Travel Journal 101: Tips & Tricks To Get Started With Journaling

You should start journaling now

Let’s say you’re planning a trip to Switzerland, and want to write down everything you see around there.

You start journaling. But how?

Organizing your plans is very difficult sometimes. Keeping an extensive travel journal might help to keep you focussed on the chaotic world of traveling.

I didn’t do much journal before, so keeping a travel journal is quite new to me.

All the writing and perhaps journaling I did was digital, on a computer, picking up a pen and paper again felt perfect, I was still able to write by myself.

Keeping Your Plans Together And Organize Your Trip

If you’re like me and stressed about everything related to planning, you should plan.

I just bought a new empty journal where I will not only put in all my travel experiences, but also the planning and prioritized places I want to visit during that trip.

It’s like a bucket list per journey.

We’re going to travel in a bit of a freestyle mode, so no extensive planning upfront.

This means we only have booked two hotels and will see where this journey goes — it’s stressing me out so far.

I’ve never not planned a trip before doing it.

At least I’ve created a checklist for the stuff I want to bring with me.

Sharing Experiences And Thoughts

You’ve probably noticed I’m a writer.

Well, in this travel journal, you can write down anything you like.

I use it to write down my thoughts during the trips and my experiences that I’ll later convert into digital stories to publish here, or on my travel blog.

You can even use it to do reviews of places like bars, cafés or restaurants, add some pictures and years later you’re still able to enjoy it and maybe even go back to the same place.

What I haven’t done ever, and I want to do from this trip on, is sticking all the tickets (trains or busses) into the journal, so I’ll never lose them.

Losing things is a hobby of mine.

Use Your Own Cheap Journal

When you search for “travel journal”, you get all these expensive ‘specially made for traveling’ travel journals.

I hate them.

They’re unnecessary and way too expensive.

The only thing I need is a journal that contains paper and a pen to write the thing.

So go to your local bookshop or even supermarket and buy a boring black notebook to write your experiences and plans down.

Wrapping Things Up

So, why would you start travel-journaling or journaling in general? It’s fun, and it helps you organize your thoughts.

Reading back things you wrote years ago also makes you feel like an idiot.

You’ll notice a learning curve.

Writing better comes over time, and you can’t force it, it has to be through experience. How do you get experience? By writing.