My journaling journey started back in February 2017, when I discovered a beautiful bullet journal spreads on Pinterest. So I directly started my own bujo, which I kept for about a year. In that year I slowly found out that I loved to create collages more than to draw my month or my week. So, again on Pinterest, I discovered the traveler's notebooks while I was looking for ideas to start a travel journal. (my first travel journal was an A5 hardcover notebook)

In January 2018 I changed from bujo to a weekly and monthly insert in a regular size traveler's notebook. Since then this has been and still is my favorite size for any kind of journal, and I have a few by now... (an EDC planner, a travel journal, a junk journal, one for quotes and inspiration,... just to name a few) 

My favorite of all my journals is definitely my travel journal!

I traveled a lot in Europe when I was younger, I have seen many great cities and places, but unfortunately, I have forgotten a lot of the details now, and can't remember many of the things I experienced on my trips. Now I wish I would have kept a travel journal back then... 

I just love to go through the pages of my travel journals and relive all those travels in every detail. I would definitely recommend everyone to keep a travel journal! So you will never forget about all those smaller and bigger details that make your trips so special.

I love to add many different things in my travel journal, like tickets, maps, postcards, or different business cards for example from restaurants. Even the wrapping of delicious sweets or the label of a water bottle... You can add anything that can be glued in, or you can add little paper pockets/envelopes to store those things in your journal. There really are no limits to your imagination!

Of course, I also decorate my pages with washi tape, rubber stamps, and other ephemera.

Often I get asked how and when I write in my travel journal, every day on the trips or when I am back home. The answer is both! It depends on the length of a trip. When I am on a weekend trip I don't take many things with me, only a journal filled with a blank insert for notes and some dated envelopes for the things I collect, which I want to put in my journal later, and of course a good fountain pen!

So what I do on a short trip like that is, I only take short notes about what I did in the day and I collect all the scraps, etc. in the envelopes. When I am back home at my happy desk, I put everything together in my travel journal with a lot of time to decorate the pages. 

On longer family trips, that last for example 2 weeks, I take everything with me and journal every evening. I really love that, also to resume what happened in the day, so I always try to find or make time and room to do that.

Of course, I can't take all my happy desk with me, especially when we travel by plane.

So I take all the washi tapes that I want to use and make myself samples of them on old playing cards. Like this, I can take a lot of washi tapes with me without having a storage problem.

After that, I collect all the rubber stamps that I find fitting for our destination and stamp them on different kinds of paper, like kraft paper and vellum for example, and keep the imprints in an envelope together with some other selected ephemera. Then I take some pens and glue and that's it!

If we don't travel by plane I also bring a pair of scissors, but generally, I prefer to rip the paper I want to use because I like the look of it a lot more like that!

And as I also love to add photos to my travel journal, I either bring my Instax camera or a pocket printer to print the pictures directly from my mobile phone. But it is also possible to add photos later if you just leave a free space!

I keep my travel journal and all my filled up inserts from my trips like treasures because that's what they are for me! Precious memory keepers!

They keep all those memories of good times forever for me and my family! They make it possible for me to relive all those smaller and bigger trips again and again.

Memories are just the most precious thing!

I always have wanderlust in my heart and can't wait for the next trip! Where will it bring me? What adventures will await me?

One thing is for sure, my travel journal will always be my loyal companion, no matter where I will go! 

Keep a travel journal! 

Find Mareike on Instagram: @me_and_my_happydesk