Travel Journals – Preserve Your Travel Experiences

By Nomadrick Chapo

Traveling is a great way to escape the rat race and experience
new cultures and places. Alas, your experiences can fade with
time. The best way to prevent this is to keep a travel journal
for your trips.

Travel Journals

Take a minute to give some consideration to your most recent
trip. What sticks out in your mind? Now think about the first
trip you ever took. Undoubtedly, you remember few things about
the trip. The experiences you’ve forgotten are lost to time. If
you had kept a journal, this wouldn’t be the case.

There are famous instances of people keeping journals
throughout time. Of course, Anne Frank’s Diary is the best
example. In her diary, Anne kept a running commentary of the two
years her family spent hiding from the Nazis. While your travels
will hopefully be more lighthearted, keeping a journal will let
you remember them as the years pass.

A good travel journal combines a number of characteristics.
First, it should be compact so you don’t have to take up
unnecessary space for other things. Second, it should have a
case to protect it from rain, spills and so on. Third, the
journal should contain blank areas to write your notes. Fourth,
the journal should contain cue spaces to remind you to keep
notes on specific things. Cues should include:

1. Who you traveled with,

2. Where you stayed and if you enjoyed it,

3. Who you met and contact information for them,

4. Places to eat, and

5. Things to see and if you would visit again,

At the end of the trip, you should be able to get the following
from your journal:

1. Contact information for other travelers and people you met,

2. Enough detail to provide you with a guide if you travel to
the location a second time.

3. Memories to reflect upon years later, and

4. Something to give you children and grandchildren later in
life.

To get the most out of your travel journal, you should spend a
few minutes writing in it every day. Every day of a trip brings
new experiences even if you’re just sitting on a train or bus.
If you get writers block, you can note whom you met, what you
saw, etc.

Traveling is a chance to experience new things and meet new
people. Don’t lose these experiences to time.