Any journal can be a travel journal. It does not have to have been made specifically for travel lovers, you can make any journal fit for adventures!! Plain ones, gratitude ones and even standard yearly calendar based ones. It is all about making it right for you, to celebrate your journey!

Starting your travel journal

First you need to decide how frequently you would like to add to your Travel Journal. This might depend on how often you change destination or how much time you will have to write. I like to have space for each day to write what I have done and then a weekly summary of best bits. You might decide to do a monthly summary or even daily if you are so inclined.

Each year I add different prompts to inspire me, here are some of my favourites to use. 

Achievements for your travel journal

This is one of my favourite travel journal prompts. Achievements can be something huge like when I jumped off The Strat in Las Vegas or hitting 30, 000 steps hiking in Zion. Or they can be small such as a day of no paid activities or getting your daily water intake. Whatever it is, write it down with pride. Not every day will leave you feeling ecstatic. It can be lonely or stressful at times, but looking at things you have accomplished will help you remember why you are travelling. 

New experiences

Probably the main reason you travel- new experiences. You are going out into the big wide world to see things you’ve never seen and do things you wouldn’t dream of trying at home. That’s amazing! You should be so proud and you should keep a record of it to show yourself how much you have experienced. For me this was events like attending a New Jersey County Fair or trying a scorpion in Bangkok. 

Travel journal happy moments

I find it important to keep things positive whenever possible. Throughout your global crusades you will have lots of little moments where you have smiled, laughed and just thought ‘Wow, look where I am’. They are often very short moments and are easily overlooked, however by writing them down you will get to re-experience parts of those emotions when you re-read them. This can be ‘Swimming in the glacier pools and looking up at Yosemite’s mountains’ or as simple as ‘Waking up to the colours of the sunrise’. 

Recommendations

Whenever I land in my home country, friends and family always ask- How was it? Would you go again? I am going next year, what should we do? This prompt is great to add at the end of each destination, you can sum up the best trips and restaurants, ready to reel off to your fans 😉  

When you have been to a taste tinglingly good café, you think there’s no way you will forget its name. How could you forget the place they served you ‘out of this world’ eggs and ham or when you dined with guinea pigs, trust me, you will. After all the excitements of the next destination or the airport flurry on the route home, you forget the simple things. Write it down and the memory will live on! 

Whatever you want!

You can literally put anything you desire into your travel journal. There are no rules, no expectations and no judging.

Here are some ideas to get you going

–          Funny moments

–          Gratitude

–          Favourite thing you saw that day/week

–          Things you’ve learnt

–          New foods you have tried

Shanni’s Top Tips

1.       Do not worry if you feel you do not have any achievements some weeks or your low on happy moments. Although we would like it to be, not every day can be action packed full of life changing events. It is okay to take a break, relax and not have a new experience.

2.      Do not compare your travel journal with others. Share ideas of course, but yours does not have to be like anybody else’s. It is unique and your own.

3.     Get some colours! Colours make it more fun and more personalised.

4.     Think about the size. You want it to have enough pages to last your trip, but you do not want to add a big bulky book to your backpack. Aim for A5 size.

5.     You do not have to spend a fortune. You can easily make your own from a £2 notebook from the store. If you want to splash the cash, there are loads of fancy designs out there too. 

I love making and filling in my travel journal, but more importantly, I love having them to remind me. It is an amazing reminder of everything I have achieved throughout each adventure. It shows my growth and evokes charged memories, so I can relive the little moments. I urge you to start your travel Journal today. No matter how small, you will love having it to look back on. 

Read my 17 Terrific Travel Tips HERE!