How do you record your travels?

I think the postcards are a great idea! I have a small journal I travel with & try to write in it each day/night. Especially about the funny little things we start joking about or tips for our next trip, etc. It's nice to look back on..

Hi BTC,

I keep a travel journal and collect picture postcards as well as my own photos.

For me, no PDA, camcorder, journal, or blog.

I have never keep a travel journal, in the traditional sense of recording what I am doing... but I always carry a small spiral notebook & jot down addresses, new phrases I learn, make lists, etc.

For photos, I use a disposable camera and supplement with post cards I buy.

I have a travel journal I write in, plus I take lots of pictures, and I usually have semi-firm itineraries on my Palm, so I have a pretty good record of what I've done (judging from the hours I've spent naming the roughly 1000 digital pictures I took in the last 6 weeks around Europe, maybe too good of a record).

Personal photos, journaling, trip reports typed up at home for my own memories, receipts, business cards, brochures, postcards, and photography coffee table books.

I keep a small journal in my purse/pack and whenever we stop for a glass of wine or just to relax I always catch myself up on what we did or saw sine the last time I wrote. I always like to write down street names and store and restaurant names for future reference. It also gives my husband and I a chance to relive those moments. I usually don't put my trip report together until my trip is over.

I write in a journal. Most of my trips are anywhere from 10-14 days. If I am good, I write during the first one and a half days, then blow it off. I keep telling myself that the next trip will be different and I'll keep writing. We'll see if that ever happens.

I use my iPAQ to record where and when, f-stop, exposure, and shutter speed (I use the appointment function for this), and I place pushpins on the Pocket Streets map so I can locate places again. Each pin is tagged with the name and address of the site, plus what I did there (photograph, food, books, services, clean toilets, intriguing history).

Duh - aperture, exposure, and film speed.

I have taken a very nice leather bound journal that my wife bought for me on the last two trips. Sadly, the only thing written it is a half of a page from the first of those trips, mostly saying something like. "so here we are...". I guess I'm not a journaler. But I do record the trip in photos. Lots of them.

Robes, you surprised me! I would have surely taken you for a digital camera guy. Do you shoot with film? Guessing, due to you recording the settings externally.

Duh for me too. I just saw your followup. Question answered!

I have only kept a journal one time. I use to collect all the receipts etc. but finally tossed everything. A few months later I "discovered" Fodors. I sure wish I had kept all the information I had collected. I keep saying I am going to keep a running journal but never do..guess I am having to much fun to bother.

I do take photos and I do collect postcards..for some reason I love postcards.

I do bring a small spiral notebook. Nothing fancy, as I frequently rip out pages to give notes or info to others.

I try to 'catch up' at lunch or another meal, at least once a day. I record what I've visited, my impressions, who I've met, what I ate, problems and wonders, etc. It's almost like a 'cleaning out' of my memory for me. I can go on to enjoy other things because those memories have been recorded. The slate is clean for the day!

I also take scads of photos, as I sell them as part of my art business. It helps with the trip reports I write at the end.

Here are my trip reports, for those that wish to see how detailed I got. BTW, the first trip (Ireland, England) was done without these journals, but with some video, and written 10 years after the fact. Guess I do have a good memory, after all!

http://www.greendragonartist.com/BItripreports.htm

I create form pages for my daytimer using my photos from previous trips for the watermark, so I enjoy filling out our hotels, restaurants, days activities and travel times by simply filling in the allotted areas. There are also pages for each day for my musings on the events and people that I've met along the way.

I also create a GBC bound journal for my husband with cycling photos of him and those we've taken from the Tour De France as the watermark so he has a fun way of keeping track of his vacation cycling miles/kilometers with altitude and conditions for the day.

I make both of these with cover pages of a great photo and full title for each vacation.

I made these for all his friends when they joined us one year to follow the tour, they loved the idea.

When we return home I use this info to create a book using word with my photos interspersed throughout the journal entries.

I then print that out and Bind it for a permanent memory book of each trip.

I carry a spiral notebook and write in it each day. Somedays I even remember to date it. I used to carry ziplocks for reciepts, postcards etc but my husband is a helpless book junkie, so now I keep those things in the pages of the books I know he'll buy.
When I get home I enjoy deciphering my handwriting which has grown worse with the use of a computer.

Oh, I love the idea of making a book! Gotta go do that now...

I keep a daily journal wherever I am, so whether traveling or not, I have a record. Sometimes I take pictures, but I prefer to sit and describe things.

I also write insane amounts of letters and postcards to those I love. My most important recipient recently passed away and I don't know who is going to get the bulk of my mail now. Also, even though he kept every single letter of mine (spanning over 10 years) in a bundle on his coffee table, his daughter in law threw them all away, apologizing that they were "lost in the shuffle." There went that record.

I keep a journal. Religiously. Which is ironic, considering the fact that I simply cannot do this when I'm at home. I also put together a scrapbook with photos, postcards, and various receipts, brochures, tickets, and other pieces of information I've picked up along the way.

I leave camera at home, bring a small sketchbook and watercolor pencils/brush. That way I can sit and observe something beautiful for awhile, make some notes on the back or use some of the sheets for notes, and don't feel as if I must always be taking photos.

It seems like each time I go I think of a better way to log my travels. I was going to take a normal spiral-bound journal for my trip to Ireland in 4 months but I think I'll invest in a nicer, more heavy-duty leather bound number that I can use as a travel journal for this trip and the next (and the next and the next...). There are lots of good ideas here, though! I love the daily postcard idea! My son will love getting them, I'm sure, since he can't go with this time. Thanks for all the good ideas!

laclaire, what a terrible loss. Both your friend and all the heartfelt travel letters you sent him.

Thank you, Statia. I am still really upset about the whole thing. I mean, really, the only thing missing from the boxes were my letters. The man lived in one room at a nursing home and had very few possessions. Luckily, when he moved from his home, I got his entire library, which now resides happily in my room until I get my own apartment. I like to think that relatives just didn't realize how important they were, but that is just not the case. But bad blood among family is no new thing, I guess.

On a lighter note, my old Spanish teacher unearthed my letters from when i went abroad and the Spanish in the first few (September-December) is so bad that I don't know what I was trying to say to her. The ones at the end are coherent and positive. So, that is an interesting record, indeed.

Oh, thank goodness for this post. I'm just about finished packing for Paris, leaving tomorrow, and I had completely forgotten to pull out the small spiral notebook I meant to take.

Fodors to the rescue again!

Hi

I keep trip reports and the best pictures on my homepage http://gardkarlsen.com It is great for us to use this to look back on our trips and it seems that it is also of some use to other travellers

Regards
Gard
Stavanger, Norway

I keep a journal - and for some unknown reason I take great pleasure in the fact that it's a leather-bound, hand-made journal! I do write in it religiously; one of my favorite activities is to relax, usually in a pub, during the late afternoon, and write down the day's events. I also take lots of pictures, and keep separate photo albums for my trips. Like another poster here, I don't write in my journal much when I am at home (which sometimes disturbs me). But I must admit I do really like reading about past trips.

I love this thread.

I make my own travel journal. I cover two pieces of chipboard with bookcloth, punch holes, set eyelets and bind with loose leaf rings. I like to sketch and do watercolors when we travel so I use a heavy paper that can take a water wash. I also include a couple of envelopes to stash bits of travel ephemera. I found a little one-hole punch to cart along so I can add things as we go.

I send postcards to our dog (yes I know, complete dorkdom) and bind those into the book when they arrive home after we do.

laclaire, That is so sad. Sounds like a lovely and enduring friendship. I am sorry for your loss.

Great thread. Thanks for starting it beantown.

My husband and I are embarking on our first ever european travel this fall and this thread has given me great ideas how to record this trip. That was really sweet of your parents sending you postcards when they are away. I'm a scrapbooker myself so that idea will work so well with my planned travel album. My husband is a camera buff so I expect hundreds and hundreds of digital photos from him. On our honeymoon in Hawaii 2 years ago he was averaging about 125 digital pictures a day!

I also keep a travel journal every day and enjoy writing in it at the end of the day, either sitting in a cafe or on the hotel balcony - with a glass of wine, of course

I didn't notice that anyone mentioned keeping tabs of photos taken. I carry a small (3x5) spiral notebook and jot down where I've taken the photo or the name of the monument, etc., for example, photo #13-15 is monument such & such. I found after my first trips and no diary/photo log, I had trouble remembering where the heck I took the picture. I label each roll (#1,#2); I don't use digital. Anyhow, this has been a tremendous help plus the little notebook allows me to jot down other notes.

This might have been mentioned before, and if so forgive me. I learned here from a Fodorite to take along a small manila envelope for each day. I label it with the date and put in the day's receipts, brochures, business cards, etc. It is very helpful when making a trip report alongside my journal.

Before I went digital, I also learned to put a piece of masking tape on each roll of 35 mm film in order to write the date on each roll for future reference. There again, to coincide with the journaling.

Fodorites have such great tips! And, to think that my mother and sister were wondering why I had all those empty, dated manila envelopes on our trip to Rome recently. Sometimes I keep the info in the small envelopes because they are fun to look thru later.

"I didn't notice that anyone mentioned keeping tabs of photos taken."

You DIDN'T?

I keep laborious notes in a notebook every day, plus write in my laptop every night if I have that with me...all of which I assemble when I'm home and foist upon poor unsuspecting Fodors readers.

I carry my small travel journal with me everyday, and I write down things like weather, meals, restaurants, wine selections, food we tried that we really liked/disliked, etc. I have written travel articles as well as presented travelogues, so my journals are invaluable to me. I'm glad I take (pretty) good notes. I can very often refer to a journal for specific information, which I post on forums here.

I make a scrapbook album when I get home, placing it in all the special things I have collected, my thoughts and my favorite photos.

And I relive every second while spending hours doing the album - makes my holiday last longer!

I take my journal with me. I write in it on the train or tour bus. Also every night before sleeping. I mail post cards home of every where I go to stick in the journal when I get home. Most of the time, I am traveling without the husband. Keeps him posted throughout my trip too. Sometimes I sketch and draw in it. It has become a journal/art book/scrapbook. I love to put in little pamphlets of the places i have been. Sometimes I will even put in just an add or a magazine picture I like. Or write a poem in in. Whatever moves me.

On the train going from England to Scotland, I was writing in my journal, and I finally looked up to see my best friend, drawing a picture of me, in his wife's journal. That made me laugh, so I drew him, drawing me.

It is something that I am always glad to have with me. I have the "title" of my journal on the front, written in calligraphy. It says, "I know you believe you think you understood what I said, but I am not sure you realize, that what I said, is not what I meant." I had seen that somewhere when I was in highschool and it made perfect sense to me when I read it, and I never forgot it.

If people see it, it usually starts a good conversation.

I am determined to keep a journal/ scrapbook this time (3 weeks in France in June). One of my first tasks in Paris is to find a stationery store and buy a French "cahier" (school notebook) to use as my journal.

My family traveled in Europe when I was young and my mother wrote long letters home to my grandmother describing what we'd done each day. Fortunately my grandmother saved all the letters. My father is now carefully transcribing all of them and matching the text with photos from the trips. Some 35 years later we'll have a trip report!

Statia, thanks for passing that idea of a manila envelope for each day of the trip! I never thought of doing it that way. I usually have an envelope for all receipts and another envelope for used museum ticket, train tickets, etc. I'll definitely do it your way on our next trip.

A travel journal. I just enter date, place, occasion, hotel, remarkable restaurants & purchases, weather. It helps 20 years hence when you cannot recall the name of a hotel.

laclaire - how sad, but it sounds like your friend treasured your letters, and that's the most important thing.

Statia - love your idea of the separate envelopes for each day. I usually jumble the odds and ends together and then have a heck of a time organizing things later (if I bother).

As a take off on that idea, I read somewhere (on this board, I think) the idea to mail envelopes of brochures, etc. home to yourself as you go to reduce what you have to carry around.

I carry a miniature tape recorder which my wife and I try to keep updated about where we've been and what we've done. I also often bring a small notebook which I use for a couple of days and then forget about. I do collect all receipts, business cards, maps, brochures and usually reconstruct things from those.
Then I go home and within a few weeks, build a new page on my travel site. When I want to check where I've been and what I've done, I go to my own travel site.
Here are the results:
http://www.travel.stv77.com/

I write a journal and when I get home I type it up on journal size pages and paste them into journal books that are all the same size. Tie with ribbon and attach tags with colored clip art and the place and date. I have them all in an antique suitcase. This is a new thing so I had to go back and type all of them up... still typing. Also take pix, buy postcards and keep receipts and put them all in a scrapbook with captions -- but not into fancy scrapbooking.

Poohgirl...I have to laugh because this is exactly what I do also.

I always have every intention of doing better about this on each trip and yet somehow, someway, I start out fine and then I don't know what happens. I guess I get caught up in my travels and the journal goes to the wayside. As the day progresses somewhere along the way I remember that I haven't jotted things down and think to myself that I will do all my catching up tonight at the hotel, however, once I get back to the hotel, usually very late, I am thinking of nothing but going to sleep immediately as I am totally exhausted.

But this September while in Paris once again I will truely try to keep my journal and this time I mean it !!!

I sometimes use my iPAQ to record ambient sounds to accompany certain kinds of still photos ... markets, street performers, Métro bands (including that accordion virtuoso on Ligne 1). When I burn the trip to CD, I use the sound impressions as part of the narrative.

Most MP3 players have an audio recording function, and I think iPODs do, too.

I have a day by day itineary prepared in advance. I carry it around with me and make notes about things we saw, missed, enjoyed, didn't enjoy etc. Then each evening I talk about our day into a small tape recorder. I take tons of photos and once home I transcribe my tape recorder, refer to my notes and make a pretty scrapbook with my photos, post cards and souvenirs in it.

Great thread... I bring along my Palm and a small fold up keyboard to record my journal each day whenever time permits. I note people my family and I have met, places we stayed or special events that we enjoyed. I use digital cameras that are date stamped and refer those to my jounal when I return. It has made it possible for my family and I to recall the joy of our travels over and over.

Follow-up: I just got home and found an envelope from my cousin containing my 3 most recent letters. No note on how they were recovered, but treasured they will be.

I write my adventures every day in a journal since my 13th birthday, i'm now in my early 40's and sometimes I read back over old journals and see how happy/sad i've been over the years. I always take my journal with me on holiday so i can write exactly how i feel each evening just before I go asleep, so that way the emotions and feeling are real and true, and not just remembered when I get back.

I use my "reporter's notebooks" that I also use for reporting work (bought in bulk from the U.S., the so-called reporter's notebooks they sell in the UK are just ordinary notebooks). They're long and slim, fit easily into an inside pocket or purse. Sometimes they have unexpected benefits...I was writing some notes to myself at a good restaurant in Vienna (about a museum I'd been to in the morning), when the waiter saw the cover (it says Reporter's Notebook in large blue letters), had a whispered consult with the bartender/manager/whatever and next thing I knew I was served another glass of wine and dessert "on the house." Later they aske me who I wrote for (I said several magazines, which is true, but they're all medical, not travel, mags). They also asked what hotel I was staying at--in this case it happened to be the 5-star Grand because I'd found an incredibly low special rate on the Internet--so I guess they assumed I was on some posh mag assignment. Anyway, I got great service!
Alas, that's only happened once. I keep hoping, though.

I once read a tip about eating alone in a restaurant that involved looking thoughtful during the meal and making occasional notations in a notebook. Voila. Instant change from 'pathetically alone' to respected and feared food critic.

Yeesh, all you people are way more organized than I! Whenever I start a journal for any reason, I seem to put it in a special place so I remember to write in it, then promptly forget where that place is.

Traveling, I take notes in whatever tiny little guidebook I take with me in microscopic handwriting on the inside cover, the back of the title page, etc. Then when friends borrow the book or I want to know what restaurant had the fantastic wine/desert/whatever I break out my magnifying glass and look it up. That's as organized as I get!

I am determined to be more organized moving forward. I also started and stopped writing in a journal. And, I was really bad at keeping my photos in order.

Well, I started scrapbooking and "catching up." From here on out, I'm keeping a food journal. I realize that it's something I'd really get into, writing about the food, restaurants and social experiences at meals. I got a little accordion folder to keep ticket stubs, brochures, etc. for scrapbook projects later. I also picked up a spiral bound notebook for sketches from http://www.dickblick.com/categories/papers/. If you buy in bulk, you can get a discount.

I like the idea of sending postcards to myself at every location, so I'll try that on my next trip to Italy.

Finally, I bought a digital camera so that I can store pics on cds instead and just printout as needed. I didn't want to spend a lot of money (<$400), so I picked up a Panasonic lumix dmc tz1 that was onsale online at http://www.circuitcity.com/ssm/Panasonic-Lumix-DMC-TZ1S-Digital-Camera/sem/rpsm/oid/146862/catOid/-13062/rpem/ccd/productDetail.do. It's got lots of zoom, feels substantial in my hand, but is still compact enough for me. I'm not ready for digital slrs like some of the serious travelers here, but I'm really happy with the pictures that I took with this camera so far. I'm still playing around with the features, but I found the image stabilization and macro mode are really great. Now that I have a mac, I might finally try shooting some video clips that I can edit.

I'm not blogging or using a pda, but maybe I'll try flicr.

All of your posts have really inspired and motivated me to get started and stick with it. Thanks!