Ahhh. At the end of a long day venturing around in a humvee through a safari, riding the trolley through town, or (and?) museum hopping ’til the sun tucks itself in for the night, you’re ready to jot those memories down to keep forever. While scrolling through the pictures you took on your DSLR or smartphone, you open up to a fresh new page in your travel journal, the crispness a promise of permanence. Well, what should you include in your entry?
We’ll have to consider various factors, but the major consideration is how important this trip is to you. If you’re off on a grand adventure for your birthday weekend, details galore! But if this is a business trip with mundane tasks, maybe you’d like to focus on a particular aspect of the journey you enjoy, like the funky restaurants you had the chance to visit or the hidden marketplace you stumbled on.
Fly into Expansive Space
What you decide to memorialize in your travel journal is entirely up to you, but there are a few key details that are valuable to include.
The Date
Duh, Jamae. A no-brainer, I know. But I can’t tell you how many times I’ve forgotten to write the date on past entries, especially when they were captured in the spur of the moment. My reasoning in those instances was “I’ll just write the date down tomorrow. I won’t forget.” Guess what? I forgot.
So rather than riding on the hopes of backtracking in the future, include the date once you start the entry. Writing that sequence of numbers takes less than 10 seconds on most days. 😉
You might even want to include the time you wrote it. I did this for my last trip to the Philippines with my bestie, and I enjoy reading through the entries written during the oddest hours of the night. To see the (in)coherence and the thoughts that’d cross my mind at those times.
Thinking about the time of the day I started journaling tends to spark memories in and of themselves. So if you’re willing to take the extra five seconds to add that detail, you get bonus points!
Highlights
You could decide to make your day’s activities a full narrative, especially if you’re a travel vlogger / blogger. But if you get as worn out as I do (introverts & extroverts alike!), you might consider sticking to the highlights of the day’s events and particular funny / scary / crazy moments. And you can do this in many ways. Here are a few suggestions:
- As you go. If your travel journal is portable (smartphone app / pocket size journal), you could write the highlights right after experiencing ‘em. Snag the moment at its freshest! Like eating cherries right after picking ’em. Yummm.
- At the end of the day. Bullet points might be your best friend here. But again, you could make it a full-length narrative as you see fit. Although my go-to method is bullet points, I give more glorious moments (like weddings) the full scale treatment of story and description. Gotta bottle that magic for rainy days, y’know? (And living in Portland, we get lots of those.)
- At the beginning of the day. If you’re so pooped by the end that you knock out even before you reach the bed, maybe this’d fit your itinerary best. The upside is you’d be able to let the memories marinate in your mind before committing them to paper. However, the downside is you might lose some of the particulars by letting ‘em simmer, which leads to my final suggestion . . .
- Fill in the blanks. Write in the bare bones as you go or at the end of the day before you sleep, then fill in the blanks in the morning. Win-win! Photo references would be helpful for this method. I mean, you are taking pictures, right? 😉
Lessons Learned
THIS. This is important. Paper commitment or not, I will never forget a most valuable lesson my bestie and I learned on our first trip to Korea together. On the second night, a big misunderstanding led to quite an intense dinnertime, and we gained so much insight in that hour of eating in silence.
Although I remember the major lessons of that evening, I unfortunately didn’t keep a journal at the time, so the little things I could’ve captured are lost in the dusty file cabinets of my memory.
Whether you give ’em a separate section or blend ’em with narrative, these lessons you gather along the way about the culture, traveling, and/or your personal preferences are priceless, especially for future reference. As an ebook for your subscribers, suggestions for friends, or a note to self for a return visit.
The beauty of being a creative is that our travel journals can be endlessly customized. A doodle here, a suave narrative there. But the date, highlights, and lessons lare definitely must-haves for each entry. Having these features make your travel journal easily accessible for the future and garner a sense of muchness (cue Alice in Wonderland ;3).
Above all else, enjoy your trip to its fullest potential. Embrace the moments. Write the details. Travel on.
This is the third article of a three-part Travel Journal series. Read the others:
Write Time
What other essential features do you include in your travel journal entries? Let me know in the comments below, lovely!
Want more encouragement throughout your creative journey? Sign up for the newsletter by clicking here or on the image below to receive inspiration, blog updates, special offers, and a bonus workbook.
