Traveling expands your world and introduces you to new perspectives and cultures. Attractive cities and breathtaking scenes make it difficult to take in all the good feelings at once. Travel logs aid you in documenting and reliving your blissful travel experiences later in life. However, keeping a travel journal that’s worth reading can be daunting. Tag along for tips for Keeping a travel log and ideas that will aid in keeping an evocative travel log.
What is a travel log?
In the digital age, after unique experiences in exotic sites, you may fill your Instagram or Twitter with memorable photos of your travels that you’ll soon forget immediately you embark on your next voyage. Travel logs are timeless ways to capture experiences during your journey that you can relive in a more personal way.
Travel logs differ from list recordings of your journey. A typical travel log contains dates, paper mementos, photos, and even special tickets. However, compiling all the sensational details of your journey into a valuable keepsake requires expert guidance.
Tips for Keeping a Travel Log
A travel log is a personal way of documenting your experiences and what you learned on your trip. Modern-day travel journals record details of even a short trip to your kid’s new school or a new restaurant; it is not always about details of a fancy voyage abroad.
How then do you tap into your creative ability and keep a travel log worth reading?
1. Write moments down in list form
Nothing beats a well-written travel journal. Despite innovative travel log apps, writing down your memories gives your travel log the personalized feel that’s worthwhile. Take a piece of paper and a good pen, and write the moments you experience as you encounter them. Try the toucan-topped pen. Thank me later.
Your mind logs details preferentially, therefore writing your experiences in list form enables you to review them and arrange them in chronological order. Write the moments before your trip to build up the anticipatory feeling. Include side notes of places to visit and write a review of each place as you explore the new sites.
However, if you are a techie, you can still keep things digital and make travel logs in user-friendly apps with downloading options. Note down only significant occurrences and leave out the mundane details.
2. Include days, dates, and locations
Firstly, you don’t have to keep a travel log in chronological order. However, while compiling your logs, you will thank yourself for including the dates, days, and locations. Dates evoke nostalgic feelings about specific locations. Including the period is a bonus. However, don’t restrict yourself to conventional date styles. If “the day I got a free Nike shirt” recovers the experience, just do it.
3. Tap into your five senses
Describe all your sound, taste, textures, smells, and visual experiences. If you visit a spice market, write down the pleasing aroma of myrrh. Write about the breathtaking view atop the Eiffel Tower. Write about the soft feeling of cobblestone under your feet. Describing your travel with all the five senses puts long-lasting impressions to help keep the memory alive.
4. Illustrate
Another significant way that supplements your sensory experience is using pictures to cement the memories. You can draw the leaning Tower of Pisa or print out pictures and stick them in your travel log if you have an artistic knack. Even a theatre ticket or a catacombs map can suffice if you can’t access illustrating tools. A picture is worth a thousand words. Make your illustrations brilliant and memorable.
5. Delineate your newfound habits
Every traveler knows that with new experiences comes a change inhabits. Document about how you made swimming your new hobby or photo taking. Journaling the habit changes etches the experiences you had. Additionally, every time you indulge in a newfound hobby, you get to relive the journey.
6. Choose when and where to reflect on your log
After a day of sightseeing and meeting new people, you are probably exhausted. However, the exhilarating emotions of the wonderful day you had won’t let you sleep, at least until you reflect on them. Just after your late-night shower, squeeze time before going to bed and review your day. Document the emotions that come into your mind while reviewing. Compare your logs with your anticipatory notes and genuinely describe how you felt.
7. Get creative with your travel log
While embarking on a journey, new people, events, and places may spark creative knacks you didn’t know you possessed. If it is a different writing, design, or cataloging style that you discovered on your trip, your travel log is the opportune document to showcase it. Add new theme styles, create collages and use colored markers to highlight the best moments. A travel log is your personalized way to relive the wonderful occurrences. Experiencing our journey in a fun way ensures you will have tales for your kids that aren’t just about Pepper Pig or The Pied Piper.
How to Find Time for the Travel Log
Writing a travel log can sound arduous, but it is shockingly easy. Dedicate 10 minutes after or before a trip to fill your log. Usually, in the morning, your senses are peaked, and therefore you will make a brilliant log. Write your travel journal over coffee or late at night on your bed with a glass of Sauvignon Blanc to keep things interesting.
However, do not restrict yourself to the extreme ends of the day; any little time is a perfect time to write an exciting detail about your travels.
Travel Log Templates & Examples
Mistakes to Avoid When Keeping a Travel Log
- Writing mundane details- Trust me, no one wants to know how you got up and what essential oil you incorporated in your bath. Stick to the salient details only.
- Cluttering the journal- More is less. A picture of the London Eye with a little side note tells more than a whole paragraph of London’s Eye history.
- Skipping some days- While traveling, you may tell yourself you’ll remember the details and document them later. Every time this proves to be false. Keeping a travel log is fun; write the interesting bits daily, and soon you will find it a routine you enjoy.
Final Thoughts
A travel log is a perfect way to recall the wonderful experiences of a trip. Keeping a travel log does not have to be a taxing engagement. The trick to a memorable travel log is to keep it simple and exciting. Thus, evaluate what works for you and run with it. Now that you have the tips for keeping a travel log, go out and document your delightful journey. A travel log a day keeps the boredom away.
