A couple of years ago I was introduced to travel journals. I was fascinated by the creativity. Unfortunately, most of them were done by amazing artists that were exceptional and each page was a work of art.

If you are not an artist, no problem.  This type of journal does not require drawing or painting. You will see that I have many pages with no art at all, and others that are just easy sketches or maps.

There are two types of travel journals. The first is a keepsake journal for you to keep and enjoy. The second is a travel journal that you give as a thank you gift to a host that you visited on your vacation.

 Whether you are doing a journal for yourself, as a reminder of your vacation, or as a gift for someone that invited you to their home and spent their time showing you the city they love, creating meals and giving you a place to sleep at night, my easy travel journals will be fun and amazing.

In this post, you will see ideas that I have used for both types of journals

My first journal was created for my son. He invited me to see his new home and spent 4 days showing me the city he calls home. He used my visit to see all the touristy places he had not yet seen, so we got to enjoy them together.

We had a glorious time, and I wanted to express my gratitude for all of the time and love he invested into my visit. He was even very patient with me, after I ended up with a terrible cold and broke a toe, but that is another story.

Some people like to do their journal as they travel. I prefer to make copious notes every night and put it all together when I can spend more time working on it.

In the personal journals that I do as a keepsake for us, I make more notes starting with the departing airports, which you will see below.

If I am doing this for my host, I start my notes when I arrive at their airport or when I get to their home. Before I fall asleep every night, I write down everything I want to remember of my day.

Here is how you can have fun creating your travel journal that will be personal, creative, fun and easy!

Before you leave home, think about the type of journal you would like to do. You can use a scrapbook, a photo album, a diary/journal. The choices are endless!

If you are an artist, or a wanna be artist like me, purchase books with the type of paper for your medium, such as oils, acrylics, watercolors, chalks or even colored pencils.

I am not a very good painter, but I can draw, although not always in perspective (luckily that is in style now), so I like watercolor pencils. They are easy to carry, and you can do a simple sketch with them and wait until you get home to finish with details and water.

Don’t want to draw or paint? Not a problem! There are plenty of options that do not require any artistic ability at all!

Notice that I do like to add a little color behind my writing. For this I just used the watercolor pencils, an went over it with a little water on a brush.

So, if you are unsure of how you want to create the journal then just gather items and put it all together when you get home. Take a notebook that has pockets with you and start writing in the airport. Just notes about the weather, the wait, any food you ate in the airport and how you are feeling about the trip.

Then, everyday make notes of what you did that day, such as restaurants you visited, weather, museums, walks/hikes, views, conversations, and feelings. Whatever you want. This is your book. What do you want to remember, or you want your host to remember?

Then, slip any mementos you gathered during that day and keep them in your notebook. Just in case they should fall out or get mixed up, put a date and note on the back as a reminder when you are home putting your journal together.

The minute you leave home, think journal. In the airport save your tickets, take pictures and start taking notes.

Here are the types of mementos I like to collect:

Airport, train, ferry and even parking garage tickets

Museum tickets, wristbands, brochures and maps

Brochures you may pick up around town, such as maps, interesting facts etc

And pictures, lots and lots of pictures

Speaking of pictures… I don’t mean to sound like a commercial, but I love the Sprocket 2-in-1 camera/printer. It is an instant camera that prints 2”x3” pictures (perfect size for a journal) and, it is a photo printer that you can use for pictures on your phone. The photos come out with a peel off backing allowing you to stick these pictures right into your journal. It makes your journal so much more personal. Okay, commercial over!

How to put everything together in your journal

When I get home, I gather up everything that I have saved and sort it by date.

Then I get out the book that I want to use to create your journal. There are no right or wrong options here.

The hardest this is how to space everything so that you have an idea of how it will fit into your book. I take everything that I have gathered and distribute it throughout the book by dates. That just gives me a better idea of the space I need so that I know how many pages each day will be.

This is what my journals look like when I am in the process of spacing everything that I want to include. This was after our trip to France.

Decide what you want on the front page. If this is a gift, I usually write a thank you note to my host with the date.

On the next few pages, I like to put a map, either drawn or collected. I then write in how many miles away, circle places we went, etc.

Or, you could add a group photo of you with your host, a picture of their home/apartment building, add notes about your arrival, such as the weather, how happy you were to see them, what you did upon arrival, what you had to eat, anything that has meaning to you or them.

This is just a fun way to add some fun facts. This can be accomplished with a small map that you can print from your computer or pick up in your travels.

These were some of the cute shops in town

The following pages will develop as you start reminiscing about your trip. Just lay it out day by day, or if your days were as fun filled as mine, you may have days that you are organizing it hour by hour.

Overlay receipts from restaurants with a carryout menu, or a portion of it. Add a picture and a selfie or picture of your friends. Just keep piling on until you have exactly what you want. Keep in mind, that if you are using a receipt, cover any credit card info. And, I have found that receipts fade over time, so you may just want to make a copy of it to use instead.

Went to a museum? Pick up a brochure and cut it up to overlay with your tickets, wristband, and pictures.

Another thing I like to do is to add fun facts. Go online and look for little known facts of the area, neighborhood or places you visited. This makes it exciting for your guests and shows how much you enjoyed being there. It is also a great way to learn more about the places you visited if this is a keepsake book. Print out any old pictures you find in your online search and add those next to a picture of what the place looks like today.

At the end of the book, I included a personal note to my son. If this is a keepsake for you to treasure, add some “notes to self”, such as in my journal about our trip to France I included a note to remember to take a washcloth next time. Apparently, they don’t use them or sell them in any stores. Include fun facts, places you might want to visit next time, etc.

The book that I created for my son was 55 pages. That was because I wanted to fill the whole book so I used the back half of the book for a gallery. I added all the extra pictures that I wanted to use, and pieces of brochures that I cut up, making notes where possible.

You do not have to make your book as large as this one, but once you get started, you won’t want to stop.

On the last 2 pages, I decided to try to “paint” a special place where we had dinner. It is the thought that counts!!

Be brave. You just never know unless you try!

I really hope that you are inspired to try this for your next trip, or if you have pictures and brochures laying around from previous trips and don’t know what to do with them, give this a try. And have fun!!