Documenting your travels is all about recording your adventures in some way, so that you can look back on your experiences and share them with your friends and family.
Most people (myself included) will take pictures when they’re abroad, and then post them onto social media. This is one way of documenting your travels, but there’s so many other cool ways to do it! This post will be looking at some of those methods.
For each method I’ll try to give a brief description of what it is, share a few pictures of what it looks like, and help explain how you can do it yourself. But if you’ve got any questions about anything on this list, feel free to leave a comment and ask about it! š
1. Photo Albums
This is the easiest way to create a physical photo book for your trips. It involves printing out photos (normally in a 6×4 dimension), and then putting them into a photo album.
A lot of photo albums, like the one above, have an area for captions. With this, you can add in locations, or give a little background to your photo!Ā I personally think they’re super cool, and a great way to share your experiences with your friends and family.
How to Make One
The albums are really easy to make! You’ll first need to organize (and ideally edit) your photos. Then you just need to have them printed off, and get an album for them.Ā
I get my photos printed throughĀ ‘FreePrints’. This is a app which gives you 45 ‘free’ 6×4 prints a month, with you just paying for shipping. After the 45 free prints, it’s only 9p for additional prints, so it won’t break the bank!
For the album, you can pick one up in lots of different places. But the best selection and prices will probably be on Amazon. You can specifically look for ‘Travel Photo Albums’ to find some really cool travel themed ones!Ā
Price / Effort Involved
The album I shared above cost me about Ā£30 in total. That was Ā£12 for the Album, and Ā£18 for the photo printsĀ (215 of them!). But for a smaller album of 50 photos, you would probably be looking at a cost of Ā£10-15.Ā
If you were wondering, it isn’t much effort at all! The hard part is choosing what photos to use, and then editing them. Once you’ve got the album and the prints, it’s just a matter of sliding the photos into their sockets, and writing down the captions.Ā Ā
2. Photo Books
These are the natural step up from photo albums! They involve creating a custom designed photo book with all of your travel photos in it. You can also expand on this by including some stories, statistics, annotated maps, and so much more!Ā
I make a photo book up for each trip I go on, and I love how they turn out. I hope to continue adding to the collection, and eventually have a bookcase full of them! If you want to know about my books, or read through them, check out my books pageĀ here.
How to Make One
I design my books with Adobe inDesign, and then get them printed throughĀ Blurb. Blurb has aĀ pluginĀ for inDesign, which makes the design process pretty easy! Although, this will still be pretty complicated if you’ve not used inDesign before.
Luckily, Blurb also offers a free piece of software called ‘BookWright‘. I’ve not tried it before, but it looks good, and pretty straightforward to use. You should be able to create something similar to my books above through BookWright.
Of course, Blurb aren’t the only providers of Photo Books, they’re just the one I use! Have a look around and see if any look better to you.
Price / Effort Involved
The price of a Photo Book will vary depending on how many pages are in it. For the ones I get made, a 20 page book is priced at Ā£25. The larger one, which has 220 pages, is priced at Ā£115… yikes!Ā Although, that is the ‘full’ price, before any discounts.Ā
You shouldn’t need to pay that, as Blurb always has a sale going on. I suggest not ordering unless you’re saving at least 35%. If you can, wait until black Friday, where they do a 50% off sale. That’s when I order my books, and it saves me so much money!
The amount of effort involved really just depends on what kind of book you want. My books take a while to create, as they have quite a lot of custom design and content. It takes me maybe 10 – 15 hours for a 20 page book, which includes editing the photos, creating the map, writing the captions, arranging the photos, and everything else!Ā
But for a more basic book, you could probably design it within a few hours.Ā
3. Journal / Sketch Books
While I don’t personally use one of these, I’ve bumped into a few travellers on the road who do, and they always look amazing! I love the idea of being able to record your experiences, with your own hands, while you’re in the middle of it.
There’s just something about it which feels more personal, and a better way of doing it than simply taking a photo, or writing about your trip once it’s done with. Even more so, I love the idea of filling a sketch book with your hand-drawn favourite travel moments.Ā
Unfortunately, I suck at drawing. And I’ve never been good at keeping a diary! So this method maybe isn’t right for me. But if you’re an artsy type, then definitely think about it! It would be a great way to document your travels, and people would love seeing it.
The photos above are some examples I found online, and I think they’re brilliant! The links to the authors are in the image captions if you want to see more. I especially love the sketches from Marc-Antoine Mouilleron-Vignon, which you can see more of here.
(If you’ve ever played the Life is Strange video game series, especially the second one, the sketchbooks from that are the kind of thing I’m talking about!)
How to Make One
Nothing complex about these! Just get a book and start writing.Ā
The diary entries can be daily, weekly, or just whenever you have something worth writing about. The sketch entries can be planned, or just spur of the moment.Ā
If I were to make one, I would focus on the sketches, and write a diary entry at the same time. I’d find somewhere quiet to sit down near a landmark or scenic spot, and just start sketching with a pen! I’d probably keep them simple, and just stick to black and white.Ā
Price / Effort Involved
Other than a book and a few pens (which shouldn’t be expensive), there’s no real cost involved here! Although, writing the diary entries and drawing the sketches could be time consuming, especially if you want to write a lot, or add in lots of details / colour.Ā
4. Scrapbooks
Okay, one last type of book!Ā Scrapbooks are just full of everything related to your trip. This can include boarding passes, museum entry tickets, subway passes, pamphlets, maps with routes on them, photos, and just about anything else you want to put in!
If you want, you can even make it into a sort of diary. Write a story about what you got up to each day, and then include any souvenirs you collected during the day next to it.
Personally, I’ve never made a scrapbook. Most of my creativity is in digital art and design, not so much with my hands. Plus, I use my ticket stubs and other collected scrap in a different way (entry number 5 of this post).Ā
That being said, they could still be a great option for the right person. I found the above photos online, and I think they look really neat. Feel free to follow the links in the captions to see more of them, and get some inspiration for your own scrapbook!Ā
How to Make One
All you need to make a scrapbook is a blank book, some glue, and a lot of creativity!
Just make sure not to throw anything out when you’re on your trip. Keep every receipt, every ticket, and anything else you think might be neat to include. Plus, if there’s any maps, business cards, or pamphlets available, be sure to grab one!
Price / Effort Involved
All you’ll really need is a blank book and some glue, so there’s no huge cost involved. However, making a scrapbook does look like a pretty time consuming process.
5. Scrap / Photo Wall Displays
The next few methods on this post are going to be about ways to physically documentĀ your travels inside your own home. Specifically, I’ll be sharing some of the ways I’ve covered my own bedroom walls with all my favourite travel memorabilia!
The first method is through scrap or photo wall displays. Similar to the scrap book mentioned above, the scrap wall display includes all of my random travel memorabilia. Stuff like ticket stubs, travel passes, foreign currency, and any leaflets I’ve picked up.
The photo wall display is just a collection of photos of myself, during some of my favourite travel moments! They’re mostly 6×4 prints, but I’ve also got a larger framed picture on there. It’s great to quickly glance at them, and have the memories flush back.
How to Make One
You’ll collect scrap throughout your travels naturally, so just try not to throw any of it away! You also might want to start up a little collection of specific things. Some good ideas are foreign currency (notes + coins), travel cards, and flight boarding passes.
For the photos, you can get some cheap 6×4 ones printed off through ‘FreePrints’, or use a range of other websites to get larger prints created.Ā
Once you’ve got everything ready, try to visualize how you want it to look on your wall, and then get to work sticking it up there! I use a mixture of blu tack and small pins.
Price / Effort Involved
It’s not expensive to do this, unless you want to get a lot of large photos printed off. Smaller 6×4 photos are really cheap, as are the blu tac and pins to stick everything up.Ā
If you’ve got a lot of scrap and photos which you want to use in your display, then sticking everything up and making it look nice and even can be a massive pain! I re-arrange my walls once every couple of years, and it honestly takes me a full day to do it.
6. Postcards
You’d normally use a postcard to send a message to your loved ones back home (and make them super jealous), but they’re also one of the best pieces of travel memorabilia you can collect. And once you’ve got them, they’re fantastic for displaying!Ā
I’ve got mine aligned up all along my wall, just next to my photo wall display. They’re really fascinating to look at, and are normally showing off a beautiful photo of the most memorable landmark of the place you were visiting.Ā
How to Make One
The great thing about postcards is that they’re sold everywhere. In the airport, in corner stores, and in every gift shop, ever. You won’t have any problem finding them!
When you’re picking them out, try to always get ones of a similar size. Having one postcard be landscape when the rest are portrait, or having a single postcard which is twice the size as the rest, is a real pain when it comes to trying to displaying them.
I’d suggest buying a few at a time. There’s normally a deal on, such as 3 for $1, so you may as well. Then you can keep your favourite, and give the others away as little gifts.
To display them, you can stick them on your wall, put them into a scrap book, or even just leave them inside an old box and look through them every once in a while. They’re about the same size as 6×4 photo prints, so you might want to combine your postcards with a photo wall display, or put them into a photo album you’ve made up.
Price / Effort Involved
Postcards are really cheap! You’ll normally be able to pick up a few of them for Ā£1.Ā
They’re also really lightweight, so carrying a bunch of them around won’t be a hassle. But if you want to, you can always just buy a stamp and send them back to your house, to pick up when you get home. Conveniently, they’re quite good for that!
When it comes to displaying them, it shouldn’t be much work. Having them all be a similar size makes sticking them onto a wall, or into a book, a really easy task.Ā
7. Fridge Magnets
Fridge magnets are one of the most generic ways to document your travels, but they’re also one of the best! Most people will already have a few of them on their fridge, brought back as a gift from family / friends who were away on their holidays.
But buying your own is also an option, which is something I’ve been doing for the last few years. My collection actually got too big for the fridge, so I’ve ended up moving them into my bedroom and just sticking them onto my wall! I think they look brilliant.
Each magnet has it’s own style which resembles the location and reminds you of your time there. For example, my Hollywood magnet, which is in the shape of a walk of fame star, covered in glitter. Or my Barcelona magnet, which is bordered with the famous Gaudi artwork patterns found throughout the city.Ā Ā
How to Make One
Similar to postcards, fridge magnets can be found just about everywhere. They’ll be cheapest in the little gift shops throughout the city, but if you forget to pick one up, then you’ll normally be able to grab one from the airport as you’re heading back home.Ā
Try to get ones with some personality to them. The simple squared fridge magnets with a photo on them will be the cheapest, but they’re also quite boring. If you can, go for something with a bit more depth, which will make your display look nicer.Ā
When it comes to displaying them, the obvious choice is to stick them on your fridge. They’ll look great, and you can reminisceĀ every time you go to get some food! But you can also display them on your walls, either by sticking them up with blu tack, or by getting a magnetic display board to hang up and then putting them on there.Ā
Price / Effort Involved
Depending on where you are, magnets can be somewhat expensive. The most I’ve ever paid for one is about $10 in the USA. But you should normally be able to pick one up for under $5. The larger and more artistic ones will be more expensive, but I think it’s worth the expense to get them over the more generic, flat squared image magnets.
When making the display, it’s actually really easy, especially if you’re sticking them up on the fridge. It should only take a few minutes to do.
8. Scratch Off Maps
Scratch off maps are another one of the more popular ways to document your travels, and they are a common feature inside the home of any avid traveller!Ā
Most people get a global scratch off map, but you can also get maps limited to a specific country or region. In additional to my global map, I’ve also got one for the USA states.
The maps are covered in a thin layer, which hide world beneath it. You can then use a penny to scratch this layer off, just like you would on a lottery scratch card. The end result is your own map, showing where you’ve been, and where you’ve yet to go!
How to Make One
There’s plenty of places to buy scratch off maps, but I find Amazon to have the widest selection. There’s literally thousands on there, giving you plenty of options!
The maps range in detail, and often have some neat features attached. My USA map for example, tells you about the most ‘famous’ part of each state, and has a little picture of it. Other maps might also include scratch off flags, national animals, or other neat stuff.
Once you’ve got it, you’ll need to scratch off where you’ve already been, then hang the map up. And in the future, you’ll just scratch off any new places when you visit them.Ā
Price / Effort Involved
Scratch off maps vary in price quite a lot, but they’re not too expensive. You should be able to get a good quality one for about Ā£15. I got my global map as a gift so I’m not too sure how much it was, but myĀ USA mapĀ was from Amazon, and cost Ā£15.
When it comes to scratching the areas off the map, it’s actually quite tricky, especially when you’re trying to navigate around the borders with a penny! Scratching off large sections of the map can be quite time consuming, if you want to keep things neat.
When I got my USA map and had to scratch off 13 states, it took about 2 hours, and left my hand aching for a while afterwards.Ā But that amount of effort was a one time thing, and updating it in the future will be pretty quick and easy. (unless I ever visit Texas..)
9. Digital Maps
These are just like physical scratch off maps.. but in a digital form! You just tick off all the countries / regions you’ve been to, and the map will colour them in for you!
You can even add pins to show exactly where you’ve visited, and add in colours to all the countries which are on your bucket list, to show where you want to visit in the future!
The above maps are ones I’ve made for myself. The first one shows every county / US state I’ve been to, and all the countries / states which I want to visit in the future.Ā
The other two maps are the ones I use on this site in myĀ destinationĀ pages.Ā They show what regions of a country I’ve been to, and where exactly I went to in those regions. I think they’re a great way to show where you’ve been, in a digital format.Ā
How to Make One
I make mine through a WordPress plugin called ‘MapSVG’. But unless you’re running your own travel blog, you’re probably not going to want to spend the $50 to buy that. So instead,Ā I had a look around and found a few pretty good free options!Ā
The first is ‘Been‘. This is a free app for IOS/Android, that allows you to check off countries/US states you visit. It also shows you how many places you’ve been to overall in the form of a percentage number, which I think is a pretty cool feature!Ā
The second is ‘MyTravelMap‘. This is an easy to use website that allows you to track where you’ve been, with larger countries broken down into smaller regions. Like Been, it also shows you how much of the world you’ve seen as a percentage number.
The third is ‘Matador Network Travel Map‘. This one is more basic than the above, but it allows you to add countries to your bucket list, which is a great feature!Ā
Personally, I like MyTravelMap the most, and that is what I would use if I weren’t using MapSVG. But it’s worth trying them all out, and any others you come across, to see which one works the best for you.Ā
Price / Effort Involved
The three digital maps mentioned above are free, and checking off all the places you’ve been to should only take a few minutes.
10. Google Maps Location History
If you’ve got the Google Maps app on your phone, then there’s a pretty good chance that it has been tracking everywhere you go. A bit creepy, but also super cool if you’re interested in the data! Go toĀ this linkĀ and sign into your Google account to check.Ā
If you’ve had the option turned on, then you’ll see that it has been tracking every single place you’ve visited. It can tell you where you went, when you went there, what route you followed, and even what modes of transport you took.Ā
You can see a general overview of every place you’ve been (like in the first image), or look at a specific day and see what you got up during itĀ (like in the second image).
You can even use a third party website called ‘Location History Visualizer’ to create a heatmap of your travels! I used it to create the above image of the UK. You can see where I live, where I’ve visited, and even that I’ve took the train to London a few times.
How to Make One
Just make sure you have Google Maps on your phone, and have location history turned on. You can learn more about how to do thatĀ here. It should work even if you don’t have any internet connection due to GPS tracking! Plus, it doesn’t use up any extra battery.Ā
Your trips and location history will automatically track, and you can view it in the timeline tab of Google Maps. It won’t be 100% accurate, but it will be close. If you want to, you can manually adjust your location history to make it more accurate.Ā
For the heatmap, just visitĀ this pageĀ and follow the instructions provided.Ā
Price / Effort Involved
There’s no costs for this, and no real effort either, unless you want to manually edit your location history. The only time I do any manual editing is to fix the red dots which appear in the overview map of all the places I’ve been.
Sometimes I’ll get a dot for somewhere I’ve not been, or a dot will randomly appear in the middle of the ocean during a flight! If you’ve got a lot of dots on your map already and want to fix them, or add in any new ones, then it might be pretty time consuming.
The heatmap above is also free, and only takes 5 minutes to set up.
11. Destination Tracker Spreadsheet
If you know me, then you know I love my spreadsheets! They’re a brilliant way to stay organized, and they’re also the perfect way to keep track of your travelling.
I create a spreadsheet for each trip I go on, but I’ve also got a separate spreadsheet to keep track of everywhere I’ve been, and to log all of my travel related statistics.
The spreadsheet I’ve made lets me create a bucket list of places I want to visit, and see how far along it I am. It also lets me visually see where I’ve been, how long I’ve spent away from home, how much I’ve spent, and some other cool statistics / information!Ā
How to Make One
I use Microsoft Excel for my spreadsheets, but Google Sheets is a good free alternative.Ā
There’s no easy way to really describe how you make one, you just.. do it! Try to plan out all of the information you want to include, and then build the spreadsheet around that. If you can, try to use formulas and attractive formatting to make things user friendly!Ā
If you want, you can clickĀ hereĀ to download a copy of mineĀ and use that as a template. It isn’t fully automated, but if you’ve got some experience in using excel then you should be able to work it out. I’ve put some tips in there too, which should help you set it up!Ā
Price / Effort Involved
Google Sheets is free, but Microsoft Excel is part of Microsoft 365, which costs about Ā£50 a year. With Microsoft 365 you also get 1TB of OneDrive storage (I back up all my photos/videos on there), and 60 minutes of free Skype calls (great for making free international calls). I personally think the Ā£50 a year is well worth it!
As for effort involved, well that really just depends on how advanced you want your spreadsheet to be. You could make a basic one within an hour, or you could spend a whole week making one! I think mine took me about 10 hours, but it is fairly complex.
12. myFlightradar24
FlightRadar24 is a pretty cool website where you can view and track every flight that is currently in the sky across the planet. Even better, they also have a related page called ‘myFlightradar24‘, which allows users to keep track of their own flight history.
The above images show what my profile looks like on myFlightradar24! If you want to see it in more detail, you can view my pageĀ here.Ā
I think it’s really neat! I love being able to see how far I’ve flown, and how long I’ve spent in a plane (farĀ too long). I also love seeing my most visited airports, and the map that gets created is a fairly good way to see everywhere you’ve travelled to.Ā
How to Make One
Once you’ve signed up, you need to add information about your past flights. Depending on how many flights you’ve been on, this could be easy, or a total nightmare!Ā
You can manually add flights on the page. If you have your flights flight number and departure date, then there’s a neat little lookup tool which you can use to find your flight, and then the rest of the details about that flight will self populate for you.Ā
If this doesn’t work, then you’ll need to manually enter the data. I had to do this for some of mine, and it sucked! You don’t need fill every section, but I suggest doing what you can. I only left the ‘aircraft type’ information out of mine, as that was hard to find.Ā
You can also import your flight history into myFlightradar24 from TripIt. And you can easily import your flight history into TripIt if you still have the booking confirmation emails saved.. so that might be worth looking into if you’ve got a lot of flights to add.Ā
Price / Effort Involved
There’s no cost to use myFlightradar24. However, if you need to import tens or hundreds of previous flights, then that could take a while! But once you’ve done that, adding new flights in the future will only take a couple of minutes each time.
13. Travel Videos
Travel videos are a great way to document a trip! I personally find them to be really inspirational, and I love watching the videos that other people put together. They’re one of the main things which inspired me to start travelling and see more of the world.Ā
The first video above is one I put together in 2019, showing my travels over the previous year. The second is one of my favourite videos on YouTube, showing a couple travelling all across the world and having some great experiences over a period of 200 days.
Videos like these allow you to document your trip more vividly, in comparison to just taking pictures or writing about it. When I re-watch the old videos I’ve taken during my trips, it really brings me back to the moment, and makes me smile like a fool!
If you want to see more travel videos, I’ve created a playlist of my favourite onesĀ here.Ā Ā
How to Make One
Obviously to record the videos you’ll need some kind of video recorder. Using a smart phone will work, but for a better quality video you might want to get something like a Go-Pro, or a camera which has good video recording capabilities / stabilization.
During your trip, you can record lots of short clips (under 10 seconds each) and then combine them all together into a longer montage. Or you could create vlogs, where you talk to the camera for a while and give updates on how your trip is going.Ā
There’s really no set way on how to make a travel video, but hopefully the playlist I shared above will give you some good ideas on what sort of video you want to make.Ā
Once you’re back home, you’ll need to organize your footage and then edit it together with a piece of video editing software. Try to align the clips with some fun music (copyright free), add some colour correction, and then upload the final video to YouTube.Ā
Price / Effort Involved
Unfortunately, getting everything you need to create a nice travel video can be pretty expensive. A GoPro + the recommended accessories will set you back about Ā£300. A nice camera and a gimbal to go with it will be even more expensive than that.Ā
There’s some free video editing software out there, but if you want to make a better video with more effects in it, then you’ll probably want to invest in a piece of software like Sony Vegas, Final Cut Pro, or Premiere Pro. They range in price from Ā£40 – Ā£300.
The actual editing process can take a few hours, or a few weeks. It just depends on how much footage you have, and how complex you want your style of editing to be. My ’23’ travel video shown above took me around 15 hours to put together!Ā
My personal advice would be to get a GoPro + the recommended accessories, and then buy Sony Vegas Movie Studio for Ā£40. A GoPro is waterproof, lightweight, durable, and has fantastic stabilization. Sony Vegas Movie Studio is pretty cheap, and while it lacks some pro features, you should still be able to create a quality travel video with it.
14. Social Media
You probably already do it, but if not, then you should know than social media is a great way to document your trips and share them with your friends. The most common way is through Instagram, but Facebook, Twitter, and Snapchat are all great for it too.Ā
Instagram is great for creating a collection of all your favourite travel photos. And Facebook is perfect for uploading all of your photos from a trip into an ‘album’, and sharing it with all your friends and family. I mean, who doesn’t have Facebook?
But the coolest social media feature, in my opinion, are ‘highlights’. They originated on Snapchat, but I think they’re best done on Instagram now. You can post little ‘in the moment’ story updates during your trip, and then collate them all into a ‘highlight’.Ā
If you look at my InstagramĀ here, you can see the highlights I’ve created in the past.
How to Make One
There’s nothing complex about using social media. Just, try to not post every single picture you take. People don’t want to see a billion photos, so just share the best ones!
To make an Instagram highlight, you’ll want to take pictures and post them to your ‘story’ as you along on your trip. Try to include some videos where you can, and make good use of text, hashtags, and location tags to help identify things!
Then when your trip is over with, go onto your profile and create a new ‘highlight’. This lets you combine multiple story posts into one, and allow anyone who visits your profile to see them all. They’re super cool, and will appear as little circles just under your bio!
Price / Effort Involved
Using social media is free, and posting your photos there isn’t time consuming at all. The only effort involved will be when you’re trying to decide what photos to post, and what filter looks best on them!
15. Travel Blog
The final item on this list is… making a travel blog! They’re one of the best ways to really write in depth about your travel experiences, and share them with the world.Ā Ā
I started Travelling Tabby because I wanted to do just that. I also wanted to help others with their own travelling, by giving out any advice or inspiration which I could. That’s why I’ve made little ‘destination’ pages, and also why I’ve got a ‘resources + tips’ page.
You can do that too, or you can just use your blog to write about your own experiences on the road, almost like an online diary. This can then be shared with your friends and family, or even shared publicly so that the whole world can read about your adventures.
How to Make One
Making a travel blog can be complex, or very easy! It just depends what you want from it. In my case, I wanted more of a travel website, which was customized to my own needs and preferences. As a result, my website took months of work to make.
If you want to know more about how I made my website, I’ve included some questions on it in my FAQĀ here. Although that is quite basic, and I do plan on making a longer post about it one day. In the meantime, if you’ve got any questions, feel free to get in touch!
In short, you basically need to set up your own website. This can be time consuming and somewhat complex. But if you just want a simple blog to document your travels and write sort of ‘diary entries’, or columns with pictures attached, then it’s much easier.
In that case, there’s a number of websites you can set your blog up with, such as Tumblr, Blogger, WordPress, Squarespace, ect. I’ve not used any so I’ve not got much advice there, but there’s lots of posts about it online!Ā
Price / Effort Involved
The simple blogs I mentioned above will be free and quick to set up. As a trade off, you won’t be able to do too much customization, you may not get your own custom URL, and you may not be able to have ads on your blog to potentially generate income.
On the other hand, the more complex blogs where you make your own website can be very complex and time consuming! They’re a better option if you want a professional blog, but just be aware that it will probably take weeks, if not months to set up.
The complex blogs won’t be free, but they won’t break the bank either. For reference, my blog cost about Ā£60 to create, and has a running cost of Ā£32 a year. (although this running cost may increase in the future if I gain more followers)
The nice thing about blogs is that they can actually earn you some money too. However, this isn’t an easy thing to do. So don’t start a blog with the sole intention of making money, as chances are you won’t make any. Only start a blog if you really want to do it.
Honorary Mentions
Well, there you have it! Fifteen different ways you can document and keep track of your travels. Everything from tracking them into a spreadsheet, to creating a photo book, to sticking up postcards on your wall. I hope this post gave you some ideas for yourself! š
Of course, there’s plenty of other methods out there. In addition to the above 15, I’m going to quickly mention a few additional ones below. And if you document your travels in some other way, I’d love for you to leave a comment and let me know how!
Souvenirs
When I say souvenirs, I’m specifically talking about physical things which remind you of a destination. Maybe ‘trinkets’ is a better word. For example, some which I have are: a traditional handheld fan from China, a Harley Davidson motorbike figurine / a baseball from the USA, and a little glass bottle of sand from Spain.
Just little items like that which remind you of a location. Maybe you could fill a bookcase with them, which would be really neat. Each item would have it’s own story!
Unfortunately the issue here is that these little souvenirs can be expensive, and they can take up quite a bit of space. Not a huge issue if you’re just visiting one location, but if you’re travelling to 3+ places in one trip, then picking up 3 souvenirs like this will be a pain, in comparison to just picking up 3 postcards, or 3 fridge magnets.Ā
Keyrings
These are probably next in line after postcards and fridge magnets. They’ll be cheap, lightweight, and widely available. Once you’ve got a collection, you can display them in a number of ways, such as sticking them up on a wall, or just leaving them in a box.Ā
You’ll probably collect too many to put on your personal set of keys, but the neat thing here is that you can add your favourite keyring to your daily set of keys! And you can change them around from time to time, reminding yourself of different memories.Ā
Polarsteps
This is a really cool travel app, which tracks your journey for you. Admittedly I’ve not used it before so I’m not sure exactly how it works. But from what I’ve seen, it should automatically track your trip for you, saving what route you took and where you went.
It’ll then compile all of this into a little interactive story, which also keeps track of your distance travelled, what the weather was like, and other neat stuff like that. You can add in photos and little diary entry type posts, before sharing the story with your friends and family so that they can follow your journey.Ā Check out an example of what I meanĀ here.Ā
These stories are saved onto your profile so that you can build a collection. Your profile will also track some travel stats for you, such asĀ what countries you’ve visited, your time spent travelling, and it will even tell you the furthest you’ve been from home!Ā
And finally, the app will create photo books for you out of your stories. Not just generic photo books, but they’ll also include maps of your route, your diary entries, your distance travelled, your dates, and more. The books are very nicely designed, and I assume you can customize them to your needs, before you share / print them off.
Honestly, the app looks fantastic, and I’ll definitely be trying it out on future trips. My only complaint is that adding a past trip into it is a pain, and looks very time consuming.
In short, the app covers half this list on it’s own. It can be a travel blog, a social media post, a photo book (both digital and physical), and a destination tracker spreadsheet. It’s a great ‘all in one’ alternative to tracking your travels through other means.
23 responses
Hello, apologies for the slow reply! But the best all in one app I’ve found is Polarsteps. I’ve been using it more lately, and it is pretty fantastic! It has a little bit of a learning curve, but once you’ve worked it out, it is a great took for documenting the trips. It is a journal, picture book, and map all in one. You even get stats about your travels, and it can create physical picture books for you too.
Really enjoyed this post on how to document travels! Your tips on combining photography, journaling, and collecting mementos to capture the essence of each trip are inspiring. I’ve always struggled with organizing my travel memories effectively, and your suggestions seem very practical. Do you have any advice on the best digital tools or apps that help streamline this process, especially for those of us who are not as tech-savvy? Thanks for such a helpful guideālooking forward to implementing these ideas on my next journey!
Thank you, very informative in assisting me with my research before I start my own travels.
I thoroughly enjoyed reading this article, which is an excellent guide for anyone who loves to document their travels. The writer starts by emphasizing the importance of recording your adventures, not just for personal nostalgia but also for sharing them with friends and family. What sets this piece apart is the writer’s acknowledgment that there are more creative and diverse ways to document your travels beyond just posting pictures on social media. The promise of providing descriptions, pictures, and practical tips for each method is exciting. It’s an engaging and informative read that leaves you eager to explore new ways to capture your travel experiences.
Interesting information.
Thanks for that.
Iām looking for an App that I can use to document an old journey.
I have reconstructed a travel from approximately 50 years ago from letters, photos and memories. I would like to store that in in a Polarsteps like App. All those kind of Apps however are made for recording current travels. Any suggestions?
I’m not sure if there would be a better option, but you could still try Polarsteps! It works best for recording current trips, but you can manually add in past trips too. You can add the dates/locations, attach photos, and write little journey entries. Then it should map it out for you, and display it like it does for any other trip.
great content, thanks for sharing
Great information documenting trips āļø
Great post! Thank you for all the useful tips! I bought the GoPro Cam you suggested š!
Thank you, and oh I hope you make good use of it!! I’ll be getting one too for my next trip! š
Thank you for the information.
Wow, great information, details, explanations and very easy to follow. Loved it!
Thank you! š
Full of interesting information and how to do it, Very informative, really helpful.
With all of your travels so far and your age youāre going to have a lifetime ahead of you of wonderful trips I imagine, I will look forward to reading your blog
Thank you so much! š