Travel journaling after the trip

Journal pages from trip to Pacific Northwest + workshop announcement

Before I start a new journal, I have the HIGHEST intentions. I swear I’ll use it every day and fill it with beautiful sketches and notes.

Then a few days in, I look at my scribbly sketches and that violent ink stain on page two and feel too uninspired to keep going.

Travel journaling is much the same. Documenting your adventures is a fun way to start a creative habit, but setting up the travel journal is only half the battle. How do you finish your journal when you’re busy cramming in museums, sharing a small Airbnb with family, and walking 20,000 steps a day?

Here’s the secret: you don’t need to finish your travel journal on vacation. On my recent Pacific Northwest trip, I only had a half-complete journal by the time I flew back home. I finished it the following week at a leisurely pace, looking through photos and ephemera to jog my memory.

Today I’m sharing my tips for travel journaling when you’re pressed for time. If you’d like to try these techniques in real time with fellow creatives, join my travel journaling workshop next week!

Workshop details:
📅 Saturday, October 18, 12-2 PM EST / 9-11 AM PST
💻 Live on Zoom (recording sent to all registrants)
🗺️ Create two journal spreads: trip highlights and map-based itinerary
💲 $40 (paid subscribers get 10% off via code in email footer!)

Travel journaling after the trip

Towards the end of summer I traveled to Vancouver, Seattle, and Portland for a week and a half. It was a flurry of activity—I got to spend time with long distance friends, attend a friend’s wedding, and drive to nature spots with my parents.

Since I’ve completed travel journals before, I thought I’d be able to continue the practice during downtime. But when that downtime arrived, all I wanted to do was lie in bed to read a book or watch The Summer I Turned Pretty (which is now thankfully over, so I can have my life back).

Despite my half-empty travel journal, I was determined to finish it once I arrived home! The three methods below made it so much easier to fill up my notebook and capture my vacation memories while having fun.

Use a map

Once you start travel journaling, you will be scouring for free paper ephemera to include. Maps are one of my favorite finds—they’re copiously available to tourists and are almost always free!

I picked up this map of Victoria on the ferry ride from Vancouver and used it to mark the spots I visited in the downtown area. A map spread like this is great if you’re exploring a concentrated area.

I’m a novice bike rider, so I had my husband ride a tandem with me when we biked along the Stanley Park Seawall. It was such a memorable, fun ride and I wanted to document the roller coaster of emotions I felt during various parts of the route!

Make a list

The human brain loves lists—grocery lists, playlists, to-do lists, listicles…the list goes on. A list-based travel journal spread is satisfying to read and to make, since it gives you a clear category while allowing a range of memories to coexist.

During our stay in Portland, my parents and I visited four waterfalls off the Historic Columbia River Highway. I had originally planned a two-page spread on the popular Multnomah Falls, but I loved the other waterfalls so much that I wanted to document them too (one didn’t make the cut, oops!).

Much of my travel experience revolves around visiting local shops, so of course I had to collect shop-related ephemera. This spread below is dedicated to Powell’s and Tender Loving Empire!

Draw first, narrativize later

Before I started travel journaling, I documented my travels in my sketchbook (see older posts in my archives). Drawing in a dedicated sketchbook is easier for me—not just because of the paper quality or format, but also because of its experimental purpose.

In my travel journals I want a complete record of what I remember from a trip. In my sketchbook, I often draw for practice, even if the sketches don’t have specific meaning.

During this trip I carried a pocket sketchbook for drawing. This page was drawn at Vancouver’s Museum of Anthropology, where I admired many stunning totem poles.

Drawing on location helped me remember what I appreciated most about the museum when I later journaled about it. I could even have cut out these sketches and pasted them into my travel journal!

Before this trip, I set an intention to experiment with collage papers. I mostly neglected to try this, but when I found myself stuck on an Amtrak for an hour while a fire was being cleared on the train tracks, I gave collaging a whirl.

The above journal page stayed half-complete until I returned home, ready to round out with my memories of the Amtrak journey.

I share this to encourage you to put your art on the page, even if you know you can’t finish it. It’s often much easier to complete a page at home than to start and finish one on the go.

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I hope today’s post gave you some ideas for capturing both past and future travels! If you’d like to try journaling with me from the comfort of your home, register for my travel journaling workshop next Saturday, October 18, hosted via Zoom. Hope to see you there!