Travel journal prompts: 60 questions for every trip

Use these 60 travel journal prompts by choosing one question that fits the day and answering it with one specific detail. They cover the anticipation before a trip, ordinary and difficult travel days, the last day and what you notice after coming home.

"Write about your day" is a hard thing to ask of yourself at the end of a long one. A question is easier: it narrows the whole day down to one thing you can answer in a sentence, and a sentence is enough. If you're setting up a journal for the first time, start with our guide on how to start a travel journal.

How do you use travel journal prompts without making more work?

One prompt per entry. Answering three is a chore; answering one is a habit.
Answer with a detail. A name, a number, a sound, a price on a menu, a sentence someone said. "The bus driver waited for us" is better than "people were nice."
Copy ten before you leave. Put them on the back page of your notebook or in the note where you will write. When you're stuck, take the first one that fits.
Skip any prompt that doesn't fit. A question about the beach is no use in a museum.

Match the question to the energy you have:

Thirty seconds: answer 11, 16, 20 or 30 with a phrase.
Two minutes: answer 12, 17, 24 or 27 in one or two sentences.
Time to think: use 9, 21, 43 or 58 and explain what changed your mind.
Two travelers: both answer the same prompt separately. Keep both answers, even when they disagree.

What should you write before the trip?

These are worth answering at home or on the way to the airport. Years later, the gap between what you expected and what happened is one of the best parts of a journal.

Why this place, and why now?
What do you picture when you imagine the first evening there?
What are you most looking forward to eating?
What are you nervous about?
Who are you going with, and what do you hope they'll love about it?
What is one thing you want to do that isn't in any guidebook?
What did you almost pack and leave out, or almost leave out and pack?
What do you think you'll miss from home?
What do you already know about this place, and where did you learn it?
If the trip could change one thing about you, what would you want it to be?

What can you write on any day of the trip?

Use these on ordinary days. Most of a trip is ordinary days, and they're the ones that blur together first.

What was the first thing you noticed when you went outside this morning?
What did you eat today that you want to remember the name of?
What did something cost that surprised you, high or low?
Who did you talk to today who wasn't someone you traveled with?
What did you see that you didn't photograph?
Which photo from today brings the whole day back, and why that one?
What sound would you record if you could keep only one from today?
What did a local do differently from how you'd do it at home?
Where did you sit the longest, and what was in front of you?
What made you laugh today?
What did you get wrong about this place before you came?
What did you walk past that you want to go back to?
What is something small here that you'd like to have at home?
What did the weather do to your plans?
Who in your group had the best day, and why?
What did you learn to say in the local language, or wish you had?
What took longer than you expected, and was it worth it?
What would you tell a friend to skip?
What was the view from your room, or the street outside your door?
If today had a title, what would it be?

What do you write when the travel day goes wrong?

A canceled train, a lost card, rain on the one day you planned to spend outside or a fight in the car can flatten the whole entry into "bad day." Use one of these prompts to keep the sequence and the useful detail without forcing a cheerful ending.

What went wrong, in one plain sentence?
What did you do in the first ten minutes after it happened?
Who helped, and what did they do?
What did you end up doing instead of the plan?
What was the moment you realized it would be okay?
What did you eat, and where, on the worst day?
What would you do differently next time?
What will you laugh about from today in a year?
What did you find out about the people you traveled with today?
What was one good thing that happened anyway?

What should you write on the last day?

Answer these on the last evening or on the way home, before ordinary life takes over again.

What will you miss first?
What is one moment you want to remember exactly as it was?
What surprised you most about the whole trip?
What turned out to be the best decision you made?
Which plan did you drop, and are you glad you did?
What will you bring home, and which one thing in your bag means the most?
What do you know now that you wish you had known on day one?
What would you do on day one if you could start over?
Which place would you go back to first?
Describe the trip in one sentence to someone who wasn't there.

Which prompts work after you get home?

These work a week, a month or a year after the trip. They're good for the evening you look back through your photos.

What did you notice about home when you walked in the door?
Which story from the trip have you told the most, and has it changed?
What do you remember that isn't in any photo?
What have you kept doing since the trip: a food, a habit, a phrase?
Which photo would you print, and why that one?
What do you already remember differently from what you wrote down?
Who would you most like to take there next time?
What did the trip change, even a little?
What would you tell yourself before leaving, now that you've been?
Where next, and why there?

What does a useful journal answer look like?

The best answers are short and specific. Compare:

Too broad: "Nice dinner." Useful later: "The owner wrote the name of the wine on a napkin so we could find it at home."
Too broad: "Long drive." Useful later: "Four hours behind a hay truck, and nobody wanted to change the music."
Too broad: "Lost my wallet." Useful later: "A teenager ran two blocks to give it back and wouldn't take anything."

You don't need to write well. You need to write down the detail that would otherwise disappear.

Which travel journal prompts work for kids?

The same questions work for kids if you make them shorter and ask them out loud. Try "What was the best thing today?", "What was the yuckiest thing you ate?" or "What do you want to tell Grandma?" Write the answer in their words, spelling and all, or let them draw it. For more on keeping a trip with kids, see our ideas for family vacation memories.

What if you miss several days?

Do not answer a week's worth of prompts in one sitting. Open the photos from the first missing date, choose one image and answer prompt 16: which photo brings the day back, and why? Repeat for the next date only if you still want to continue. Mark anything uncertain instead of filling the gap with a guess.

Where should you keep the answers?

Anywhere you'll still have them in five years: a notebook, a notes file named after the trip, or the caption of the day's best photo. If you want an app for it, our comparison of travel journal apps sorts them by how much writing each one expects.

Memory Tickets turns one photo into a ticket with a title, place, date and one line, then collects the tickets by month. It is free on iPhone, needs no account, works offline and keeps the photos on the phone. An answer to one prompt can be the ticket's line.

A seven-night starter set

If choosing from 60 questions still feels like a decision, copy this sequence before the trip:

Why this place, and why now?
What was the first thing you noticed outside this morning?
What did you eat that you want to remember by name?
What did you see that you did not photograph?
What went wrong, and what happened next?
Which photo brings the whole day back, and why?
What will you miss first?

Answer one each night and stop when the detail is on the page. On a road trip, use one prompt per stop instead of per day; our road trip journal ideas show how.