addition to adding narratives throughout the book to accompany my photos, I included my entire travel diary at the end of the book. I didn’t edit my journal after we got home. Although there may be a few typos and grammatical errors, I like the stream of consciousness type of writing for a travel journal. I also saved maps, ticket stubs, menus, etc. and tucked them into the album.

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If you are an electronic journaler, there are a variety of apps specifically for journal keeping. I do my journaling in Google Docs. Here are a few apps that work well for travel journaling.

• Evernote
• Day One
• GoodNotes

Artistic travel journal

If you like to draw, including your own artwork in a journal adds another personal touch to your travel diary. What to draw in your art journal is entirely up to you. Some journalers realistically capture the scene in front of them. Others draw maps, architecture, or food. Sketch the people, cars, fashions and streetlights you see around you. 

Although I don’t make art journals, I love to look at other people’s! Jeannine Stein has 10 great tips for creating inspiring travel journals.  

How to write a travel journal/diary

Whatever form your travel journal takes, try to make an entry every day. It helps to set aside the same time each day so you develop a habit. Maybe you like to enjoy a glass of wine at the end of the day while you think about your day and capture your memories. Perhaps you prefer writing first thing in the morning. Whatever time works best for you, try not to let too many days slip by without writing or drawing in your journal. Even a day or two can dull our thoughts and memories when each day presents new places and activities. 

If you don’t have time to write out a full entry, jot down just a few words which will jog your memory later when you sit down to write. You can also take a picture of the scene you want to remember. Or use your phone’s verbal note taker and quickly speak a reminder to yourself or record the sounds around you. 

When you do sit down to write, don’t worry about spelling or grammar. Just pretend you are telling your best friend about your day and write in your own voice. Include as many details as you can about what you saw, what you did, who you met and how you felt. These details are the things we often forget about our travels. Years later, reading your journal will transport you right back to that seaside villa where you ate clams with the owner who loved cats!

If you spend too much time staring at a blank page without knowing where to start, using a travel journal template or writing prompts may give you the boost you need. I have created a set of three bookmarks with writing prompts that I tuck into my travel journal. They help me get started when I’m stuck. If you would like the bookmarks, leave me your email address and I’ll send them to you. Each bookmark includes 6 or 7 prompts for a total of 20 different prompts. 

Amy at Traveling Tulls has some great strategies to encourage journaling while traveling. My favorite is her Photo Bingo Challenge.

Before and After Your Trip

Your travel journal doesn’t have to be limited to the time you are traveling. You’ll likely be doing plenty of thinking and planning before your trip. Include these details in your travel diary. Use the first few pages to outline your itinerary, your “must-see” locations, budget, and travel information.

The plane ride home is a great time to reflect on your trip. What was your favorite part of the trip? Did you see anything unexpected? Did your opinions about the place you visited change? When you get home, go through your photos. Do any of them prompt any thoughts you haven’t already captured?

Travel Journal Writing Prompts

Here are some of my favorite travel diary writing prompts:

• What food did you eat today? Did you try the local brew/wine/cocktail?
• How do you say Hello, Goodbye and Thank You in the local language?
• Describe your hotel/B&B/home rental.
• Who did you meet today? What is their occupation?
• What types of transportation did you take today?
• Describe the scene around you right now. What are the common building materials? What do you hear and smell?
• What do the people in this place have in common? Are they warm and welcoming or a bit standoffish?
• What emotions do you feel in this place?
• What surprised you most about this place?
• Have your perceptions of this place changed?

You’ll find even more prompts on the bookmarks that I use when I travel. Get a copy for yourself.

Finally, and most importantly, don’t make keeping your travel diary stressful. Do what works for you. Whether than means a simple list of what you did that day or a journal full of prose and artwork. The point is to give yourself memories that you will cherish years later as you look back on your travels. 

Shop my store for hardcover and spiral notebooks featuring my photography.