Before starting a designated travel journal, I combed through Pinterest and Instagram in order to see what I "could" keep in my travel journal. I think it took me the better part of a year before I realized that I didn't need permission to record whatever I wanted in my travel journal and that I had already started making travel spreads in my Bullet Journal for several years. I am telling you this right now because of two reasons: 1- You know what you want to record and have been doing so for as long as you have been traveling, and 2- You are the mistress of your own travel journal!! As soon as you take ownership of YOUR journal, the world of ideas just falls at your feet.
In my honest opinion, I believe that there are many types of journalers: visual, written, minimalistic, bullet, creative, informative, factual, scrapbook, etc. Just reading this post, I bet at least 2 of those words popped out at you with exclamation points. Before you begin, the first step is to decide which type of journal you want your travel journal to be. For me, my journal mixes many types of these including scrapbook, written prompts, photos, planning, and creative. However, the most important requirement for my journal was that it was neat, orderly, and divided into trips. I felt that some pages that I wanted fit more into my Travel Collection of my Bullet Journal. A few of those included a travel savings tracker, a travel Bucket List, and a map of all of the places I had visited. There are two types of trips in my journal. One is solo day trips which consist of of 1 vertical spread (2 facing pages) with photos, prompts, maps, ephemera, and drawings. The second is for large, multiple-day trips. For larger trips, I collect all info which I would like to use for planning purposes and use those to create multiple pages (5 or more) for each trip. Once you decide what type of journal you want to have, the rest just falls into place. For people with ADHD and Aspies like myself, this initial planning is crucial to enjoying the process of journaling without being caught up in the minutia of analysis paralysis.
Since the solo day trip pages of my journal are all in a specific style, it is easier for you to understand. Please take away those items which fit your journaling style and leave those that do not. My style of journaling has adapted and morphed over the last 2.5 years, so do not feel like you must stick with a style that no longer works for you. In order to accommodate your needs and desires in a travel journal, feel free to include any or all elements that work for you.
A - Destination Name and Map (All of my trip pages start with a map and a destination name in the center of the first page. This creates uniformity and makes each page, although quite different, look like it belongs to all of the other pages in the journal. There are so many styles of maps that a person can use for this element, so be creative! I like to search the city or location in Google and click on the corresponding map. A mere outline is suitable for my style, and I feel the page would look too cluttered if I went into great detail. This page was the first in my new travel journal.)
B - Drawing of Landmark, Building, or Point of Interest (I like to find one or two beautiful but simple points of interest that I can draw on the fly while looking at the object. Sometimes it is easier to sketch the outline in my journal in the scale I want, snap a picture, and finish adding color once I get home. Watercolor Pencils are the only type I use in my travel journal kit because they are so versatile, not to mention beautiful.)
C - Itinerary (This particular itinerary was written in bullets. It was the first try at a specific city, so I tried to include a variety of methods to see which ones I liked best. I keep the itinerary portion, but I leave the bullet format behind. It is great to see where you spend your day, and it gives you a point of reference for all of those great photos on your cell phone.)
D - Journaling Blocks with Prompts (In an effort to capture my thoughts on each trip, I select various journaling prompts to write on for each new city. I try to write these thoughts on the day after the trip if not on the day itself. Only after writing on 5 to 6 different prompts do I choose which ones fit best with the mood and aesthetic of the trip. These vary from items like "Best Meal," "Weirdest Smell," and "Biggest Bargain Find." I have several places where I like to visit in each destination ranging from thrift stores to bruch restaurants and farmers' markets. That way, I keep my consistency in the journal while assuring that I always have key photos.)
E - Photos (In order to get the biggest bang for my buck, I use the Canon Ivy 2 Bluetooth Printer with sticky back photo paper. In the app for the device, I always choose a photo collage so that I have many pictures on one sheet of photo paper. For this trip, I kept the collage as one solid print, but now, I cut each of the photos separately so that I can spread the pictures all over the page. If you don't have a personal Bluetooth printer, I highly suggest getting one if you intend to keep a busy travel journal. The sticky back saves much time and messiness by sticking directly onto the page itself without the need for photo glue or tape runner strips. Pictures really are essential to a great travel journal!!)
F and G - Ephemera (In a previous post, I mentioned that ephemera divides the men from the boys when it comes to keeping a great travel journal. F demonstrates the use of business cards and menus while G is a museum brochure. In both instances, these pieces of paper were meant to be thrown away after use, but I have saved them to use as momentos from a great trip. Try using various types of ephemera ranging from glossy card stock to flimsy paper takeout menus to get a full picture of your trip.)
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