Tips to Make Your Travel Journal Interesting and Relevant

Whether you keep your travel journal online or in a notebook, you want the words you write to be interesting for your audience. These five tips will make sure your travel journal is fascinating.

Tip #1 Always Include the When and Where

It's amazing how often we forget in a few years the things we thought would be permanently etched in our memories, so be sure to write the most mundane details first, either as a heading or as a short introductory sentence. You will want to include the date, the town you are in, and either the hotel you are staying at, the restaurant you are dining in, or sight you are seeing.

Tip #2 Avoid Writing the Mundane

Not everything that happens on your trip is interesting just because it happened in an exotic or interesting location. Most often, we are mundane when we religiously attempt to keep a perfect chronological record of everything that happened (...After we paid our lunch bill, we walked to the museum where we waited in line and paid $12 each...) A good test of if something is mundane is if you are getting bored writing the details, you will get bored reading them later.

Tip #3 Write in Word Pictures

Imagery, or word pictures, is the heart of any travel narrative. Use all five senses when describing your adventures and be sure to include the good, the bad, and the juxtaposition of the good and bad. Those details will be interesting to you years down the road. If you visit a local market, include descriptions of the colors, sounds, and smells. If the overarching scent is from the local food vendors write that down. If the smell of the nearby fish factory overpowers all other scents, include that.

Tip #4 Record Numbers

Numbers are interesting, though not necessarily in your narrative. Miles traveled, cost of a cup of coffee, the gas price per gallon, and the number of steps to the top of a hill or tower, are worth recording and will be increasingly more interesting as the years pass. Keep records of numbers short and in list format either at the beginning or the end of your narrative.

Tip #5 Keep a List of Writing Prompts Handy to Defeat Writer's Block

Even the best writers sometimes are at a loss of what to write about. It is helpful to keep a list of prompts in the back of our journal to help find a place to start writing. Use these or write your own. Continually add to your list of prompts as new inspiration strikes you.

1. What is the most valuable item you packed on this trip?

2. What is one item you packed that you should have left behind?

3. What do you miss most about home?

4. Do the locals know that you are a traveler? What makes you stick out?

5. What do you wish you knew more about your destination? History, culture, etc...

6. What has been the most difficult part about this vacation?

7. What do you wish you knew before you came? What advice would you give a friend who was going to travel to this destination?

8. What sounds to you hear when you wake up in the middle of the night? During the day?

9. What were your reasons for taking this trip?

10. What stereotypes did you have about your destination before you arrived and how are they different from what you discovered when you arrived?

11. Did you experience culture shock at any point during your trip? What event triggered it? How did you react?

12. What souvenirs did you buy? What prompted you to buy them?

13. Write down quotes from locals, tour guides, and traveling partners that you found interesting.

14. Draw a picture of something you see. This will make you really observe the details.

15. Do you prefer spending your travel time time alone or in a group? Why?

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