How to write the perfect travel journal
Mindful travelling – the art of the travel journal
Travelling is good for body and soul. It gives us a chance to power down and recharge our batteries. And you don’t have to trek to the Andes either, or spend your gap year backpacking. Just escaping for a few days in the country, or visiting a different city, is a bitesize travel adventure too.
But it can be hard to take your foot off the gas. We try to cram everything into two precious weeks – then hardly remember where we’ve been. Places and faces blur into one.
Keeping a travel journal helps you to slow down and be in the moment. Here, we share our top 4 tips for creating the perfect travel journal.
Top tip 1 – less is more
A travel journal isn’t a diary. It’s a record of how you felt, not what you did.
So don’t include everything! Less is more (otherwise it won’t feel like a holiday!) You might simply choose to record the most beautiful thing you saw or heard each day, or your three favourite cafes. There’s no pressure to write something every day either. It’s your holiday, after all.
Think about the experiences you’ll want to remember in 20 years’ time.
Top tip 2 – free your imagination!
Lay out your journal any way you want – there are no rules! You can use snippets of anything – other peoples’ conversations, a song lyric that captures the moment, a quick sketch on a napkin. Drawing the view, rather than getting your phone out, makes you look closely at what you’re seeing, embedding it in your memory.
Take your time. Time to really notice the view, the colours on a bird you’ve never seen, or the scent of the flowers. You can jot these things down as you experience them – in the moment – then sit down and journal at your leisure.
Scrapbooking and collaging, combined with illustration or calligraphy, can create an amazing aesthetic. Include bus tickets, sweet wrappers, labels, entry tickets. Just don’t forget to pack some glue!
Top tip 3 – put your holiday first
Put your wellbeing and your holiday first. Travelling can be an emotional journey as well as a physical one – if you suddenly feel homesick or anxious – that’s normal. Keeping a travel journal gives you a safe space to process those emotions. But at the end of the day, it’s about having a real break, not keeping a journal.
Top tip 4 – treat yourself
From a new bikini to a brand-new book, we put such care into choosing what to take with us when we travel. So pick out some special stationery for your travel journal (no hardship! 🤩). Our 4-way Z-grips make great travel companions – especially if you’re heading to a hot climate. That trademark rubber grip means your pen won’t slip or slide in your hand when the heat is on. Plus, you get four colours in one pen – perfect for travelling light!
And when you get home…
Reading your travel journals is a pleasure you can relive over and over.
Whenever you want to go back to a place you loved, you only have to open a page to be there again.
That’s the best souvenir.