Making a travel journal

 Who else loves keeping a travel journal? It should be functional & beautiful, something you can write in on your travels ... 

I find it focuses the mind & helps me to remember all the details of trips I take. I like to find journal books that  I like - some with lined paper, some with blank or a mixture of both. I often customise them according to the trip. 

I have  blogged several times about my various travel journals - revisit them via the links below. 

Keeping a travel journal  with some of my collection from travels 

My journaling while travelling recently in South Africa 

Journaling on the Ganges at Varanasi in India 

Journaling a Twixmas trip 

 I always keep an eye out for a journal or a book I can use for trips. I have a few at hand but like ones with a connection to the place (like the Spain / Riga / Africa ones) 

I have a trip coming up to  Austria, to a city I have not visited before. I am meeting family there & with light luggage, I needed a journal that is not too bulky or heavy. 

Fortunately I had found a blank notebook at TK Maxx - it is a soft cover with heavy paper which I rather liked. However it is rather boring & the price sticker pulled off some of the paper on the cover leaving a mark that I did not like. It was perfect to cover the book in the map of Graz that I bought online. 

Using some little stamps to add the days to the margin, the cut the corners with different shapes so it is easy to see how many pages for each day.   A music sheet is always a good idea across Austria which has a strong tradition of music ... 

I ordered a Graz map online & when it arrived, it was way bigger than I anticipated so it was perfect to cut up & use in a journal.  I used it to cover the book with - making it longer to use the side flaps as a flap for all those little bits I always collect on trips. 

Being on my summer holidays & having a bit of time, I drew in margins & then stamped the days down the margin. I added a strip of washi tape to the margin & to keep the days separate, I punched each day with a different shape. 

I also wrote in some travel quotes on the bottom of the page.

The map paper is good quality, so I used some to make pockets that can be used to tuck in tickets, notes etc. 

The notebook did not have a tie to hold it all together so I used a length of black elastic, doubled up & with two clock charms on it. Graz has a rather nice town clock so that is a good reminder. I always like to have a ruler with me, this was part of a much longer one that I cut to the right size. It has a little dot spaces which is rather useful for keeping writing straight. These Bic highlighters are useful but space will be short so they might not go with. I love having a few post it notes handy .... 

It is now very functional & will be a good space to record my explorations of a new city with my sister & my daughter.  I love the routine of writing down events & activities each night while they are fresh in my mind. 

Have you personalised a journal? What do you add? Who else likes to revisit holidays by reading back over the entries?  Do you have a method of writing your journal? What do you put in?  Tell all ... 

Thank you for your visit, do stop by again soon for an update ... 

Dee 💕