What Is a Travel Journal?
A travel journal is a detailed personal record of memories and experiences from the destinations you visit on vacation and the moments in between. It contains the stories you most want to keep from your travels so you can relive them every time you open its pages. As you reread, you can see again the rainbow swords of light coming through a cathedral window, or hear the babble of children speaking French in a Paris park. Your travel journal takes you back to the magic, the beauty, even the challenges of your trip. You might paste in photos, tickets, or go old-school with maps.
Our full-grain leather Traveler's Journals are the perfect place to create one. Read on to discover 10 reasons why you should make your own for your next trip, plus a step-by-step template to start.
Why Keep a Travel Journal?
If you’ve done any looking online, you’ve no doubt run across examples of travel journal ideas, and that may cause you to wonder why exactly you should keep one. Some examples can be intimidating. But don’t let that put you off from creating a travel notebook that is a real and authentic reminder of your travels. Your journal is for you. You never need to show it to anyone else!
Here are 10 reasons you might want to consider creating a travel journal for your next trip.
1. Plan and Look Forward
Half the fun of the trip is the anticipation of it. Choose a Leatherpress journal and write down your plans and itineraries. Create a list of must-see destinations, and throw in a couple to take a chance on. Leave time for interruption or a detour—that’s where the magic happens. Make a packing list around the climate and the sites you'll see. Your travel notebook primes your excitement for what you’ll do and what might happen.
2. Learn to Pay Attention
Most often we arrive at our destination jet-lagged and tired from getting ready to go. Taking even a minute to write a sentence in your journal helps orient yourself to a new experience. You’ll find that pausing to get your first impressions down sets the tone to notice the little things throughout your trip. No detail is too small to include—the taste of a biscuit, the logos of foreign cars, sound of a "hello" or "thank you" in another language.
3. Unwind and Relax into Your Adventure
When we get on that plane or climb the ramp into that ferry, so much more than we can possibly anticipate is waiting for us. Keep a running journal of your impressions. Your vacation notebook provides the colorful captions for your pictures. What are your other travel companions saying about what they've seen? Reduce the sightseeing intensity. Let time pass while you relax at a café on the street. Write yourself out of the swirl and into the beauty of the setting, the moment, and the people.
4. Capture Beauty that Revives
As you unwind, you’ll find that a change of scenery can be as refreshing as rest. Sensing and seeing a new place is often enough. And numerous studies support the idea that people need to see beauty, whether simply in nature or in human-crafted art, architecture, and design. Neuroscience shows that beauty reduces stress and signals safety and happiness to the brain, all essential aspects of a thriving life. We travel to put ourselves in places of beauty. Describing or even illustrating that in your travel notebook keeps you attuned to what’s around you and regulates your emotions.
5. Relive and Remember
Travel journals take you back to your travel experience. Even when we're sure we'll never forget that golden sunset in Umbria or the colors, smells, and sounds of the Istanbul market, there are some details bound to fall from our minds. Rereading these stories brings back the experience in full technicolor.
6. Keep a Visual Record
A travel journal may seem like an unnecessary accessory if you’re packing light, but the end result organizes all the photos, souvenirs and other lovely scraps you'll bring back from your travels. Save space as you go along—perhaps one side of every spread—to print out the best photos when you get home that bring your stories to life. Better yet, take photos in the moment with an instant film camera like a Polaroid to create a photo travel journal. Add in any of your museum tickets, café receipts, etc. into the journal. Our Leatherpress Inspire Journal has an inside back pocket just for these bits! It's even available in a Pocket size for easy transport. You’ve now got a lovely slim volume that holds all your visual memories.
7. Bring Your Family Together
Ever been on a trip where half your family was a little disengaged, or it felt like you couldn’t please everyone with the itinerary? The truth is, you probably can’t. But assign each family member a day for the “Travel Journal Takeover.” They are responsible for chronicling your adventures that day, and perhaps choosing at least one or two of the places you go. Give them a few prompts and they’ll be on their way to a lifelong legacy of travel journaling. And you'll have fun reminiscing in the future as you relive your memories together.
8. Plan for Future Travel
Your traveler’s notebook becomes your guide to future travel ideas. You’ll know from experience which travel site is best, what additional notes you could have included in your journal and what travel notebook sizes work the best for you. Take special note of new places that surprised you and add to your bucket list—that’s another journaling idea in itself!
9. Give Travel Advice to Others
Travel journals help you offer detailed recommendations to others as well. Your friend is headed to Morocco? Give them the rundown on the best restaurants and sites. Let them know if there were any places you would skip or add if you went back again. And share unexpected experiences, both positive and less so, to look out for.
10. Pass Your Travel Notebook Along to Your Kids
Surprise your kids with your travel journals and vivid recollections of the places you’ve been and the people you’ve met. They'll love hearing your stories from a firsthand perspective. You might even find yourself with unexpected invitations to go along on their next adventure!
Free, Printable Travel Journal Template
Now you know you why you want to create a travel journal. But how do you start? Check out our free, printable Travel Journal template for step-by-step help on building yours from the ground up. Don't forget to keep a small roll of tape or a glue stick on hand to add in ticket stubs, coins, receipts, and more! You can even bring a Polaroid camera and paste in real-time photos. Learn more about how to make a photo travel journal.
Leather Travel Journals
Leatherpress journals and notebooks give your travel notes a durable home for years to come. Full-grain leather wears in over your trip to show off its own adventures, a physical reminder of the vacation experiences you don’t want to forget. Our leather wrap Traveler's Journal is crafted specifically for this purpose, but any of them can be transformed into your perfect travel notebook. Choose a leather sketchbook for painting scenery, a Refillable Journal with dotted pages for gridded structure, or a Pocket Journal you can easily slide inside a backpack. Keep your traveling stories in a full-grain leather notebook and you’ll have a beautiful souvenir to reminisce on for decades.