While my colorful stash of scarves and bags from around the world are among my prized possessions, there is something far more valued in my travel-accumulated collection. My travel journals! Anytime I need to revisit that feeling of freedom and joy that comes exclusively through travel, I pull one off my bookshelf and re-live a day in my traveling life. Keeping a travel journal allows me to process what I am experiencing, and it retains memories and feelings that may otherwise get lost in the ether.
Tips for travel journaling:
1. Try to write short bits on a daily or near-daily basis. Each day of travel can be so action-packed and filled with discovery that a week’s worth of journal back-log can be overwhelming. Anyway, this stuff is best written when fresh in your mind!
2. Focus on the senses. Record what you see, hear, feel, taste and smell. These little details will help trigger richer memories when you revisit them. Write a bit about the food you eat, the sounds coming from the street, the street signs around you, even the weather!
3. Bring a glue stick and glue the day’s ticket stubs, flyers, receipts or whatever is in your pocket into your journal. This provides an excellent starting point for writing about the day’s events, and is a fun way to display all the detritus associated with your adventure.
4. Carry your journal in your daypack while you explore. That way you can jot things down as the mood strikes you, even if it’s just notes to expand upon back at the hotel room later.
5. Get a journal with an inside pocket to catch the business cards and contact info for all the new friends you meet along the way. You’ll be that much more likely not lose them when you go to contact them after returning home.
6. Choose a journal that is compact enough for travel, but large enough to be easy to write in. And of course, a journal made of recycled materials is always best. Check out the selection at From the Ends of the Earth.
They have a wonderful array of fair trade journals such as this handmade recycled cotton one from India.