How to create a Travel Journal

Create a unique travel journal that reflects who you are and the memories you’ve created on a trip overseas, interstate or even a little adventure to the park. I share my thinking and planning process here.

The first thing to consider when at the beginning of creating is to think about intention. Doing this helps you narrow down a few key elements you want to capture in your little journal. Ask your self… why do I want to create this travel journal? So for example you could start off with the intention;

“I want to create a travel journal to help me to remember all the places, sights and people whom I traveled with….”

From this statement of intention, you could break down the key elements or prompts to help keep your journal consistent.

Here are some prompt that may align to the statement above;

• photo or drawing of buildings, iconic places and restaurants
• a note about what the place felt like
• a story about a memorable interaction
• list of those who were on the trip with you

Create a little prompt list at the front of your journal, it can be on a sticky note which is transferable and removable when you finish your travel journal.

Second thing is to find inspiration. You want to have a theme that pulls all the pages together in your journal. Look through magazines, blogs, Instagram, Pinterest to find layouts and themes that you think suits what you are trying to achieve. Save these images for reference and refer back to them when you’ve hit a wall with ideas. Make sure they are easy to find. There are some really cool artists out there!

Make sure you look through your cupboards and draws before you buy anything fancy to use on this project. You will need;

• A Blank Journal
• A variety of pens
• Photos or drawings
• Creativity
• Bits and bobs from travels

Limits or rules help with narrowing down what you want to add to your page. It seems counter intuitive but sometimes having a strict rule or limitation through using a theme helps you to become more creative. For example, on this page I will have the following key elements:

1. Hand lettered heading in bold black colour
2. An illustration of a map
3. Important dates
4. Photo/ Drawing
5. Bullet points key words such as destinations, people in dot points on one page

It’s great to have a prompt list to refer back to when you’ve run out of organic ideas. Check out this article on Medium that talks about this concept of restrictions and creativity.

A year ago I moved to London for work and travel. I found myself traveling to all sorts of places I didn’t even know the name of before I had arrived in Europe. I really wanted to savour every bit of my experience overseas so meticulously wrote down my thoughts… at the end of the two years I had two full journals and a long notes document on my Iphone that captured all the little things I thought and felt whilst I was overseas. Moments of frustration and moments of absolute delight all captured on my phone. In addition to this I took photos on a daily basis. It felt like the first and the last time every time I saw something beautiful.

Let me know how you go, you can contact me via my instagram @365daysofscribbles.