Using a Travel Journal is relatively new for me, yes I have tried journaling many times over the years, often with great failure. Travel journaling seems to have awaken a new side of me, perhaps a more reflective side, allowing me to express my thoughts with greater wit and detail. My creativity is expressed through pen and paper unlike my experiences with keyboards and fingers. It’s a free-flowing, spur of the moment reactive and responsive experience that I enjoy tremendously.
6 Reasons to Use a Pen and Paper Travel Journal
1. Journaling leaves a written artifact of your journey.
Through out human history, events have been remembered by the writings left behind by those that left their memories for others to find. Far far longer than we have been exposed to the digital age of computers, we have been exposed to chisel upon stone and pen to paper. Journaling is something we are comfortable with, unlike the complexities of the digital age.
Travel journaling allows you to leave behind your personal experiences, thoughts and expressions. I will venture to say that digital expressions can become lost, corrupt and certainly impersonal at best. Pen to paper travel journaling is a warm extension of you, that cannot be duplicated, altered, or corrupted.
Your happy moments, expressed in your handwriting, passed down from generation to generation. Warm, expressive, personable and cherished.
2 . Frees up your senses to enjoy your environment.
Don’t becomes a digital zombie! You know who I am talking about. I love my iPhone and all the digital toys a person needs or wants, but they suck you into a digital wormhole that shuts down all of your senses. It is so easy to lose what is happening around you, robbing you of the greater experiences you should be enjoying.
Pen and Paper Travel Journaling allows you to be absorbed in your surroundings, listening to nature, feeling the wind on your face and the sun on your skin. You won’t lose control of your senses and enjoy the freedom to escape being robbed by digital distraction of email alerts, game notifications, picture postings and such.
There should be no doubt that hand writing is excellent for mental stimulation, clarity of expression, articulation and improving spelling and grammar. Something that you don’t get via emoji and spellcheck.
3. Great place to doodle.
You didn’t think that a Travel Journal is only for words did you?
I love to doodle! These days it’s called Zen Doodle, but I am an old school doodler and prefer to relax by drawing my whimsical designs in my travel journal. In fact I always take a small kit of doodle pens with me, so I am ready when the urge strikes me.
Perhaps you are a gifted with the skill to draw people, places or animals. The travel journal is perfect for adding your artist expressions in between your travel experiences
4. Reduces the invitation to be stolen.
It should be very obvious these days, having your digital media stolen is a fact of life that cannot be ignored. Holding your phone, distractedly typing away, lost and oblivious to your surroundings is clearly making you an easy target for a good old-fashioned “Grab-n-go”. I know you are probably thinking that they will be kind enough to save and upload you latest entries to the cloud for you …
Please let me know how well that works for you.
The resale market for a stolen paper travel journals is pretty low these days, of course that could all change, or book burnings will become popular again. But I wouldn’t worry too much about that.
I have never been so involved with writing in my paper travel journal that I wasn’t aware of everything happening in my immediate area. Safety first in the world of travel is a very good rule to follow.
5. Easier to review.
Rereading a paper travel journal is a warm enjoyable experience very similar to curling up with a great book on a rainy day in front of the fireplace. Taking you back to the moment it was written, placing beautiful images in your mind’s eye to experience again and again.
Digital expressions are cold, they distance you from the experience and devoid you of the tactile feel of the worn pages lovingly written by the hand that filled its pages.
6. No electricity required.
That’s right!
- No charging!
- No WiFi!
- No uploading to the cloud!
- No cords, cables or hidden charges!
- No emailing!
- No “Air dropping”!
- No searching by keyword to find it!
Just you, a pen, and a book – very primitive.
Well … You might need a light if you plan to only write at night.
Travel Journal Kit
What is the best travel journal to use?
Certainly a loaded question and I don’t have a perfect answer for you. Sorry, it is a personal choice, one that you must decide and perhaps go through a few travel journals until you find the perfect one for you. I will share with you my favorite travel journal and the tools that I use that works best for me.
(Full disclosure: the following links may contain an affiliate link that provide a small commission for the blog at no additional cost to you.)
Here is my Travel Journal set-up:
The foundation of my travel Journal is my Pocket Moleskine Classic Notebook, measuring just 3.5″ x 5.5″. It is small enough for me to carry in my pants pocket for easy access and large enough to comfortably write in. I choose the ruled, black cardboard bound cover with rounded corners, acid free paper, and fabric bookmark. It also comes with an elastic closure and an expandable inner pocket, perfect to hold my receipts with no worries of them falling out.
Moleskine Classic Notebook, Pocket, Ruled, Black, Hard Cover (3.5 x 5.5)
Finding my writing implements has always been a concern, mainly because I can never remember where I placed my pen last!
They where either deeply lost in the bottom of my backpack, suitcase or in one of my various pockets adorning my torso. Just never where I needed it, when I needed it.
Luckily Quiver Global LLC. created a solution that I can’t live without. Their Double-Pen Quiver for Pocket Moleskine is an indispensable companion to my Pocket Moleskin Notebook. The Pen-Quiver simply slides over the cover of my notebook, secured in place with an elastic band, to provide me with a very handy place to hold my pen. Brilliant! Who would have ever thought that a pen should always be kept with the notebook!
When I wish to jot down a thought, I simply grab my notebook, remove the pen from the quiver and start writing.
Double-Pen Quiver for Pocket Moleskine Hard-Cover (A6 size) Notebooks, Black with Yellow Stitching
It took me awhile to find a pen that works for me and of course everyone will have different preferences. My requirements were fairly simple: fine point, black ink, comfort grip and ink that won’t bleed through the pages.
Doodle Kit
Finally, here is my doodling kit put together from a few worthwhile purchases:
Leegoal Twilight Retro Bandage Synthetic Leather Pen Bag Pencil Case Makeup Pouch(Dark Brown)
Sakura 50011 11-Piece Zentangle Clamshell Pencil Set
Sakura 30065 6-Piece Pigma Micron Assorted Colors 05 Ink Pen Set
Of course, your mileage may vary but I encourage you to consider taking up pen and paper and forgoing the cold digital medium that has been a common format these last dozen years or so. You never know, it might just appeal to you in ways you may not have considered before.
Safe Travels ~
