Travel Journal Page Ideas

One of the things I love most about travel journaling is that there really are no rules. Your pages can be neat and minimal, completely chaotic, filled with photos, covered in stickers or consist of nothing more than a few scribbled sentences at the end of a long day.

When I’m actually travelling, I tend to keep my layouts pretty simple. There is usually too much to see, eat and photograph to spend hours making the perfect journal spread. But once I’m home? That’s a different story. I love going back through my photos and little bits and pieces I collected along the way and creating new spreads in my Hobonichi. It’s like experiencing a tiny part of the trip all over again.

So if you’re wondering what your travel journal should look like, the short answer is: whatever makes you happy. But if you need some inspiration, here are some different travel journal layout styles to try.

Note: I made these spreads using chat gpt as some of my own entries had too many personal notes.

Why Try Different Travel Journal Layouts?

You definitely don’t need to pick one particular style and stick with it forever. In fact, experimenting is half the fun. My style is usually all over the place. I can’t commit to one or the other and even though I have a preference I mix things up all the time.

Some trips might call for quick notes and messy pages, while others make you want to get out every sticker, stamp and roll of washi tape you own. Your style can also depend on whether you’re journaling on the road or creating a memory spread once you’re back home.

1. The Minimal Travel Journal Layout

This is probably closest to how I journal when I’m on the road. Think a date, a heading, a few lines about the day and perhaps one photo, sticker or little drawing.

Minimal doesn’t have to mean boring. Leaving plenty of white space can actually make a page look really beautiful.

Try using:

• One pen
• A small photo (I always bring a portable mini printer along for just this purpose)
• A date stamp
• One or two stickers
• A short handwritten memory

This is a great style if you want to keep up with your journal while travelling without it becoming another item on your to-do list.

2. The Collage Layout

At the opposite end of the spectrum: more is more!

A collage spread is perfect for all those little paper bits that somehow find their way into your bag while travelling. Tickets, receipts, business cards, food wrappers, museum leaflets, maps… I have a hard time throwing any of it away.

Layer those pieces together with photos, stickers, stamps and handwritten notes. Things don’t need to be perfectly straight either. In fact, a little bit of organised chaos is part of the charm.

3. Photo-Focused Layouts

Sometimes the photos tell most of the story.

Choose one larger photo as the focus of your spread or combine several smaller photos in a grid. Add a caption, date and a few sentences about what happened.

This is one of my favourite options for creating pages once I’m back home because I can go through all my travel photos and pick out moments that deserve their own page. While traveling I will also add photos but usually not as many. One or two of the day but when I’m back home I have more time and a better printer too.

Variation: make an entire spread around one particular meal, place or moment rather than trying to document a whole day.

4. The Daily Diary Layout

If writing is the most important part of travel journaling for you, dedicate most of the page to your actual diary entry.

Write about what you did, but also include the little things you might otherwise forget. What did breakfast taste like? What was the weather doing (I always include the temperature and an rain/sunshine etc icon next to the date)? What made you laugh? What went horribly wrong?

Those tiny details are often much more fun to read years later than a perfect list of tourist attractions.

Add a small photo, ticket or sticker if you want, but let the words be the star of the page.

5. Scrapbook-Style Travel Spreads

This is where you can really bring out the supplies.

Combine photos with patterned paper, washi tape, stickers, stamps, labels and other ephemera. Create layers and don’t worry too much about keeping everything within neat little boxes.

I especially like this style for memory keeping after a trip. There’s more time to play around with the composition and use all those things I brought home.

6. Drawing Layouts

I am certainly not the best artist, but there is something so satisfying about adding little drawings in my travel journal. I would love to be able to waterpaint on the go, but so far haven’t been able to do that.

I do like to add drawings with a waterproof pen so I could – theoretically – add watercolor later.

7. One Big Memory

Not every page needs to tell the story of an entire day.

Dedicate a spread to one memorable moment: an incredible dinner, a beautiful hike, a hilarious train journey or that coffee shop you accidentally spent three hours in.

Use one or two photos and write down everything you remember about that particular experience.

These pages can be especially lovely to make after you return home.

8. Maps and Route Layouts

Maps are perfect for travel journals because they immediately give a sense of place.

Use part of a printed map, draw a very simple version yourself or mark your route between different destinations. Add little notes, arrows, dates or photos around it.

You can usually ask free maps from the hotel lobby or find a tourist office that has them. You could also print google maps things but that would require you to do so before leaving.

9. The Messy Travel-Day Page

This deserves to be a style of its own.

Stick in the train ticket. Write sideways because you’ve run out of room. Add the name of the amazing sandwich you ate. Scribble something down while waiting at the airport. Tape in the receipt from dinner.

Done.

Pages like these might not look perfectly curated, but they capture what travelling actually felt like at that moment. And that makes them pretty special.

10. The After-the-Trip Memory Spread

Your travel journal doesn’t have to end when the trip does.

I love creating extra spreads in my Hobonichi once I’m back home. By then I have my (extra)photos, collected paper bits and a little more time to decide what I want to do with them.

You could create pages about:

• Favourite meals from the trip
• Things that surprised you
• Best moments
• Funny things that happened
• Favourite photos
• Places you want to return to
• A trip overview or highlights page

It’s a lovely way to extend the trip just a little bit longer.

Mixing Different Travel Journal Styles

Of course, you don’t have to choose.

One page can be minimal and the next can be a sticker explosion. You can write three pages about one day and document the next with a single photograph and two words.

Your travel journal doesn’t need a perfectly consistent aesthetic to be worth keeping.

In fact, I think the changes are part of what makes it interesting.

Journaling While Travelling Versus Journaling Afterwards

For me these are really two different ways of memory keeping.

While travelling, speed wins. I want to capture things while they’re fresh without spending my evening trying to create a masterpiece. That said; I do love to write so depending on the trip (and the company!) I love spending my evening or morning writing down memories. Sometimes I write 5 pages and sometimes I don’t get past half a page.

Back home, I enjoy the creative side much more. I can print photos, sort through everything I’ve collected and create more elaborate Hobonichi spreads without feeling like I should actually be outside exploring.

You can do one or the other or combine both.