Would you like to take a peek inside *someone else’s* travel journal to see how they do it?

What quick, simple ways have they developed that could help you record the memories from your trip?

This is one in a series of interviews where travellers share with us their fun and varied travel journal techniques –

Amanda…

1. Why keep a travel journal?

Even as a child, I loved to keep a diary (even if the most exciting thing I wrote down was “my tomato plant has six tomatoes” – true story!) and so it seems only natural to keep a travel journal.
I know that, as much as the experience may seem unforgettable at the time, I will never remember the details in the future, and I’ve sometimes forgotten the experience entirely, only to be pleasantly surprised by rediscovering it when I read my travel journal later.

2. What do you include in your travel journal?

At heart I’m a “words girl” so my travel journals are largely prose but I also have a bit of a hoarding tendency so I stick in bits and pieces I find along the way – tickets, postcards, brochures, scraps of paper that kind strangers have drawn maps on for me, chocolate wrappers – you name it!

3. How do you keep your journal?

Recently, I’ve started turning extracts and summaries of my written travel journals into digiscrap (digital scrapbooking) pages. Along with scans of the various paraphernalia I hoard, plus my photos, I can create a page that evokes a memory of a particular incident, or of a country as a whole, or whatever I feel like expressing.
I love to be artistic and creative but I don’t have much ability when it comes to drawing or painting, so digiscrapping is a fantastic way to combine everything and gives both a visual and literary impression of a trip. It also means I have one more excuse for keeping all that “stuff” that most people think I should throw away!

Note: Amanda uses Photoshop Elements to create her digiscrap pages 

4. How often do you update your travel journal?

When I’m travelling, I write in my travel journal at least daily, and sometimes more if I have a quiet moment on a bus, train or plane or at a café or restaurant.
As for my digiscrap pages, I have visions of completing entire books of them by yesterday, but I don’t seem to find enough time (and it’s so much fun that I like to take it slowly and really enjoy it).
I had a student in my travel writing course recently who does physical scrapbooking and told me she has a rule that she must finish the scrapbook from the previous trip before she books another one – a rule I will certainly not be adopting for myself!

Note: Amanda compiles her digiscrap pages into digital photo albums, which are then printed in a coffee-table format.

5. What is your favourite piece of travel journaling equipment?

My scanner!
Obviously I don’t travel with it but once I get home I scan not only tickets and brochures but also stuff like autumn leaves, beautiful scarves (a gift from a Japanese friend), menus, coins and banknotes, stamps, you name it. Adding these bits and pieces to my digiscrap pages helps evoke even stronger memories when I look back on them.

 

6. Why does this type of travel journaling work for you?

I think the combination of finding some nice words, being a bit artistic (without it being too challenging) and having a use for all the various things I’ve always liked to collect on my travels makes digital scrapbooking a great outlet for me.

Note: Travel journalling takes on many guises – Its not always about creating it to perfection as you go along – some journalling is fun to relish at trip’s end. 

 

Amanda Kendle is a travel blogger, social media consultant and chocolate lover who has resettled in Western Australia after spending time teaching English in Japan, Slovakia and Germany, and travelling madly at each opportunity.
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Do you keep any form of travel journal?

Contact me if you’d like to share the ins and outs of how *you* recount your travel memories –
Allow us to take a peek at *your* ‘journalling’ method 🙂

OR

Simply share a few hints in the comments below