Hasta La Ideas

It’s December and that means the holiday travel season is fully upon us. It’s great to reunite with family and friends, see new places (or old ones) and enjoy some time away. That experience can be more organized when you plan and record your adventures with a portable, neatly organized journal.

I started keeping travel journals when I visited Paris for the first (and only) time about five years ago. Reading those old entries and looking at the tiny keepsakes brings back memories I might not have otherwise, and keeps all my memorabilia from the trip limited to one book. It could be done digitally, but as I’ve admitted before, I’m a big fan of physical journals. (Though, digital journaling fans can find helpful links toward the bottom of this post.)

Moleskine City Notebooks. This is the notebook that got me started with using a journal for travel. Moleskine produces a pocket-sized, hardcover notebook for several cities around the world (Paris, Madrid, Tokyo, Seattle). Each features lots of blank pages for you to fill, but also includes subway maps, unit conversion charts, street maps, and an alphabetical street index. My favorite feature is the transparent, peel-and-stick sheets of plastic that can be placed over a map. Mark it up with points of interest, phone numbers or anything else that relates to the area in question. It’s very handy and the hard cover means it is up for rough-and-tumble travel.

The Journey Journal. Here’s a very clever idea from Etsy’s Cracked Designs. Inside you’ll find 13 pages to recored your experiences — perfect for short holiday visits -– plus a pocket for stashing souvenirs. But, what’s really cool is the cover. The notebook comes with six pins and a length of string that can be used to plot your journey on the notebook’s cover. Several maps are available.

Smythson’s Travel and Experiences notebook. As far as journals go, this one is definitely fancy. With the the gilded pages and a lambskin cover, you’ll want to keep the Smythson around for a long while. And why not? Some adventures deserve such fine preservation. It’s available in three colors and has a Moleskine-like ribbon bookmark.

The Scratch Map. This isn’t a journal per se, but I absolutely love it. When you make it back home from a trip, you can scratch the thin material away from the area you just visited. Three maps are available: The world, the USA, and Europe. Since it looks great hanging on a wall, it’s a relatively clutter-free way to remember your travels.

The Scratch Travel Journal. If you like the idea of the Scratch Map but really want a notebook, consider the Scratch Travel Journal. It combines scratch-able maps with blank diary pages, a packing checklist, and pockets for memorabilia storage. Plus, it looks great.

Mosey for iPhone. OK, I had to add one electronic journal. While I love Rego for keeping track of specific points of interest, I use Mosey for chronicling my journeys. It’s a really fun and great-looking app that doesn’t take up any physical space in your home. When you arrive at a given destination, you begin taking photos. Those shots are gathered into a single adventure, or “Mosey.” You can note locations, cauterize and tag for easy review later and even review adventures posted by other users if you choose. And no, you needn’t visit Timbuktu to get something out of it. A day with the family is a valid and worthwhile use case.

If you plan to travel for the holidays, consider planning and recording your journeys in an organized fashion. Have fun, and if you use something I haven’t listed here, let me know in the comments section. Be sure to check out our other posts on organized travel in our archives to find tips on packing, planning, and even returning to work afterward.

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