30 Travel Journal Prompts To Slow Down With

Journaling before a trip feels like a mini-check-in with yourself. You get a sense of where you are now – your present dreams and desires, your expectations and wants. You see what’s influencing your itinerary and whether those influences align with your priorities. This is the time to daydream, create a bucket list, tweak an upcoming trip, and challenge yourself to get outside your comfort zone.

• Why do you travel?
• Where do you find inspiration for travel?
• What is a place you’d love to visit?
• What activities make you feel more present while traveling? What distracts you?
• What do you find restful while traveling?
• To what extent does social media influence (and impact) your itinerary?
• What expectations do you place on yourself while traveling? What expectations do you place on a destination?
• Brain dump a packing list. Strike through anything you feel isn’t essential.
• How do you define your comfort zone? List three small ways you can stretch your comfort zone.
• What fleeting moments bring you joy while traveling? How can you carve out time to experience them? (examples of fleeting moments: sips of morning coffee, leaves crunching underfoot in autumn, the warming scent of bookstores)

The easiest way to journal while traveling is to log a moment, so the sights and sounds and rhythms of a location feel like fresh memories long after you’ve visited. I usually journal on-site in the present tense (I find that this perspective grounds me and keeps me focused on my surroundings).

• What is the weather right now?
• What is the first thing you notice when you look around?
• Describe a meal you’re eating. What does the dish taste and smell like?
• Describe the crowd at a cafe (or park or gallery or restaurant). How are people dressed? What are they doing?
• Did you meet anyone while traveling? Where did you meet them? How did you feel after talking to them?
• What is a word you learned today that you’d like to remember?
• What is one fact you learned today?
• If you saw a popular tourist attraction, was it worth the hype?
• Describe one sight that stood out to you.
• What sounds do you hear, right now, as you’re journaling?

These travel journal prompts are for the days (and weeks and months and years) after a trip, when you want to process your feelings, celebrate how far you’ve come, and introduce the values you prioritize while traveling into your everyday routine. Most of these prompts have been pulled from our monthly travel book club discussion guides.

• What is one setback you’ve experienced while traveling? How did you get through that setback?
• What lessons have you learned while traveling? What experiences have you gained?
• What is one fear you’ve overcome while traveling?
• What is a story you loved as a kid? What place reconnected you to (or reminded you of) that story?
• What is a dish you tried that you’d love to taste again? Are there recipes online or local markets you can visit that carry the ingredients?
• Describe a time you smiled (or laughed) while traveling.
• It’s Open Mic Night at your local comedy club. You’re asked up on stage. What funny travel story comes to mind?
• In A Month In Siena, Hisham Matar writes that “We often never think of…how our sense of being is subtly changed by walking into even the most inconsequential of buildings or transitioning from one room to the next.” Describe a time when your actions, emotions, and behaviors changed as you crossed a threshold.
• Have you ever moved through a city like a flâneur (someone who leisurely wanders the streets of a city, observing urban life)? What attributes of the city made it conducive for idle wandering?
• One of my favorite lines in Pedro Páramo by Juan Rulfo is “The road rose and fell: ‘It rises or falls according to whether one’s going or coming. For the person who’s leaving, it rises; for the one who’s coming, it falls.'” In what ways can leaving a place be just as (or more) challenging than going to it? What have the acts of going to and leaving a place taught you about yourself?
• What aspects of travel do you love? How can you bring more of what you love about travel into your daily routine?