Travel Journal Prompts: 105 Ideas to Help You Document Your Next Trip

It’s always a good idea to keep a travel journal. It’s a way to document your trip and ensure you don’t forget it later. But it’s also a good way to remember what you saw, who you met, and how you felt.

Take a travel journal with you when you travel, and use these travel journal prompts to guide your writing:

How often do you go away?
What do you want to accomplish while you’re away?
When was the last time you took a trip, where did you go, and why did you choose that destination?
Did it meet your expectations? If not, how could it have been better? If so, what made the trip an enjoyable travel experience for you?
Did this trip help bring about other changes in your life (new job, new friends, etc.)? In what way?
What would you like to do or see on your trip?
How do you prepare for a trip?
How do you prefer to spend your time on the plane or train?
What’s your favorite way to pass the time on a bus or car ride?
What’s the best thing about traveling?
What’s the most interesting thing about traveling to another country?
What do you like to do when you travel?
What would make this trip perfect for you?
Do you’ve any fears about going on this trip?
How do you feel about taking risks when traveling?
What’re your expectations for the trip?
What would be the worst thing that could happen to you on this trip?
How long do you plan to stay in each place you visit?
Are there any rules or guidelines to ensure your trip is safe and fun?
What was the first word that came to your mind when you got off the plane?
What interesting facts did you find out about your destination?
How are the people different from those in your home country?
Describe a typical day of your life here.
Describe the weather.
Describe the first person you met on your trip.
Describe the people in this country (or city) compared to your home country (or country). In what ways are they different/the same? Do they seem open or closed to foreign travelers?
What do you think of the food culture here – are there dishes that are particularly interesting (or less so)? Or the other way around – do they all seem pretty much the same to you?
What’s something you don’t understand about people from other cultures?
Describe a place you’ve visited that wasn’t what you expected
Describe something you saw in nature that made you stop and wonder
Describe a place that makes your heart happy when you think of it
Describe the most beautiful thing you’ve ever seen in person (not online)
Describe a time when you felt absolutely safe
Describe a time when you were scared on a trip.
Do you miss home at all? If so, how do you feel when you think about home (and why)?
Do you miss home at all? If so, how do you feel when you think of home (and why)?
What’s one place you’d recommend visiting?
What did you learn from a stranger on your trip?
Did anything go wrong on your trip? If so, how did it affect your travel experience, and how did you feel about it?
What’re your favorite travel destinations?
Who travels with you? Is it a partner, family member, or friend?
What do you discover about your travel companion(s) as you travel together?
Do you prefer to travel alone or with friends/family? And why?
Do you prefer public transportation or renting a car when traveling between cities? And why?
What makes the place you traveled to similar or different from home?
What’s the strangest thing that happened to you on your trip?
How would you describe this place to a friend or family member?
What songs did you hear along the way remind you of this trip?
When did you step out of your comfort zone on a trip?
What’re the top three things that made this trip memorable for you?
In what ways did this trip change your life?
What was the biggest challenge during the trip, and how did you overcome it?
What was the most surprising thing about the trip?
What did you find out about yourself during the trip?
What do you wish you’d done differently on this trip?
What would it be and why if you could go back to one specific trip moment?
What was your favorite day on this trip, and why?
Who or what inspired you the most on this trip? Why do they inspire you so much? (This could be a person or an object).
What activities, sights, sounds, and smells do you experience when you travel?
Do you feel relaxed, tense, or somewhere in between?
What would the first chapter look like if you were writing a travel memoir?
What’ve you learned about travel that will impact your next trips, and how?
What memories of your trip do you think you’ll remember?
Were you happy with your trip planning, or would you change anything about your itinerary?
How much money did you spend overall on your trip, from travel to hotel stays to dining out?
What was your favorite part of this trip to plan?
If you could take anyone with you on your next trip, who’d you take and why?
How did traveling to a new place change your view of the world?
How did your trip compare to what you expected?
What was the best food you ate on your trip?
If you could travel through time, would you visit the past or the future? And why?
If you could live in any country in the world, where would you live?
Who do you miss the most right now and why?
What would you do if you could live here forever?
What does the future look like for this place?
If you were away and came back home, what 5 things would you be grateful for?
What would the scene outside look like if you could wake up right now with any view?
Do you’ve any travel rituals?
When you travel, do you prefer to plan or drift?
What was the biggest challenge for you personally on this trip, and how did you find yourself, your skills as a traveler, your life experiences in general, etc.?
What’s the best souvenir you ever brought back from a trip?
How has travel changed you?
What do you wish you’d known before you took this trip?
Are there places you wouldn’t want to return to? Why or why not?
Who’d you like to thank for making this trip possible?
What was the last place you visited? What made it special?
What’s something you can only experience when you travel?
What was the most fun thing you did on your last trip?
What was the last time you cried on a trip?
What makes traveling a challenge?
What did you learn on this trip that will help you travel better in the future?
What would those tips be if someone asked for tips on packing for a trip?
Is there anything different about traveling as an adult than when you were a kid?
How do you think travel has changed since before the internet?
Tell about an experience that made you feel uncomfortable in a different country or place.
What food do you miss the most when you’re abroad? And why?
How often do you use the internet when you travel? Is this a good thing or a bad thing?
Who’s your favorite famous traveler, and why?
Do you’ve any travel-related dreams or aspirations? Describe them.
How can you be more open-minded when you travel?
Do you’ve any good stories about how you met new people while on your road trip?
Do you know of any good stories about how you were surprised by the behavior of others while traveling (positive or negative)?
Were there times you had difficulty communicating with locals because of language barriers? What did you do about it?
What was the craziest thing you experienced while traveling?
What’s special about traveling that makes it worth it in the end, even if something goes wrong along the way?

You can use any of the travel journal prompts for your travel journal. You can choose one journal prompt or more travel writing prompts for your travel journal. The best travel journal prompts are the ones you choose for yourself.

Contents show

Why You Should Keep a Travel Journal

A travel journal is a great way to record the things you saw and did, your experiences, and the people you met. It’s also a good way to remind yourself of the times in your life that are important to you.

Writing down events in your journal helps you remember them later. When you write something down, it solidifies in your travel memory so that later, when someone asks you about your road trip or you want to relive some of those memories, you’ve all those moments fresh in your mind. And if you write down how you felt during those experiences, you’ll be able to frame things for future trips better!

Keeping a journal during your trip abroad can also be helpful when you need to explain things to friends or family back home. You may not always have time to write an email explaining exactly what happened while they were away! But if they read your journal after returning from their travels, they can understand all the details immediately.

Creative Travel Journal Ideas

Your Travel Journal Can Be Anything You Want It to Be

One of the best things about a travel journal is that it can be as creative as you want it to be. For example, if you’re going on a trip and want to add something special to your journal entry, you can get some bus tickets and receipts.

You can also include business cards from hotels or restaurants. Anything that helps it feel like a real part of your trip is great!

That’s not all – you can also use postcards or other souvenirs to decorate your page. And if you’re feeling particularly creative, you can also draw a picture of what you saw or scribble between the lines of your letters. Don’t overdo it, though – you don’t want anything to distract you from being able to read what you’ve written! If there’s one thing we’ve learned from our travels (and from observing the journals of others), it’s that when traveling, it’s best to keep things simple!

Kids Travel Journal

When you travel with your children, they’ll probably be grateful in the future if you get them to keep their travel diary early on. Even if they can’t write yet, they can use some of the travel journal writing prompts above and draw creative travel journal ideas instead of writing.

This way, they can record their favorite trip memories, and you’ll be amazed at how many little details they can remember compared to adults. Children are very efficient at turning a simple prompt into a great journal idea.

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