How do you remember your trip? Do you write trip reports for yourself, or make photo albums or scrapbooks? Something else?

What kinds of things do you include? Photos, ticket stubs, restaurant cards, menus, museum brochures? Do you buy books? Print things off the internet?

My trips to Italy--and elsewhere--have been memorable but details can fade so I am trying to put together "books" for myself to relive each of these extraordinary experiences.

I'd love to hear other people's ideas on how to preserve these special memories.

It's funny you should ask this today because Chris just wrote a post on her blog, Why I Should Take Better Notes While Traveling which got me lamenting the facts that I have several trip reports I haven't written and my note taking lately has been lax. Normally though, I take pictures, write trip reports and for the past couple of years, have been blogging.

For three years now though, I've been meaning to create a book, using Blurb, from my London trip, to see how that goes.

Oh I wish I do a better job at this. I do save all the stubs, card, brochures, you name it. But I have not actually used them in the scrapbook I have been meaning to work on. We also take a lot of photos, but so many we are not quite sure exactly about the details, a bummer.
I have been meaning to write trip reports too, but I waited too long that I lost some of the details in my head.
So now I started blogging, hopefully this will help.

I have been keeping a travel journal for many years. I often re-read entries and have been able to re-live experiences in that way. I also have my plein air paintings; many of which are hung in our home. It's funny, because I am a professional artist and have been selling my studio paintings and drawings for decades, but have found it very difficult to part with my Italian plein air work. Until recently only a few friends had purchased them, but an art consultant recently approached me and I finally gave in. I think that having an activity such as journaling or sketching is a wonderful aid to practice the art of slow travel.

For me, I've found that nightly blogging when I'm traveling makes the strongest bank of memories. Firstly, because its so immediate that the details are just a few hours hold. I'll still have the card from the restaurant, or be able to trace our route on a map. The act of writing and looking at the day's photos fixes the images and experiences in my mind, and then having them in tangible form to review keeps the memory very fresh, even much later.

We remember our trips mostly by taking lots of pictures and then running them as slideshows from our computers. We have a computer in our living room connected to a large screen TV, and we often use that to display slideshows with Internet radio or Pandora music in the background.

It's kind of fun to sit and play the game of "where was that castle anyway?" as the pictures rotate through. It really does keep the trips fresh in our minds.

- Roz

I just made a photo book for my parents to commemorate a trip we took together this past summer to Ireland and Italy. They have tons of digital photos in their computer which they never look at. We took a big trip together in 2005 and I have never seen a single photo from that.

I went through Shutterfly.com and was pleased with the result. I went for the biggest size, which is 12x12, and for the leather cover option, which is the most expensive. Because I added many pages beyond the 20 it comes with at the base price, it ended up being pretty expensive.

However, if I were to do it over again, I wouldn't choose such a big format or bother with a leather cover. The quality of many of our photos just wasn't high enough to look that good in such a big book. I think they'd look much better in a smaller format. Shutterfly has other size options which are less pricey too, and they regularly run specials for 20-25% off, or a second book free, or free shipping, that kind of thing. I have also heard good things about Blurb.com's photo books.

In my early travels I kept a journal that I wrote in every night. (I do still have all these journals.) When I got home, I made very elaborate photo albums, often typing up sections of the journal to include. In addition to photos, my albums included tickets, menus, brochures etc. I also bought postcards to include in my albums.

Then I started traveling with a laptop, keeping my journal electronically and posting to a blog when I had internet access. A digital camera changed the way I handled photos, and I've printed out very few photos in the last five years. I've documented several trips through Slow Travel trip reports and posted many photos on Slow Photos.

In recent years it is easier to get WIFI and post regularly to a blog and to size photos to include in blogs. I've also been posting some photos on other photo sites like Snapfish (where you can have a group room with others and do photo projects) and Flickr (where you can do slide shows to include on a website or blog).

This year I made Charley and Kelly a Snapfish book of our two week walk on the Stevenson trail in France. I got the book with the paper cover, and made a long book with captions and some text. I was lucky to do my book during a sale. I was really really happy with the book and they absolutely loved it. I plan to do more of these books.

I use my digital photos in many ways. We have one of those digital frames and have a show of favorite photos rotating. And I've made both Charley and I a file of photos to use as our screen saver.

We also like to buy special things on trips to include in our lives-- not souvenirs so much as things we use or enjoy often, sometimes daily. A lot of the art on our walls comes from trips, our pottery dishes from Provence, canisters from DeRuta, earrings from Venice....

I do still buy postcards (not as many though) and keep little memory things, but I just put them in boxes. We also buy those souvenir books for an area or a famous place.

Kathy

I have a photo album(s) for each of our trips since 1990. The last three are MyPublisher photobooks. I am still working on our three months in Venice (2008-09) photobook.

We have fun looking at these albums/books, reliving our trips.

Also, we use my travel pictures as screen saver in the office.

I keep a diary on every trip and try to include more of the "how this feels/looks/affects me" than "what I did today".

I always have a 3-ring binder of trip information and fill up the pockets with all my stubs, brochures, etc. Ticket stubs make great bookmarks that can help remind you of where you've been as you do your future reading.

We have lots of posters mounted from various spots we've been, so different rooms of our home are reminders.

My wife collects rocks (no, not little rocks...the kind that make the ticket counter lady groan at the airport) and we have rocks from all over the world in our rear garden. It's pretty amazing that she can still identify most of them by place of origin.

I buy some sort of nic nac in every country every time I go...over the years, this has pretty much filled up 3 sections of one of our bookcases, but still is fun to look over on a rainy day.

Our kids give my wife an annual "Where We've Been" calendar with the photos being taken from all of our trips....they tend to lean towards the ones of them looking really cute when they were little or me looking nothing like I look today (which amuses them greatly).

I also used My Publisher and it is such a nice "tabletop book" that I am more likely to leave it out and look at it. I was very happy with the results and will do it again for my next trip. We went on a family vaction and we gave each family a book of their own for Christmas. It included pictures that all of us took!! Everyone was thrillled!

I agree that recording your own immediate, personal and emotional reaction to a site is more important than recording details that can be found in a guidebook. And that's the part that may disappear quickly.

I am impressed by all the high-tech methods people use. I am still in the physical memory place--stubs and brochures, maps and yes, photos from film.

How do I remember my travels?
I have a very low tech, organic way.
Most of the time I travel with my best friends.
Last Christmas-New Year on the Riviera and Spain, there were 4 of us.
Last September in Rome, we were 6.
Last June in Dordogne, we were also 6, but different "casting".
Then my friends and we rehash our memories and laugh over photos and stories, for years to come…

Growing up, my family took a trip every year. Each evening my Mother would write the days happenings in a steno pad that she carried in her purse. She would include where we went & what we saw, what we ate & how much it cost and funny things I or my sisters would say or do. My mother is long past now, but those trip journals are priceless. Not only as part of our family history, but just the sight of her handwritting brings her back in my mind & my heart.

I have taken up the tradition of keeping a trip journal. I look for ones with pockets to keep tickets, small maps & brochures. Also, my husband will take a turn at writing in the journal sometimes. He has such a different perspective than I do. Amazing how we can stand at the same spot & see, feel, hear such different things.

I try to journal every night when travelling as it is amazing how quickly I forget those little details that I think will stick with me forever. I take lots of photos - the kids always groan, but they love looking back at our photos. I have a digital photo frame which I have a variety of special photos on, I have a large photo album on the lap top, but my favourite way to store photos is in a photo album that we can flick through. I do lots of journalling in it and add tickets etc. It is great to recall the sights, sounds and smells of the places we have visited!

For our upcoming trip to Italy this fall, I am thinking of using a small digital voice recorder. I have a hard time doing handwritten notes every day. Ideally, I would like to use voice recognition software to import my dictation into the computer, but I'm not sure how reliable this technology is at this point.

I will take still photos, but I am also considering a high def camcorder for this trip. Anyone here with experience using a camcorder on their travels? My main concerns with this are inertia in actually using it, the need for editing (in which I have no experience thus far), and desire to "enjoy the moment" rather than being preoccupied with recording. Decisions, decisions.

quote:

I am thinking of using a small digital voice recorder.

That's a great idea. My husband just got a program for his iPhone that acts as a voice recorder. He can transfer the sound files to the computer, and even if you can't do auto translation to text, it wouldn't be too hard to transcribe them.

- Roz

quote:

Ideally, I would like to use voice recognition software to import my dictation into the computer

Don't want to make this into a technology thread, but a quick comment that I have invested in what was supposed to be good quality voice recognition software for use in my family history/genealogy work and have been VERY unhappy with the technology. It takes a lot of time to "train" the system in words that it doesn't recognize.

You can embed voice into graphics displays, so some combination of visuals along with your digital recordings might be a nice memory item.

I keep a travel journal for all of our Italy trips and it really is fun to re-read them days, weeks, years after the trip. I usually record the days activities at dinner each night and it gives us something to talk about and we remind each other of things to write about.

I also have files FULL of ticket stubs, business cards, menus, maps, etc. and of course lots of digital photos. For our last trip I bought a standard photo album with those plastic sleaves and was able to keep tickets, etc. with a corresponding photo. I've also made a couple of collage pictures and small picture books through one of the online companies.

The only novelty we use is the 9" Sony digital photo frames. This is a wonderful medium. I download all photos in date order on 1 GB flash cards and we change the flash cards every couple of weeks or so. This way we have ongoing, year around slide shows in our living room and we look at these every time we walk by them, which is probably tens of times daily!

The digital photo frames are quite amazing and now we toy with the idea of taking one of the smaller ones with us on our trips loaded with photos of the family, children and grandchildren. A nice thing to have on a night table or bookshelf while away from home.

I don't have anything else unique to add, so I will just say that I also use the triad of old reliables: Journal, Photos, Papers of all sorts: receipts, tickets, printouts, maps, etc.

Josette does collage albums using the photos and the papers.

I use an organizer called Bonsai in my Palm to check off things or jot a comment as I see or do them during the day. That time stamps my whole day, so that at the end of the day, after I've forgotten a dozen things I've seen in Rome, or Venice, for example, I have a premade journal. Over a cocktail that evening, I then add whatever comments I want. All of these trip journals are copied to my hard drive when I return home.

I just did a Blurb book, coffee table size, for Italy, and it it turned out great in spite of my weaknesses as a photographer. Blurb is very easy to use and it provides plenty of options for ceativity. Even the 640x320 small photos from back in the old days can be displayed nicely. There was a small defect in the book as delivered. Blurb replaced it, overnight delivery, at their expense, no questions asked, so they get the highest marks from me for service.

I bought this really beautiful file folio in Assisi on my first trip there. I didn't know what I would do with it, but it was so lovely I couldn't resist.

I have been using it to store bits and pieces of things I could not throw away - pretty receipts, old bus passes, business cards from people I have met, and so on. I paint with watercolors everywhere I go, and those usually end up in the folio.

I also keep a travel journal of where I went, what I saw, ate, did, and so on. It is pretty boring, but useful for reference.

Another thing I have done is a web page and a couple of 'vanity' books with photographs and watercolor sketches.

The last thing I want to mention is that I send a postcard to my mother every day with notes of what I am doing, seeing, and so on. She kept them, put them into a beautiful album, and gave it back to me for Christmas one year. The writing on the cards is so much more interesting that that journal I keep!

Also, I have HUGE digital photo collections.

DMae

What I look for are pieces that I will use, wear or look at often.

I usually buy one good piece of jewelry when I'm on a trip. Not necessarily costly, but something that will mean something to me forever. I have a Nomination bracelet that I purchased in a jewelry shop in Ward Warehouse in Honolulu and the links are available in most countries. For example, I have a Duomo charm from Florence, a Bocca della Verità from Rome, an Italian flag, a Canadian flag, my initial in gold with teeny diamonds in it that I found in Ward Warehouse...each one reminds me of the very day and location where I purchased that specific link! I think about who I was with and what we were doing when I found each of the charms...what a lovely reminder!

Bringing home a piece of art from each city or location is another way for me to remember my trip. I have a beautiful white with blue pottery pitcher and salt container from Santarchangelo, Italy; 3 glorious paintings of delicious pastries of Angie's (tuscanartist) from Paris...these pieces remind me of the exact place in time when I purchased these beautiful works of art every single time I look at them.

I also look for long wrap-about-my-neck-a-few-times scarves. The purple and hot pink one I found at Casine Market in Florence is getting very tatty-looking, so I think it's time to go back to the market and look for another one...of course, that would mean I'd have to go back to Florence!

None of these are horribly expensive. The scarves were 2 for 5E!

Angie's paintings of those delicious Parisien pastries that now grace my dining room walls are shown below...enjoy!

"Memory... is the diary that we all carry about with us." ~ Oscar Wilde
Brenda

We cement the memories by noting highlights (from our detailed journal) in an annual calendar, which we enjoy reviewing at year-end. Sometimes we look back at previous blog posts to remember details and see photos.
Great memories!
Anne

We take notes in those lovely little back moleskin notebooks, and make it a point to do it every evening even if we are exhausted; and we put our photos on our Mac Computers as screen savers and background photos. So we are constantly reminded of our great memories. So much better than the old 5 x 8 photos in an album that one would never look at. And there is so much detail there that one didn't even notice at the time.

I journal daily--where we were, what we saw & my impressions. Where & what we ate with a description and critique if appropriate. When we return home, I do a scrapbook with the pictures and include ticket stubs, restaurant bills, business cards etc where appropriate. I sometimes print pictures of hotels etc from the internet to include if I find better ones online than those I was able to take. I've also printed maps of where we've been on velum paper and used it as the background for some of my pictures.

These have probably already been mentioned: I pack too light on purpose so I have to buy a sweatshirt or sweater wherever I am. I always buy an ornament or something I can use as an ornament. We have a relatively inexpensive camera, like 160 dollars, and we use My Publisher through Costco and blow up the lovely pictures and frame them. They look professional!

I have always handwritten in a small journal my travel experiences. I treasure the one I kept on my first trip to Europe when I was in my early twenty's. Actually I kept two on that trip. One was my observations and general info and the other was a very personal journal, things I missed about home, food I was craving etc. and my deep feelings of joy and discovery. I like remembering little things that I would have forgotton had I not written them down. I think having a computer to write my thoughts would be much easier but I don't travel with one. I have made elaborate scrapbooks for family vacations, keeping ticket stubs, train and museum tickets, money and coins, stamps, postcards. I come home with a ton of stuff and then cut and paste as needed. When my mom's oldest sister travelled to Europe in the early 1950's she made a beautiful framed collage of coasters, ticket stubs, and the kinds of stickers one sees on old luggage. I loved looking at that collage.
Now I tend to make photo books of trips on line and just invite friends to go to the site to see the albums. I've seen beautiful books that friends have made as some have mentioned here. I'd like to try that someday. Like Brenda I've also bought art from street artists while traveling. I have one watercolor that I bought in 1978 from an artist in Piazza San Marco in Venice. It hangs in my living room. I never tire of looking at it. It brings back lovely memories.

Barb Cabot
PS Brenda I envy you for owning Tuscan Artist originals. I love them!

Sometimes I'll forget to write what we saw and did for several days, because we are so into the experience, but then I'll play catch up and write down the highlights (remembering special moments with my husband's help,), sometimes sitting in a cafe and using a paper placemat if I didn't have any other paper.
We take lots of pictures and they help us remember moments in our travels even if the pictures aren't always great quality.
And "souvenirs" that seem trivial when I buy them are great reminders of places and experiences.

This message has been edited. Last edited by: Kim,

What an interesting thread.

I try to email friends when I can, it's kind of like blogging in that it relates memories while they are still fresh. I definitely write about "how I felt/what I saw" and not just what we did...

I take tons of photos which also serve as a memory guide...

I typically will bring souvenirs home. I especially like kitchen stuff, and books (maybe books first...)

I sometimes save stubs. Usually they end up as bookmarks which are a pleasant reminder of my trip if I read the book again (or the guidebook itself, which is a more likely place to put them as I go along...)

Hi Ginny58, this is a great thread! I do many of the things you and others have already mentioned. One of the things I also like doing too is creating videos (Themed slideshows with my photos set to music and also ones with short video clips of my trip). I create the video and then upload them to YouTube. You can either set them private to share with just your friends/family or leave them public depending on your comfort level. But I find them very fun to remember my travel memories with. I actually enjoy watching videos of places I want to visit too and have gotten ideas from them so they could be helpful to other travelers as well.