How to Start a Travel Journal: 8 Rules for the Road
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It's May, summer vacation season is just a few weeks away and the travel problems is biting me difficult every bit I call up about different places I want to get – And then today I thought information technology might exist fun to talk about how to start a travel journal – even if you don't have whatever immediate plans for adventure.
Starting a travel journal isn't much different from starting whatsoever other kind of periodical, just I do retrieve there are a couple of things yous can do to make the whole process a LOT more than fun and way less stressful.
I know the hardest role of any type of new periodical sometimes can be but getting started, then my hope is these eight tips will assist y'all become on the right path to decide what you lot want to practice and what works best for you.
#1. In that location Are No Rules for What a Travel Journal Is or Has to Be or How to Apply Information technology
If you search for "travel journal" online – yous'll find all sorts of different things and examples. Yous might see pretty planners, you might see scrapbooks, y'all might see junk journals, fine art journals, sketchbooks, traveler'south notebooks, travel writing prompts, digital photo apps – and the list goes on.
Just trying to ascertain what a travel journal is exactly tin cause a lot of confusion! Fortunately, there really aren't any rules for what your personal method for documenting a trip looks like.
I know the title of this web log post says "8 Rules of the Road", merely I assure that is simply for alliterative purposes. In that location are NO rules when information technology comes to journaling. The merely thing that matters is it is something you relish doing.
Your trips and adventures are unique to you – then it only makes sense the way you want to document, record, or experience them would also be unique to y'all.
At that place's no wrong way to go on a travel periodical, and don't worry about trying to make it look similar the bazillion cute examples you might see online.
Don't feel similar you accept to brand elaborate sketches if you lot can barely draw a stick figure. Don't worry near writing detailed journal entries of the twenty-four hours if writing is not your thing. Yous don't fifty-fifty have to collect ephemera if it's non something you savour.
Now this "rule" is out of the mode, allow'due south become to the next one – it might surprise you!
#2: You Don't Have to Go Somewhere Exotic to Enjoy a Travel Periodical
One of the biggest things that stopped me from starting travel journals in the past is that nosotros weren't really traveling anywhere all that exciting.
Most people I know regularly go to all sorts of cool destinations. They tour Europe, they visit glaciers, they haversack & hike through canyons, they sip cocktails on the beaches of Mexico…
In contrast, nosotros've been doing things similar going camping and the occasional drive to Ohio and Philadelphia for family events. Considering we live in Pittsburgh, it's condom to say nosotros weren't exactly jet-setting across the earth – nosotros barely left the turnpike!
If I actually exercise the math of how much I traveled in the past year, I think I covered more miles just by taking the kids to schoolhouse every solar day and running errands.
Like Theodore Roosevelt is famous for maxim, "Comparison is the thief of joy."
Don't get me wrong – I definitely do appreciate the few trips nosotros've made in contempo years. It just fabricated me wonder, Who on earth am I to keep a travel journal? What would I fifty-fifty write in a travel journal if I wasn't going anywhere heady?
And then, while on 1 of our camping trips I had a revelation when I stumbled beyond this little gem of a brochure for a place called Historic Pithole Metropolis.
Yeah, really, there is a identify named Pithole metropolis. Or rather, there was a identify known as Pithole City. To be bluntly honest, it's not fifty-fifty a city. It'due south mostly only a field. A big, empty field.
This well-timed irony of a tourist attraction is what made me realize travel doesn't necessarily have to be somewhere exotic to be interesting or journal-worthy.
The site of a vanished ghost boondocks might not exactly exist Barbados, but that doesn't make it any less inspiring or not worthy of documenting.
This brochure helped me come to my senses and realize you don't accept to go anywhere all that exotic to have a expert time exploring the world. This brings me to the next important thing to remember when keeping a travel journal…
#3. You Are Here: Traveling is a Land of Mind
After my revelation that you can explore the world without trekking whatever far distances, I realized maybe travel isn't so much a physical place to be as much every bit information technology is a mental and emotional land of being.
It's the attitude of wonder, an insatiable marvel, a want to explore…and that of class is what makes a lot of us the artistic artistic types of people that nosotros are!
I really similar the wisdom in this quote:
"The real voyage of discovery consists not in seeking new landscapes, but in having new eyes." – Marcel Proust
Realizing this made me really excited to make all sorts of different travel journals – no passport required. All-time of all, should I somewhen offset making plans to visit more exciting places, I will have lots of practise because I love documenting and recording the different things I detect.
#iv: Start Filling the Journal Earlier Y'all Go
If you are anything similar me and love any reason to start a new journal, there's no reason to wait to make it at your destination!
Some trips can accept months of planning and preparation, particularly if you need to book far in advance around busy seasons and holidays. This is a not bad time to showtime documenting all those plans. To-exercise lists, checklists, lists of lists – these all make fun means to go past a bare page.
The excitement and apprehension of planning a trip can be just as much fun as actually being on the trip, peculiarly if it is a place you've ever wanted to visit and you bask researching unlike places to encounter and things to practise.
If y'all honey the idea of a journal filled with pictures and artwork, y'all could even start filling the pages with unlike photos, vintage travel images, traveling quotes, etc long before y'all even leave. This can reduce the corporeality of things you need to take, especially if it's already on the folio.
There are all sorts of great ways to start filling and prepping your journal ahead of time. You can also include printed out information for directions or flying data or simply merely make some notes. All these things will exist nice means to call back what you lot did before the trip.
#5: You Don't Need to Bring Everything, Or Fifty-fifty Annihilation
Where you lot plan to go and how y'all are getting at that place is probably one of the biggest deciding factors on what kinds of journaling supplies you should pack or if you even desire to pack anything.
I'm the kind of person who could have a beautifully prepped periodical ready to go, so forget it at home in the rush of getting 5 people in the family unit everywhere nosotros need to exist.
I'yard also the kind of impromptu traveler who believes you truly but need to pack three things: Keys, Wallet, Phone.
While in that location are enough of great fine art supplies and special journals perfect for traveling, don't be tempted to lug everything with y'all.
I'm a full minimalist when I become places – I would exist quite content with nothing more a composition notebook, a ball betoken pen and a glue stick in a backpack.
Last updated on January 24, 2022 12:17 am
Annotation: If you are going to unlike countries, you lot volition also definitely need to consider things like going through customs and making sure the things you bring in and out are not going to cause any issues. Sometimes it's easier to but get the supplies you want once y'all get at that place.
#half dozen. Be a Collector
Equally someone who loves to collect all sorts of types of ephemera, I honey picking up annihilation on my travels that tin fit in a notebook. Marketing brochures, maps, ticket stubs, receipts, magazine and newspaper pages – if it'due south flat I'grand going to put information technology in my journals.
These little things tin really help you lot preserve a lot of memories you might not necessarily remember years from after the feel is over. It'south besides a great way to share your adventures with a friend.
One important thing to remember if traveling abroad and going through customs is many items such as food, plants, and other things can exist heavily regulated. This is important to keep in mind, because some things might be improve to just take a picture of rather than really bring back with you.
You definitely don't want your journal confiscated, be detained for hours, or risk a $10,000 fine for having a seemingly innocent thing like an undeclared tea bag y'all forgot you taped onto a journal page!
If you are a U.S. Citizen and or visiting the U.S. from some other country, you definitely desire to make certain you are familiar with the CBP guidelines and regulations. It might even exist helpful to include a checklist in your journal and so you don't accidentally forget what things can and tin can't be brought back into the country or need to be inspected first.
Going through customs can sometimes be a stressful experience, simply unremarkably if you are prepared and familiar with all the dissimilar rules and regulations, you should exist able to visit most places with relatively little consequence.
#seven. Don't Make Journaling a Chore
Everybody has unlike styles of how they like to travel. Some people like a trip jam-packed with a lot of activities, others might like a more than laid back approach.
Some people similar me consider journaling to be as essential as breathing, eating, and sleeping. Another person might recollect the thought of keeping a journal sounds also much like homework or a chore.
When you go somewhere new, it's important to not stress nigh whether or not you are actually able to write every single thing down or even have time to draw and write every bit much as y'all want.
For example, if you program on painting with watercolors, it only makes sense to use a journal with mixed media or watercolor paper. If you more often than not plan on making a boom-book junk-journal style book you could probably get away with a simple limerick notebook.
Information technology'due south all a affair of personal preference and what you plan to do – so don't stress it as well much! Worse case scenario, you tin can ever jot things down in a simple notebook while you're traveling and so transfer it over into something a niggling more cohesive and organized once you get back.
#8. Yous Tin Always Add More Once Yous Get in Back Domicile
In the spirit of packing minimal supplies and keeping things unproblematic and then yous can really enjoy the trip, another thing to remember is you tin can e'er add together more than to the journal once you are back abode.
For sure it is better to capture and document as much every bit you can while the memories are fresh, simply a lot of the "making information technology pretty" tin be done once you lot are back home and take the luxuries of your favorite art supplies readily available.
Waiting until you get home to jot down some reflections on the trip and add in finishing touches similar washi record and stickers volition give you a great opportunity to retrieve the moments that made information technology special.
Another matter you might desire to do once you get dorsum from the trip is actually print out any photos you may have taken and include them on your pages. A travel journal is a not bad way to motivate yourself to actually do something with all the photos you've taken!
Have you lot always kept a travel periodical? What are some of the things you practice to make it easy and fun? What are some of the places you've traveled to? And of course if you have any travel periodical tips you would similar to share or questions I would beloved to hear from yous in the comments department beneath!
Source: https://artjournalist.com/how-to-start-a-travel-journal/
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