How to Make a Travel Journal? DIY Tips and Must-Have Supplies

How to choose a travel journal?

After choosing your type of journal, there are a few other things to consider when selecting your perfect paper trip companion, such as:

JOURNAL SIZES

What size is a travel journal? Well, that depends on what you use it for! Personally, I am most happy with an A5 size when it comes to travel journals. The smaller ones I find hard to write in and don’t fit all my keepsakes, the bigger ones just take up too much space in my backpack.

Perhaps you only want to take quick notes, or want to travel real lightweight, then an A6 travel journal (with pockets) might be best for you. And if you only create your final travel notebook at home and want to go all-out, a bigger size, such as A4, or even larger, makes you happiest!

If you’re only creating a photo album of your trip, then you could for example also look into 1:1 sized albums, like the typical scrapbooks that are 12″ (30,48 cm) x 12″ or the 1.33:1 albums, for example 6″ (15,24 cm) x 8″ (20,32 cm).

I love this A5 Bullet Journal, also perfect for travel.

Incredible A4 travel journal.

Here are some cute Field Notes books – National Parks-themed!

This leather cover fits a 6″ Field Notes notebook perfectly.

BINDING TYPES

The type of binding of a notebook is the material that is used to make the upper (front) and lower (back) covers of the journal, also taking into consideration how the pages are attached to the covers/back of the notebook.

For example, a saddle-stitch bind is when paper is folded with a staple or thread through the fold. PUR binding uses a paperboard or heavy cover stock to attach pages to the spine with glue (like in a paperback book). With spiral binding, there is a loop wire going through holes in the cover and pages (Nick hates these, as he’s left-handed and somehow always finds the wire in his way when writing), and with section sewn binding or coptic stitch binding, you get a flexible spine so you can lay the pages flat to work on.

As for the cover, you can choose between a hardcover or a more flexible, soft cover.

There are so many more types of binding that the ones I’ve just mentioned. Which do you prefer?

PAGE TYPES

I mentioned them already briefly: are you most comfortable to work on lined/ruled paper (and how close do you like the rules to be?), blank paper, dotted paper, or perhaps paper with a grid or pre-printed boxes or prompts to fill in?

What type of page type for a travel journal you choose all depends on how you’re going to use the notebook. Are you going to write in it with pen or perhaps print typed text? Would you like to use markers or paint? Make drawings? The possibilities are endless.

This is a great example of a travel journal with prompts.

The Promptly journals are filled with custom prompts and also have plenty of space for mementos & photos.

Super handy pre-printed pages in this Camping Notebook by Clever Fox. And they also do a cool Travel Bucket List journal that’s fun to fill out!

PAPER THICKNESS

Paper thickness is measured in weight, which varies from country to country. In the United States for example, you have “U.S. basis weight” (in pounds), where they look at a 500-sheet stack of the paper at its original, uncut “basic” size. But this can be confusing as a consumer, because different paper grades have different basic sizes, so even when the weight in pounds is higher, it doesn’t automatically mean the paper is thicker, because the basis size can be different.

It probably makes more sense to look at GSM (“grams per square meter“). The weight is now determined by one sheet of paper at a size of 1 meter by 1 meter, measured in grams. All different grades of paper are measured at the same size. So a higher GSM always means heavier paper.

For reference, the standard weight of most A4 copy paper for your printer is 20 lb. / 75 gsm.

If you don’t want your pens, markers or paint to bleed through the pages, the thickness of your paper definitely matters, so make sure to test this!

EXTRA JOURNAL FEATURES

Are there any other features you need when choosing your perfect travel journal? For example, I love notebooks with little pockets to keep my receipts and tickets. Or when they have a bookmark or pocket for a pen!

Tips for extra features in a travel journal could also be page numbers, dividers or dedicated room to write dates. What extra features can you think of that you might need?

TIP! Unique is The Travelogue by Luckies. This 64 page notepad journal also has check lists, travel tips and 8 miniature scratch maps, each representing different regions of the world. You can simply scratch off where you’ve been!

What should a travel journal include?

I believe there should not be a hard rule on what a travel journal should include, as the beauty lies in the fact that you can so easily customize it to your specific taste and type of trip!

Besides the obvious elements such as date, location, some highlights of the day and perhaps additional information about the weather, people you’ve met, things you ate and activities you did, you can add anything to your travel journal or scrapbook that’s important to you.

If you are looking for some inspiring examples of things to add to your travel journal, make sure to check out our blog about creative travel journal ideas >

How do I write a travel journal that is worth reading?

TRAVEL WRITING TIPS

Travel writing can quickly become repetitive if you just list things you did in chronological order. So what can you do to make a story more interesting?

In a separate blog, I’ll give you my best tips on how to write a travel journal.

For more writing tips, check out “The Soul of Place: A Creative Writing Workbook” by Linda Lappin, “Lonely Planet Travel Writing” by Don George and “On Writing” by Stephen King.

PROMPTS FOR TRAVEL JOURNALING

If you’re looking for a bit of travel journal inspiration, then check out this blog in which I’ve handpicked some fun travel journal prompts for you.

TRAVEL JOURNALS WITH PROMPTS

There are also several travel notebooks out there that already have printed prompts in them. You can find the best travel journals with prompts at the bottom of our blog about travel writing prompts.

Spoiler: Some of our favourites are “The Adventure Book” by Nicole Nagelgast, “Life’s a Road Trip” and “Swept Away by Wanderlust” journals by Axel & Ash and the “Travel Journal“, “Bucket List Journal” and “Camping Journal” by Clever Fox.

Other travel journals with prompts we encourage you to check out is this one by Compendium, this one by Promptly, this one by Moleskine, this one by OneLineVoyage and this one by Duncan & Stone.

TRAVEL JOURNAL EXAMPLES

Perhaps you’re not so fond of writing – but you love to craft, draw or paint. That’s amazing! With the following inspirational accounts on Instagram, you’ll get plenty of travel journaling ideas that don’t involve writing:

• Here are some creative travel project life scrapbook pages >
• Writer & sketch artist Candace Rose Rardon makes amazing (travel-related) sketches >
• Same goes for artist Kathrin Jebsen-Marwedel a.k.a. (Illustrated Journal), Andrea Muñoz, Alicia Aradilla and Meera Krishnadas (The Little Black Journal) on Instagram >

How do you start a beginner travel journal?

So far, we’ve looked at: all the different types of travel journals (sketchbook, scrapbook, notebook, logbook, friends travel journal, themed journals, local journals, city journals and travel photo albums), how to choose a travel journal (by looking at size, binding types, page types, paper thickness and additional features such as pockets and bookmarks) and what to include in your travel journal.

I also shared writing tips, journalling prompts, and creative examples of travel journals without a strong focus on text.

Ideas enough, but how do you get started?

It depends a bit what type of travel journal you’re keeping, but my system for creating a (travel) scrapbook is as follows:

1. I collect photos, notes and items while on the road (I keep them on a separate hard disk for the photos, my notes in a simple lined notebook or in my phone and the items in a plastic folder I can zip closed)
2. At home, I organise my photos on my computer in folders by date and location, and I keep all loose items (brochures, ticket stubs, etc.) in a plastic folder in a box – for when I’m ready to start the scrapbook.
3. Before I get started on the journal, I plan where all photos and notes are going to go in the album. If I’m working with project life, I already slide the loose items into the pockets they’re going to go and also write on little papers (that also slide into the pockets) which photos I want to put where – I keep these in a separate folder on my phone.
4. When the planning is done, I print all the photos I want to use in the album.
5. Then I write all the notes that go with the photos.
6. If that’s all done, I collect all scrapbooking supplies (list follows below) and I cut, glue or write where necessary.
7. And FINALLY – I embellish the pages with extra stickers, stamps or other decorations.