An amazing trip can provide memories that will last a lifetime, but how to you capture those memories adequately in a travel journal?

To begin with, you don’t need to be a professional writing or even be poetic with words to get the most from writing in your own travel journal.

It’s the personal touch that makes a difference, and there’s some fun ways that you can go about it.

1. Write A Travel Log

This is one of the simplest ways to write a travel journal.

Rather than writing paragraphs about your experiences, you log the events of the day, the places you visited, perhaps places you ate and the food you enjoyed.

A travel log provides a resource for you to look back to and remember details and places.

What people like about travel logs is that they are easy to write, and spark the memories when you revisit your travel journal.

Nepali Companion Notebook View of the himalayan peak Fish Tail from Annapurna Base Camp Nepal

2. Create a Travel Sketchbook

A travel sketchbook is similar to the travel log, but instead of jotting down dates, and places, you make quick (or not so quick) sketches of the important events and places you experienced.

A travel sketchbook can be an enjoyable way to capture an experience without having to worry about choosing the write word or way to express yourself.

Even if you’re not much of a sketcher, you can still have fun and watch your abilities grow over time.

Jotting down a little note under or to the side of each sketch can help you remember the date and place.

3. Create a Travel Scrapbook

Bus passes, museum or park tickets, all these things can be pasted into a travel scrapbook.

Not only do they add color to each page, but they bring a part of your travel with you.

Find an item that can represent each place you visit. It can be as simple as a gum wrapper from the gum you chewed while visiting the place, or it could be your receipt from a restaurant you enjoyed. It could be a wild flower you find.

You can also add printed pictures and write a little about each. There’s an odd satisfaction to creating a scrapbook so full, it stretches the limits of the journal binding.

Nepali Pathfinder Leather Writing Journal and Notebook

4. Write a Poetry Travel Notebook

This one doesn’t have to be as hard as you might think. In fact, it can be really fun.

Create a poem that describes each place or each day.

It could be as simple as a two-line stanza, or full of words like a bonanza.

Don’t be afraid to get a little silly, but when it’s right, don’t shy away from sharing something deep you’ve felt in poetic form.

Nepali Eco Epic Vegetable Dyed Walnut with extra thick pages

5. Create a Written Travel Notebook

Words.

Specifically, prose.

This is the type of travel journal many think of when creating a travel journal–one that is full of paragraphs describing in painstaking detail all the places visited in a trip.

It sounds like a lot of work, but it doesn’t have to be.

There are a few things you can do to make a travel journal with prose and make it meaningful and fun.

Write about the Emotion each Place Carries

Each place you visit will have an emotional effect. Sometimes big, and sometimes small, but something. Don’t worry or stress about describing how the place looked. Write about how it made you feel.

Was there wonder? Awe?

Did you feel humble or grateful from what you saw there?

Capturing your feelings at the place can help you experience it again in a small measure when you review your travel journal.

Writing about the emotion or emotions you feel at a place are also very uniquely personal. Anyone can describe what a place looks like or the events of the day, but how you felt carries a deep connection to your being.

Write about how You’ve Changed

Perhaps the place has changed you. Do you feel a closer connection to God, the universe, and everything?

Or did you gain a greater understanding of a people and culture that are different from your own?

Writing how you’ve changed each day or even sometime after your travels is another way to make your travel journal uniquely yours.