policywonk

I initially kept a journal of my travels and then I scrapped it and just typed my trip report from memory- I had such a wonderful time, I remembered people, places, sites... everything...

I think it depends on the person, some need notes and tapes...pics etc to remember things from their journeys; others just need to rehash things from memory.

Oh and JoeyJOeJOe- are u the same one from FARK?!? Small world!!

PW

OReilly

I love writing, it?s a passion, I write trips reports primarily for myself, so I can reread them during the long Canadian winters, and for family and friends so they can understand how the trip excited my senses - the sights, the emotions, the smells, the tastes.

I found the most effective way to do this; e.g. to convey how I FELT about seeing the Pyrenees for the first time, is to bring a Dictaphone with me. I record exactly how I feel at moment when I am feeling an intense emotion. I then transcribe the tape to computer and fill in the ordinary bits, like getting from A to B and checking into the hotel.


Regards .. Geraldine

crazymina

Unfortunately, I never note anything down when it comes to places I dined in, etc. So all that stuff is forgotten, and sometimes I wish I remembered them for future reference. My reports are very uninformative.

The stories I write home usually have some theme running through it. They start with a funny/odd incident I tuck in the back of my head, then when I have more incidences that relate, I write something. I'm always writing in my head. In the past I've written on "The Irish Gentlemen" - about a old man you who asked me to dinner, a young man who took me to dinner, and a middle aged man who tried to get into my room. The "Are Germans friendly?" story went over pretty well with my friends too.

Rarely do I do a day to day report, but sometimes you get the kind of traveling day which would be a shame not to report!

I love trip reports of all kinds though, and am glad people keep doing them.

carolyn

I almost always do keep a journal, and it helps me remember names, meals, hotels, etc., as well as impressions and feelings. This year, though, it took us 22 hours to get to Athens, the checked luggage didn't make it until the next day, I left my library book on the plane . . . well, I was so tired I thought I would catch up with the notes later.

Later was the next day when I climbed the Acropolis on the six-week anniversary of major surgery (the doctor said I could go, but obviously he has never been to Greece). The next day I climbed to Agamemnon's fortress at Mycenae which was tougher. I really was going to back off if my body rebelled, but instead I got stronger and was so busy and so enamoured with the ancient sites and the gorgeous islands that I sort of never got around to writing anything down.

I did take lots of pictures and put them in an album as soon as I got them because I knew if anyone looked at them and mixed them up, I would never in the world know one ruin from another. The album has space on the side to make notes, so that is my journal of this trip. I did buy postcards everywhere to introduce each site because my photography is not always good, but my pictures are as pretty as the cards. It must have been that marvelous light; I really can't take the credit for them.

So anyway now I have a pretty fresh journal to use next year.

Mary_Fran

There really should be a "Fodors Allstars" link for terrific trip reports.

I'd add LVSue to the ranks of the great. http://www.fodors.com/forums/pgMessa...sue+AND+france

What none of the folks above admit is that some of them are just very gifted writers. A lot of them could make compelling and hilarious reading out of their grocery lists. They are the same people, I think, who can and do write great letters.

Still, before I go to Germany this September, I'm determined to spend some time analyzing some of the great trip reports I've read here and see if I can't learn what it is that makes them such great reading.