Travel Journal Ideas: 20 Things to Include in Your Travel Journal

I have kept many journals over the years and due to my love of travel, they have all turned into travel journals along the way. My favorite thing about travel journaling is that I don’t simply write in my journal. I also paint, draw, plan and glue in souvenirs. This way, my travel journals end up becoming my favorite souvenirs from my trips. Here are some travel journal ideas on what to include in your own travel journal.

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Travel Itineraries for Upcoming Trips

I always get super excited when I have a trip coming up and I love to make itineraries for my trips. Whether it’s a crazy flight schedule to get to where I’m going, or just planning out what sights I’ll see each day, I can’t get enough of a good itinerary. Writing out my itinerary also helps me figure out what I will need to bring on the upcoming trip and it also gives me an idea of what my budget should look like.

Stories from Past or Current Trips

I’ll never forget that one time that I got lost trying to find a ski hill in the Chilean Andes. Not only do I remember it vividly because it was such a crazy thing to happen, but I also remember it well because I wrote about it in my journal. I really love writing about the wild and incredible things that happen to me on my trips.

Travel Budget Plans

Since I’m such a big planner, I really like travel budget plans. Again, I love making them look good, and I also like that they help me know how much money I need to save for an upcoming trip.

Trip Photos

I take way too many photos and I don’t care. I love being able to look back on happy travel moments, frozen in time, with people I love. After all, a picture is worth a thousand words! My favorite way to include travel photos in my journal is to use my Instax camera. It’s so much easier than having to go in and get my photos printed after a trip.

Postcards

Everywhere I go, I always make sure to grab some postcards. Sometimes I send a few to friends and family while I’m away, but honestly, I mostly keep them for myself. I love to glue postcards into my travel journals to help me remember places I’ve visited. Plus, postcards are usually quite cheap and contain beautiful photography.

Packing Lists

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I absolutely love packing lists! Ever since I was a kid and my family would go to Whistler to visit my grandparents for Christmas, I always made detailed packing lists. I think I’m slightly addicted to crossing things off lists in general to be honest. Anyways, I love packing lists because I can make them look really cute in my journal but they also help me not to forget anything important during my travels.

Museum, Concert, Show, and Theatre Tickets

I love visiting museums, going to the theatre, comedy shows, concerts and basically any artsy activity when I travel. The tickets I get from going to these museums and events are kept in my travel journal as well. As far as travel journal ideas go, this is one of my favorite. I can look at the tickets and instantly remember the event or museum I was at, who I was with, what I ate there and how I felt. I still have Disneyland tickets from when I went there for one day on my way to Mexico in high school!

Brochures

Sometimes museums, events, and tour companies give out brochures as well and I like to cut out the photos from these and keep them in my journal. These pictures remind me of things I did while I was away, and things I want to do the next time I return.

Airplane, Bus, and Train Tickets

I also love saving airplane, bus, and train tickets. Basically, anything that shows me how I got around the place I was exploring. I still have a metro card from when I was studying in Chile back in 2015 hidden in one of my journals somewhere.

Maps

I am absolutely in love with maps! I have a huge book full of old maps at home. There are maps all over my walls and apartment. So of course, there are maps in my travel journals too. When I get to a new place I like to buy or print off a map of the area. If it’s a really big city sometimes I will get a map specifically for navigating through the metro system. When I’m done using these maps on my trips, I like to use them as backgrounds in my travel journal.

Drawings or Paintings

Even though I’m not super talented at painting or drawing, I do like to doodle here and there in my journal too. Sometimes I will draw or paint a mountain I’ve seen, or simply an airplane. It all depends, but these drawings tend to add more color to my journals which I love. Plus the more I practice drawing and painting, the better I will get.

Favorite Travel Quotes

I love a good travel quote to get me in an adventurous or nostalgic mood. You can find tons of good travel quotes to include in your travel journal on Pinterest, or even in travel books. I love drawing out these quotes, or cutting out letters from magazines and spelling them out that way too.

Stickers

I don’t buy stickers very often unless they’re from a place or brand that I love. However, one kind of sticker I do like to collect are stickers from ski resorts. These are a great way to commemorate winter ski trips or even summer hiking trips. Another kind of stickers I like collecting are stickers from concerts and bands.

Magazine Clippings

Speaking of magazines, I love using travel mags to find pictures to cut out and put in my journal for travel inspiration. I love dreaming of all the places I want to go by cutting and pasting beautiful magazine images. My favorite magazines to use for this purpose are National Geographic magazines.

Bucket Lists

Every bucket list is a little bit different I think. There are some travelers who want to see certain cities or countries more than others. Adrenaline-seeking travelers may have bucket lists full of things like sky diving or cliff jumping. Some people want to try different cuisines around the world. Whatever you’re after, you can write these down in your travel journal as well and tick them off as you go.

Envelopes

I really love incorporating envelopes into my journals so that I can store different things inside of them. I have an envelope in one of my journals that I like to keep postcards from my friends in, along with a few other things. I like to use envelopes that I’ve received from friends who live in different cities.

Stamps

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Stamps are so amazing! There are so many different kinds of stamps you can get from each country that stamp collecting is kind of a big deal. Every time I’m in a new place I like to go to the post office and buy some stamps so that I can send postcards to friends abroad. I almost always end up with a few stamps leftover so I like adding these to my journals as well.

Foreign Candy & Food Wrappers

This one may sound a bit weird, but hear me out. First of all, if you ever eat junk food, or packaged foods, you likely use a lot of plastic and plastic can’t always be recycled. When I eat candy in different places around the world, I like to keep the wrappers. It’s interesting to me to see the different kinds of candy you can get in other countries, or how the same kinds of candy are written in different languages.

Business Cards

I also like collecting business cards from coffee shops, tattoo parlors, and cute boutiques that I go to as well. Some of them are very pretty or edgy and I like to remember them by their business cards. They always look so great in my travel journals.

Pressed Leaves and Flowers

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I also love pressing flower petals and leaves into my journals from different places I go to. I still have some rose petals from a bouquet my boyfriend gave me glued into one of my journals.

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