Take Notes or Write a Journal

Writing a journal will help you remember your vacation years later

Writing a journal or taking notes at the end (or during) each day is a great way to remember your vacation months or years later. I started a travel journal long before I started this blog and I love going back and reading some of the stories from my holiday that I had long forgot.

Sometimes there are jokes or acronyms in my journal that I can’t remember and when I finally figure it out, I spend an hour laughing.

For me, I tend to remember things more positively than they actually were, so if I keep a journal, I can remember more truths about my trip. I usually think “I loved this attraction”, but in reality, it was just OK.

I am pretty detailed in my journal, but you don’t have to be. Bullet points work just fine too. Some key things that I like to record are:

• What restaurants we went to, what we ate, and if we liked it or not. If a server was memorable (good or bad), I will write that too.
• Attractions we went to, how long we stayed, whether we enjoyed it or not (and I am brutally honest in my journal because I’m probably the only one reading it)
• Any people we encountered during the day - even if we just saw a random person that we wanted to remember (someone on our Norwegian Fjords cruise looked just like Mayim Bialik).

There’s no right or wrong way to take notes, but I’m sure you’ll be happy that you did.