The Art of Journaling as you travel...

I don't keep one, as I'm either too busy enjoying the moment, or too tired once I have returned after a busy day of fun.

My mom, however, is an artist, and on our trip to Paris/Rome she had a little 5x7 watercolor book. Every day she tried to take a moment to paint a quick scene. At the end of the day, she stopped and wrote a summary of the day, including whatever funny or extra cool things we saw.

When we returned home, she sent me a CD with her trip photos and a copy of her notes typed out. I just found this copy the other day and greatly enjoyed reliving all the great moments that I had already forgotten.

I don't seem to be patient enough to journal. I've brought a couple of actual journals with me, but after a few days, I abandon them. I think it's because I don't like writing without a specific audience.

However, especially when I'm traveling alone, I do hunt up internet cafes and send long, detailed messages to my sister with a copy to myself. When I get home I have a lovely on-going description of what I did and said.

Someone here sugested buying a picture postcard of the place you are visiting & writing notes, on the back.

Sometimes I do, and sometimes I don't - depends on how busy I am while I'm traveling. But I always take notes, every day, without fail, no matter where I am, even if it's boring.

Which is, I suppose, why my trip reports read like massive regurgitations. I just can't keep it simple and unadorned, and I'm much more interested in the little nuances than in recording what I saw or ate.

Hello Viagero, I have only done this once when I went to Italy some months after I lost my husband. I spent two weeks at a friends house in a small town in the Dolomites and basically just relaxed and soaked in the beautiful views, the clean crisp air and the company of my friends and their friends along with some side trips. At the suggestion of my stepson I wrote a journal, well more like a diary actually. It was good for my soul.


But otherwise I haven't haven't but I it is a good idea if one is interested in doing so I think.

Yes, I do. I have kept journals ever since I was 14 y/o. When I travel, I just take the current journal I'm writing in with me. When traveling, I write more often and usually catch up the day's events every night, although sometimes I have skipped a day. Outside of traveling, I write when I'm in the mood. On travel, I write about the places we've seen, the sites we visited, special moments on a trip (both good and bad) and whatever I want I guess. I also use my journal as a quasi scrap book. When travelling I'll put things inside of it among the pages, such as postcards from places I've really enjoyed, entry tickets to museums, etc. again whatever strikes me. The rest of the time, I may stick in a special card someone has given me, a note, and I've even been known to print an e-mail I have received and put that within the pages. I do go back and periodically read them and I enjoy it. Keep saying one of these days, maybe one of my nieces/nephew will enjoy reading them.

At times I wish I had kept notes along the way, but for brevity's sake and in order to more accurately describe just how the trip effected my life, it makes more sense to write what I feel after the trip has ended. The description becomes too clinical if I write from notes taken at the time. Maybe I'm more of a writer than a journalist?

I journal while I travel. It is much easier to do it when everything is still fresh in my memory. I use a new journal every trip. I use spiral-less notebook as a journal to reduce the bulk. I always carry my journal in my day pack to convert waiting times into productive times. I write about factual details of my trip (I have seen my parents and in-laws argue endlessly about what they did on their trips eons ago...), new insights, what I would do next time, etc.

When I travel by train, I use the travel time to catch up on my journal.

I've often wondered as I read wonderful and really helpful, detailed trip reports if the traveler actually had time to enjoy the trip! I do take some notes, even used a pedometer in Greece for the heck of it, and recorded our steps daily. I don't write down the exact menu or prices, just maybe if it was reasonable or not, or awful. I do take WAY too many pictures, digital, and I won't part with many of them since they're in the computer and only a few are really printed.
When I travel with women friends we do generally journal some info at the end of the day, reminding each other of the names of churches, restaurants, etc.
I thank those that provide so much information, love to read many of them, such humor and honesty and detail that I can actually put myself in their shoes.

I only kept a true journal on one trip (to France), but I still enjoy going back and reading it.

On the first morning, I found a store selling lots of fun notebooks and found a funky one with pockets in the covers and a stretchy band to hold it all together.

I wrote random things at random times each day, and stuck any tickets, postcards, receipts, etc into the pockets.

I still laugh when I see my cartoonish attempts to sketch the fashions of the moment, and I am always reminded of small details that have slipped away with time when I revisit that journal. I think I will have to try it again on a future trip, if the cost of everything ever goes down!

Another style of journal I keep on scuba trips to warm, sunny islands is my computerized scuba log. Divers are supposed to keep track of dive time, air consumption, etc for safety reasons to plan future dives preventing decompression sickness, but I also record all the interesting fish I see, where I went to dinner the night before, and other trip highlights. I love reading these logs and they are so easy to keep on the computer.

YES!!! I have always kept a journal since my first trip 15 years ago. It amazes me when I go back and read them how much I've forgotten over time, even trips just a year ago! At first I would write in them before I went to bed or first thing in the morning.

Now that I have an interest in travel writing, I'll stop and write when something has struck me or had an effect on me, good or bad, and write the circumstances, what I thought/felt/smelt/tasted/heard, etc. I also tend to write while on trains and planes, or when waiting for my traveling partner to return from a shop or restroom.

I used to keep a notebook and jot thoughts and rhymes infrequently. Now that I am traveling with my Blackberry, I send myself email notes. Here is one from 10 days ago written from the Plaza Manuel Bacerra in Madrid.
"Immaculately groomed old ladies with their canes and caretakers meet for cerveza, coca and conversation with cronies. It is a balmy late afternoon in madrid and there is a paseo of sorts as I eat my long overdue lunch. music is piped into my ear and I think better headphones may be in order. No complaints! I love this."
It etches the picture in my mind.

In recent years I've been a lot more intentional about journaling and usually write a few pages at the end of each day. If for some reason that's not possible I try to write early the next day while my impressions are still relatively fresh. I try to include places visited and the like but I'm much more inclined to write about people I've met and special things I've experienced. Occasionally I sketch and take my watercolours for scenes that spark a particular interest along the way. While traveling I also shop for journals ... next trip I'll use one handmade by a young Vietnamese girl I met in Hoi An. It's wonderful to browse through the journals later ... almost like reliving the vacation experiences all over again.

Yes. Have been for almost 25 years. Some are more detailed than others, depending on where we are, who we are with, time, etc. When we've gone for longer trips I write letters home to my mother and she hands them over to me when we return.

I always find time to write. I'm a night owl so stay up later than my husband and write then. Or while we are on a train or plane (he likes to sleep). When we are in England we often watch TV in the evenings and I write as I watch. I'll even jot down a few notes while he's filling the car up with gas. My trip diaries are some of my favourite possessions.

As an often solo traveler, I find plenty of time for journaling; sitting in a cafe, on a train, or on my balcony overlooking some view. I'm not a record the details type of person so much as I tend to write about my observations and often about the thoughts and inspirations I have when I travel.

I find getting away from my everyday life (and work world) is one of the best ways for activating my creative self. Journaling helps me capture that.

I'm not good at keeping a detailed travel journal. I always wanted to and tried my best a couple of times, but I failed miserably. My brain is just too tired at the end of the day.

Last trip I bought a Moleskin City Notebook (Paris) and used it to jot down short notes, lists, names of paintings I liked, what I did each day in point form, etc. It worked out really well. The Moleskin notebooks are very lightweight and compact so they're easy to carry around. Before I left I wrote down important addresses, directions, instructions, phrases, and other handy things.

At the end of the trip, I didn't have a journal per se but something full of details and memories nonetheless, not to mention practical information.

The Moleskins Notebooks are great for people like me who are too much of a zombie of the end of the day to do a detailed journal on a consistent basis.

I used to journal religiously and write long trip reports. I find that unless the trip report is about London, Paris or Rome not a lot of people read them. So, I make my trip reports shorter now (if I post them at all). Journaling just takes up time on vacation and I have better things to do while on vacation.

For a long time I didn't, but I wish I had.

When I read my journals now, it's like taking the trip a second time.

I keep the facts (hotels, restaurants, costs) and impressions. I now carry a glue stick and stick in business cards, napkins and all kinds of junk that I would otherwise have throw away.

I now include little sketches, although I have no artistic ability.

I carry my journal with me and write whenever I can, but my favorite time is over coffee/beer/wine at my mid-afternoon break. I finish writing about the day after dinner, or if I've been out on the town, at breakfast the next morning.

I keep a journal of every trip. The last thing at night I do is write up the day. I know I miss things but I take the view that if I don't remember them on the day they occurred they weren't all that memorable! Like many of you I also keep tickets, brochures, postcards etc and when I return I put them with my photos and printouts of my journals into albums. My husband says he can't remember anything until he has read my trip journals! I love doing it and it is like doing the trip again as I put it all together. It has become such a habit that I don't go anywhere without my journal.
Rosemary

We had great intentions of keeping journals of our trip to Europe this summer, but quickly realized that at the end of the day we were just too tired to sit and write a recap. . .

Instead, our daughter (9 years old) made a blog (set up on my mac through my .mac account) that we would update every few days. It was a great way to pass time while on the train and it was fun to re-live where we had just been. I would then send the link to the blog to all our family and friends, and they could see where we had been and read the commentary. Our daughter loved reading the comments people left for her. The blog included pictures and text, so when we got home I could just print it all out and I had a ready-made scrapbook.

My travel journals are treasures! I've never regretted taking the time to record my experiences at day's end. It helps me plan future trips, it brings to mind things that I have forgotten. Yes, we're tired after a day of sightseeing but that is for me a great opportunity to sit, prop up my feet and reflect on the day. It can be as detailed or as sketchy as I feel at the moment. But it's really an important part of my travel.

This October we're returning to France and adding Barcelona to our itinerary...I bought a small digital recorder the size of an ipod and plan to keep it easy to reach in my day bag and I'll record things throughout my day to help me remember details. I'm thinking that's going to make my journaling a lot easier. We'll see!

On my trip to Europe I biugt a beautiful jurnal to record my experiences in.

Sorry about that.....let's try again.

I bought a beautiful book. If you open it up today there is one paragraph written while I was on the plane wedged between two passengers. I never wrote in it again. My days were so busy and packed that I fell asleep the instant I got back to my room.

Now as I plan to return I wish I could remember that great restaurant or where I bought my watch. I'll try again this time.

Once I journalled in a book I was reading at the time, "Cold Mountain". All the blank pages were filled with my trip report and it is a treasured memory now, as it was a very special trip to Germany. I used to journal in notebooks, but I have never read them again. Now, I take my laptop and at the end of every day I download my pictures and write about the day while it is still fresh in my mind and then post all of that to my blog. As a result, not only can our friends follow our travels during our trip, but I have a permanent record of our travels to enjoy in our old age.

I don't journal per se when I travel. I'd rather live in the moment, not be taking photos or writing paragraphs.

I do keep a small 3x5" spiral notebook with me at all times that I'll jot down words, street addresses, short thoughts I want to remember.

No I don't because I want to take in everything around me and enjoy friends but I do keep cards, menus, brochures of places we visited and dined, and on rainy days, they bring back memories.

I still have my first travel journal, written while on a cross country trip with my parents when I was 10. I've pretty much been writing them ever since. One doesn't have to sacrifice being "in the moment" to keep a journal. I write in mine while I'm a passenger in a car, train, plane or bus, or else I jot down a summary of the day before falling asleep each night. They are great fun to re-read years later.

Wanderfrau, I love the glue stick idea!

That's true for me too.. I make little travel packets each trip. Into a sandwich-sized ziplock bag I tuck business cards, receipts, ticket stubs, postcards, maps, various fun little mementos I pick up along the way.

I had to laugh about saving menus and ticket stubbs. I used to do that and then my suitcase would weigh like a ton of bricks when I returned home. The stuff would hang around in piles. Periodically I would sweep it all up and toss it. The bottom line is that I toss all that stuff now. I have been to Europe many times now and am approaching retirement. My house is full of stuff I should not have bought or saved. Please, no more.

From my recent trip to Australia and NZ, I brought back exactly ONE brochure. It was for toilets designed by Hundertwasser in Kawakawa, NZ, and is for a friend who is a Hundertwasser fan and went to Vienna with me in 2007. Hundertwasser designed an apartment building in Vienna and she went nuts over it. I brought home the brochure for her as a joke. Now, where did I put it? Yes, by the way, the Hundertwasser toilets are functional. Of course, I did not go to NZ especially just to "experience" them. It would have been a long way to go to, well, you know.

I knew I was going to write a trip report about our recent May escapades and needed to make notes, but in past holidays found this becomes bothersome and I tend to skip a few days, eventually giving up. So, my DH bought me a small recorder the size of a slim cellphone but I never managed to master the ins & outs of the new mechanism in time to do it justice.
What saved my bacon was our digital photos - not only the visual aspect but also the time when each photo was taken. We took many photos of the road names or buildings besides the usual and found this helped tremendously when trying to place a particluar photo instance.

GOSH.. I have read each and every one of the posts and the information posted is amazing!!

-- Loved the "Cold Mountain" blank pages journaling.

-- journaling while in transit; car, bus, train.

-- what is a Moleskin City Notebook- Paris?

-- journaling with the group at the end of the day reminding each other of sights, etc...

-- blogging / emailing somebody with cc: yourself; great idea!!

-- drawings/watercolors; wish I had the talent!

-- buy a postcard of a sight; journal on the back-- priceless!!

I used to use a tape recorder but after a while it ceased to work; meanwhile I went on blabbing into it, not knowing it was kaput and lost valuable thoughts that way! This happened with two tape recorders.

A diary only needs to be evocative; it doesn't need to be in complete sentences or paragraphs. Let's face it, who's going to read it but you and maybe your travel partner.

This last trip I printed out one page per day, with our plan for that day on one side only. I left the back blank, for a diary of sorts. Since we only knew where we'd be 4 of 16 nights, a day's plan would be pretty generic--ask about best local market, pay up at B&B, reserve that night's B&B, get gas on Saturday, etc. The back of each page was where I wrote my diary--beret sightings (the beret is not dead in France!), meals, expenses, what we saw and did. It's the world's worst handwriting as I did it in the car or while eating or in bed.

A quick note at the time is all you need; it doesn't interrupt your enjoyment and later you can expand on the note.

I have a travel journal for 398 days from 1969-1970 that I still enjoy looking at. We didn't have a camera at the time so the words had to convey the picture.

I used to journal during my trip & then scrapbook all the photos, tickets, receipts, pamphlets & cards I collected into an album upon my return! Beautiful, but oh, so much work to put together!

In an effort to simplify my (travel) life, I now just journal: recording highlights of the day, impressions, feelings evoked, a wonderful meal. This I do usually at the end of the day. Sometimes, it's a full description of my day, but not always. It's lovely to return to these stories many years later.

With the digital camera, I am able to reduce the number of photos I print & then I save the rest to a cd. These photos I place into a small album --- I still like the tangible! With the companion journal, I am able to remember my experiences with greater clarity!

I don't journal because (for me) it just detracts from actually enjoying the moments. What I do instead is - when sitting with a glass of wine or before going to bed - write myself a postcard with whatever event, sight, meal, person, etc. that really stuck with me that day. Then I mail it and have it waiting in the mailbox upon return.

Once, an artist on a train to Segovia wanted to draw me a sketch of Chano Lobato (who I saw the night before), so he drew it on a postcard and signed it and mailed it to me.

Been journal-ing on all travels since 1946...read over selected journals from time to time..have shared them with grandchildren and children, friends and other family. I can tell you what I did, experienced, saw, missed, since then.

Any recommendatons I have written on these forum pages come from specific relevant journals. What was the weather like in Russia in October 1985? Yes. I recently consulted my October-November 1985 journal on USSR travel so we'll bascally know what to expect next month on a return visit. Among all of the words, one stands out...c-o-l-d.
This resource coupled with photos of the trip can give us a good handle on the weather.

It's fascinating fun to keep a journal, but you can't let it stand in the way of real-time enjoyment. I typically write in the journal at the end of the day, every day....then read it to wife later in the evening.

Now, in the digital age, it becomes much simpler to recall all of the days events in the journal. The nice thing about compact journals,(1/2" x 4" x 6") is that they don't take up significant shelf room on the bookcases. Thank goodness we don't use photo albums any longer.

stu

I like to journal as I travel. I've done so with varying success. Some of my prizes are complete journals with pictures, tickets, stamps, wine labels and spent phone cards pasted in. When I write I purposely leave every other page blank so I can insert pictures and momentos later.

The hard part is to get close to real time. I'm always having to work to catch up. It's easier to do when I'm traveling alone. I can sit in a pub with a pint and write like crazy. It's actually been a conversation starter on more than one occasion.

For future trips I'm strongly leaning toward a digital voice recorder (coupled with voice recognition software for my computer). I will be able to "write" as fast as I can talk. When I get home I can download the file with voice recognition into a word processing document then edit as needed and "paste" in my digital photos. My digital journal can then be shared with anyone who is interested.

We bought one of those small digital handheld recorders for around $60. As we travel, I make recorded notes of where we are, what we've seen, etc. I try to transcribe the notes to our laptop every night or two but even if I don't the info is still there when we get home.

This helps me to do trip reports for Fodor's but my notes are usually more comprehensive than what I actually end up posting.

BettyK-- can you expand on the small digital handheld recorders?

I don't take pictures or write in journals. I'm usually pretty on the go until I'm tired and ready to sleep. I have forced myself to write a few trip reports this year which helps me process my time away and it's nice to share with other travel enthusiasts.

gruezi

I always have good intentions but can't seem to find the energy at the end of the day to do a full journal. What I do keep is a personally designed daily calendar page for each day of the trip with columns for that day's "plan (times, phone numbers, etc.)," money spent, places visited, etc. I keep all receipts and fill in the gaps when I get home. And my camera is attached to my hand at all times so I can keep a visual journal. I fill in the informational details when I return home and edit the photos.

I used to keep a journal when I traveled. Now I find it much easier to have my personal assistant keep my journal for me. She is also good with Swedish massage.

Viajero
I don't keep a journal, but always regret that I don't. I am usually too busy enjoying the moment, so all my memories are in my mind. Unfortunately, memories fade.

However, in the 80's I went to Europe for 5 1/2 months and kept a journal every day...I was young and footloose. I still have it and it is so preciosu to me. I also just got reunited with a friend who I traveled with in Athens back then...he lives in Spain...and he loved when I sent him the copies of the pages from my journal that brought back our good times 25 years ago. I remember writing at night, after the day, when memories were fresh.

lollylo25-- you just summed up what journaling is all about...it will bring you right back.

The daily calendar pages thingy is genius!!

I'm really enjoying the different responses, although don't agree that you have to choose between 'enjoying the moment' and journaling. I never journal as I'm walking through a museum, watching a play, having a special dinner, etc. - that would just be weird.

For me a little 4x6 spiral notebook works the best. I try to make an entry each day--all sorts of odds and ends of observations, snippets of conversations, sayings, poetry (sometimes mine and sometimes from a real poet), people I've met, weather. Also keep a running tally of expenses and miles driven (if renting a car), train or bus trip times, etc.

When I get home, I type these into a coherent report for public (family and friends) consumption. I then put this into the front of my photo album of the trip. The little notebooks go into a drawer of my desk at home.

Every once in a while I pull them out and reread them and it is as if I am on the trip again. With the digital age, I now have a picure record with times and dates which is a great help, when I have forgotten a detail. As others have mentioned, I don't print every photo, just those which really tell part of the story.

A number of years ago, my parents treated my entire family to a summer in the Cotswolds. Their only requirement was that we all, from the youngest at 3 to the oldest at 75, keep journals. After dinner, we would all sit in the lounge at the houses we rented and write. The little ones would have help and the older ones would just write.

When I go to London next month, I am going to blog about it. I write a design blog (www.pigtown-design.blogspot.com/) and will be introducing my readers to shops, museums and other things in London and Cardiff. I lived in London for a while and have a perspective that many of my readers might not have.

So, this trip, the blog will be the journal.

irishface, I do almost exactly the same thing as you, except I use a 3x5 notebook and I take pictures of EVERYTHING.

I don't write down details about restaurants or meals in my notebook because I document it all by taking pictures of the restaurant, menu and food. In my notebook, besides making notes of times, locations & expenses, I try to include comments that will jog my memory of specific events, places or people, so that I can remember them when I am home and writing up my trip in a more coherent, detailed narrative.

I don't find that my note taking detracts from my enjoyment of the "moment" as they're just quick notes. I do try to add more details each night before going to bed and sometimes I've supplemented "details" after I get home by doing actual research online. For instance, while in Ayutthaya in Thailand, I had jotted a note about the queen who fought to protect her husband at the Three Pagodas Pass. I found it very interesting. What actually went into my travel book was "During an invasion by the Burmese through the Three Pagodas Pass, Queen Suriyothai (wife of King Chakrapat of Ayutthaya) fought to protect her husband who was fighting with the Burmese King Tabinshweti. She was mortally wounded protecting her husband and defending her nation."

I have had people often tell me how impressed they are with my books and that I should be a travel writer. They say that they wish they would/could do the same. But, like StCirq, I think my photo albums and travel narratives are actually too detailed for most (kinda boring) and everyone's just being nice. Bottom line though, they certainly bring back vivid memories for me, so that's why I do it.

>>>what is a Moleskin City Notebook-Paris?<<<

You can check them out here:

http://tinyurl.com/y6h78y

and here:

http://tinyurl.com/3fqw3q

I spelt it wrong btw- it's Moleskine. They are city-specific little notebooks where you can more or less prepare your own travel guide. They're about the size of my hand and weigh next to nothing (seriously, they are featherlight)

I have a new London City Notebook with me right now. Inside it's got: a tube map; several pages worth of London neighbourhood maps with a street index; a page with the phone numbers and website addresses for all London area airports, national rail, and tfl (and some cab companies and other transportation numbers); a simple itinerary planning chart (blank); lists of measurements and conversions; a page with ruler-like measurements along the edge (so you can use it like a small ruler to measure something); several blank note pages (good for journal writing); several lined pages that are tabbed (only about 5 lines per page to break it into chunks); a small sheet of blank stickers to tab your own pages with your own headings; a few pages that are divided into perforated squares that you can tear out to make little notes (like to give someone your phone number); and a few pages of tracing paper to use with the maps.

Hard but flexible plain black cover, and an elastic to keep the notebook closed and everything tucked in.

They're brilliant and I love them. I made good use of my Paris Notebook, and I've got one for London and one for Rome to take with me on my next couple of trips.

I bought a journal before I took my first trip to Paris in 2000. I've taken three more trips since then, mostly to Italy, and the journal goes with me each trip. It's the first thing I pack.

I either write at the end of the day, or find a favorite place in each city (usually a cafe) and write while having a glass of wine. This last trip, I wrote down notes at the end of the day, and wrote my journal on the plane ride home. A good way to pass 10 hours!

I love going back and reading about each trip. It brings back memories so vividly.

Johanna

Viajero2, here's a page from Amazon showing some different types of recorders.

We bought ours at Office Depot on sale. We actually have a couple of them. The newest one can be plugged into our computer and the voice recording downloaded. DH likes this feature for his doctor visits that he records and saves.

http://www.amazon.com/Digital-Voice-Recorders-Audio-Video/b?ie=UTF8&node=227758

I use to handwrite notes in a little memo book at the end of the day or even during the day, but it just seemed to take so long, especially when I was tired. The voice recorder just works better for me but it may not be for everyone.

Always. Each and every day. As well as descriptions on scenery, sites, restaurants, culture, etc. I include details on weather, prices, etc. I have referred back to them many times. We also take exterior pics of each and every place we stay (always B&B's/sobes/pensions) as well as good restaurants (both exterior and of the plates).

I keep the little journal (just a small 3x5 spiral notebook) in my small travel bag so it is always available for me to jot down notes. However, I do normally journal just before going to bed or while on a train. It does not detract from the moment at all - I am so eager to record. I have many differently coloured notebooks for our many trips. I also have a photo journal - on some trips we see 20+ castles, for example, and at the time we remember them all but our memory fades at times! They've come in handy to prove my husband wrong a few times!

I am pretty anal and find little details extremely important to remember. I want to keep memories fresh!

I try to journal each day.. and with mixed success. I am less inclined to journal the big things (Paris.. I probably went to the Louvre) and am more inclined to journal the little things. A person I met who interested me, a silly sidewalk scene, a funny story.

My son is 28. We just read the journal of our US trip. I forgot that he wouldn't get out of the car in Oklahoma because of news reports of the plague within the rodent population. He was always very afraid of germs... So we all got a chuckle out of that story.

I find if I do not journal the day something happens, it is gone.

Another thought. I took my niece and daughter on a month long European boondoggle. Since we had a ton of folks back home to share with, we each wrote a lengthy postcard each night at dinner. It was detailed as a journal would be. I buy stamps at the shop where I buy the postcards - otherwise, they never get mailed. We mail each card after dinner, so it had a postmark from the place/time of the event.

I periodically look thru these - and all our friends and family got to keep track of us (they kept the postcards and gave them to us when we returned!).

I've been travel journalling for more than 20 years now. It started back in the day when we would drive from CT to south Florida, and I wanted to make a note of good places to eat or stay over, and what we did on those vacations(our kids were young at the time). Now I see you can buy a book with all that info!

But I do go back sometimes and reread some of our trips. We have been to some pretty amazing places, and those journals take me right back there. I try to do it most evenings before I go to bed as we are travelling -- if I can't keep up or am too tired, I just make highlight notes and fill in later. It's a habit I enjoy, and it fuels/informs my future travel plans, too.

The digital recorder I purchased was around $30 at Office Depot and it's a Sony. I've been using it in my car, recording things I see or hear that I want to remember when I get home. This way I've become well acquainted with how it works and it's simple. I can't wait to use it on our trip.

I'm always impressed with some of the travel reports on this forum - ones where individuals have been so detailed about restaurants and where they were and what they ate and how much it cost...etc. I'm never going to journal that as I go so I'm hoping this little device will help me preserve more details of my experiences until I can journal.

Apres-- brilliant suggestion on the Moleskine City Notebooks!! Christmas List!!!!

bettyk-- great recs on recorders! I will look into a model; the SONY rec for 150 recording hours sounds amazing!

I almost always keep a journal when I travel. In all but one instance, I wrote about the day's activities in detail as the last thing before going to bed, no matter how tired I was.

The one time I couldn't was on a couple weeks bus tour. I get motion sickness if I read or write in a car, bus, or train, so I wrote things up whenever we got chances to stop during the course of the day.

For me, it's a great way to relive a trip, and I've never regretted keeping journals of vacations.

This has been a fun thread to read.Wanted to share our family's experience, a little bit different, yet fun for all and we love it.
My husband has always traveled for business all over US and abroad. Even with a very busy schedule, he has always taken time to send a postcard home with some tiny details of some sight or food or experience. After we had two infants, he started sending each one of them a card too with some details etc, always kind of educational as well as sentimental. So, I made a shoebox with names of cities/states/countries etc. and made the kids collect them very methodically. They even used to take their postcard for "Show and Tell" while in elementary school.
Fast forward, the kids have grown up, have lives of their own and luckily also are traveling a lot for their own jobs, yet even now when my husband and I travel, we send a postcard from every place we go with details.
Both our kids have an envious collection of picture postcards and loads of mini details. I guess it is another form of travel journaling!!
Hope some other young parents will use this idea. It has been wonderful for us.
Another tip: since time is always short when traveling, we purchase stamps where we buy the postcard and write it immediately so it gets the post mark of the right town. If In US, we carry stamps from home. In addition we also carry address labels, so everthing is much easier to do.

bookmarking for later...

I tend to send emails from the road every day or so giving the highlights of the trip - funny anecdotes, things I've noticed, things we've done, places we've eaten. If I have time to sort photos I send a few of them, too.

What a great topic! This past Spring my husband and I were fortunate enought to be able to take our two grown daughters (30's) to London and Paris. Their husbands were so sweet to babysit the children (ages 4 to 10)for 12 days! They had never been to Europe, so really wanted them to be able to get the most out of this special trip. Before we left for the trip I gave them each a small journal and a travel book for each city so they could tell us what they wanted to see in each city. One was in charge of London and the other planned Paris.
We really tried to write in our journals each nite or in the morning when we were all getting ready. It was so much fun talking about what we had done during our day. The girls really got into it, and will be able to share their travels with their spouses and children and hopefully one day take them to visit these places.
I wish I would have known about those moleskin books beforehand. I'll have to look for those for another trip. This was my 4th trip to Europe and I have jounaled each trip, and have re-read them ever so often.They especially come in handy when I put the photo albmus together. It enables me to add comments of a particular place when I'm scrapbooking. I try to keep track of sights, restaurants and purchases. It's sad to see how much the US dollar has declined since 2001 when we made our first France trip. Consequently, don't seem to be able to do as much shopping. That's what makes the journals and the digital pictures so much more memorable.

Oh yes, I do take notes each day which I edit later. Otherwise I would forget details. But also I have these to help: pictures with cameras, brochures & postcards, audio taping guides with my comments, plus a wife with a good memory. When home I type up a trip journal and sometimes create a scrapbook. Problem in the future: what to do with this stuff when we downsize!

Ozarksbill

Moleskine now makes a soft covered pink unruled notebook and I have been using them since I found the product which is 11cm x 19.5 cm and less than 0.5 cm thick. I buy the unruled notebook and sketch and journal as I go. I write the journal entries from front-to-back and keep a list of interesting articles and websites and/or book recommendations in the back-to-front manner. Better yet, these Moleskines fit into a small-sized handbag.

In the past I have not done a Journal as I am a professional photographer and I am more caught up in catching the moment on my camera. BUT I have a friend who does journal and she includes things like places she ate and if she liked them or not... as well as the cost of it. She describes the food and the atmosphere. She Does the same for hotels and B&B's as well as sights/museums. Its actually really helpful for her friends becuse when we say we are going somewhere she just pulls out her book from that location and can tell us what was worth going to and what was not so interesting. Or "You just HAVE to eat at this place!!!"

I think that on our next trip I will keep some kind of journal and maybe try to photograph what I am seeing and make a book out of it... like a blurb book!

Four weeks ago we returned from an around trip taking 4 months. It was absolutely fabulous. I kept a journal and at the beginning it was easy but we had a car for 46 days which we picked up in Nice and returned in Paris so we were travelling mostly staying in a different place each night (B & B's)so it was hard to keep it up and by the time we got home after travelling from the Greek Islands to Hawaii I had missed so many days and am now trying to fill in the blanks using our photos of which we have nearly 4000 and 10 hours of video. I love to go back over other trips we have had. I saw on this site that someone had a tape recorder/dictaphone and I really think this would be great as they are small and I could record while I am walking or we are in the car or wherever we are. I agree a lot of times we are too tired to start writing at night and so miss that day. I will definitely take a dictaphone next time

Yeah journaling is an interesting topic-part of it is practical-just cool places you visit and where you want to go next. But I also think there is an expressive side-here is an article that I thought was interesting and had some good ideas:

http://preview.tinyurl.com/3fsbvy

wotuno, I loved the convenience of using a handheld digital recorder. It's small enough to slip inside your bag and you can just grab it whenever you need to. When I had to write everything down, I'd sometimes go several days without doing so because I'd be so tired in the evening or be distracted with laundry, etc.

I found my small laptop a wonderful way to both record our trip & keep friends & family up to date each day with our travels with a blog I set up.Each evening I spent a little time adding the days excitement after my husband had gone to sleep,so everything was still fresh in my mind.
When we got home I bought a spiral notebook and printed off each days adventures from the blog and pasted photos/brochures etc beside each page.This way it was a convenient way to show people our trip who hadn't read the blog.Also it's fun for us to relive the fabulous time we had

I always keep a travel journal with me and keep very detailed information as well. Like how much the exchange rate was, what it cost, etc. It is fun to go back and read what you did! I write in it every evening so I won't forget what I did for the day. I also take small pocket size travel books and write in them the date and time of places I went.