Just cleaned out the cabinet over my kitchen desk and found a travel journal I used years ago when going around Spain, later what was then (Josip Broz) Tito’s Yugoslavia, and even later, around Italy and Switzerland.
There was no way I could go back to my computer to finish a current travel article I started until I read through the whole journal.
From delightful Spanish Paradores (restored castles, monasteries) where we stayed to the fascinating town of Rondo on a scary drive up a precipitous mountain road, and from driving around the Kotor Fjord in Montenegro to meandering through the ancient walled city of Dubrovnik, reminiscing past adventures took up the rest of the day. And that was not counting reliving the Italy-Switzerland trip.
But once I went back to my career as a journalist, ironically enough, I stopped writing in personal travel journals. Instead, photos captured the views, but not thoughts.
However, that is about to change. I just came across “My Travel Journal.”
Put out by Fox Chapel Publishing and Quiet Fox Designs, it has spaces and lines, pages and notes for everything you know you need to some things you might not have thought of such as vaccines, credit card phone numbers (yes wallets are stolen, mine was in Prague), what was spent so you have a declaration record and lots of room for personal notes on people met, places stayed, food tried and sights you loved or wondered about.
It also has charming illustrations by Katie Vernon that may encourage adding your own sketches or taping in a menu or ticket stub.
The journal can start out as a helpful trip planner and then be a record you will want to go back to years later when you too, clean out that cabinet
“My Travel Journal,” Quiet Fox Designs, May 14, 2019. Has a suggested retail price of $12.99.
