Travel Journals
Do you keep a travel journal? If so in what format do you record your travels, what do you record and how do you use it?
I keep one, handwritten in a book. It has been a good diary/reference document of our travels.
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We've kept a written journal for the past 20 years but didn't for the first 10.
I enjoy re-reading them plus it's handy for reference points. Also comes in handy as a reminder as to when you did actually visit a place, as the mind does grow a little fuzzy as all of the years sometimes seem to roll into one.
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Every site we stop at I open a Word Doc and create a page;
- Site name, date and cost of pitch
- General description of site
- Any trips/visits while there
- General round up/conclusion
- Attach a photo
I didn't bother at first and only started recording in 1989 (I used to write/type a review) but all of those have now been retyped into Word and all the photos scanned.
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Started out with a written book, but then moved onto spreadsheets. First date is 9/9/99
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OH keeps a diary, with a daily entry for whenever we're on site, and I keep a log of all towing trips and site costs, also I've a list of all the sites that I can remember using over our 40+ yrs of caravanning.
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I have kept details of where we have stayed since we started caravanning in 1982. That gradually expanded to keeping more details. I used to buy a Boots Scribbling Diary each year. (don't think they are made anymore?) With the advent of the internet I started a website around 2003, mainly for site reviews and then blogs. As I get older it proves to be a useful reminder of what we have done. As the internet grew and especially with the advent of digital photography it made it a lot easier to post decent photographs. The website is available to the public and from the feedback I have got over the years it seems that it has proved to be a welcome resource to others, especially our trips to Europe.
David
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The very first entry I made in an old exercise book says, " 23 May, On the way to London on the A303. Stopped at Sparkford- a muddy pig field when we arrived and after 12 hours of solid rain a morass when we left. 90 miles, 4 shillings." I won't give you the year.
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Here's the first entry from my little notebook, the first one in Porlock, having just bought a van, was probably over ambitious, towing there was not for the inexperienced, anyway I didn't think to tell OH I just let him hitch up and go for it!
Half way through the first year we joined both clubs and expanded the choices available, the second year we got up to Dunnet and we were off on our vanning adventures. The notebook now lists dates but it's nice to see where we've been over the last fifteen years.
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Always keep a record of every holiday. Every year I buy a beautiful little hardback note book and write up every holiday for the year. It's great to go back and read about the sites & places we've visited. I usually keep notes at the back of costs, routes and tips for the next time. More recently I've gone on Instagram and use the postings there as a picture diary.
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I have tried in the past to keep a handwritten journal with limited success. In an ideal world I would love to emulate DKs website which is both entertaining and informative but have decided to use an app based system.
My thinking is that as the phone is always with me an app that tracks where I go will be best and have tried four to date.
I started with one called Moves but this was sold, to Facebook I think, then discontinued.
I had also been using Polarsteps and more recently have tried Day One but think my favourite is Esplorio. You can save a trip, which is how I started, but it also has a diary function that is ‘on’ all the time which tracks and uploads any photos taken.
The trip function is great for me on holidays as I use the phones camera quite a bit-as the saying goes the best camera is the one you’ve got with you-so the pics are a reminder that’s helps with the note making.
All that said I do enjoy looking back at my handwritten records!
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No journal, no photos, just memories. As they say, just leave footprints in the sand.
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I've also started a new (for about a year now) type of recording our daily trips while away from the site. It happened by accident last year.
When we use a car park (those exorbitant pay and display ones) I just place the ticket on the top of the dashboard and when we leave I put them out of the way (usually door pocket) to get rid of later. At the end of one trip back home I found all of them together, but as I noticed they usually had a date/time and place on them ( for example keswick central car park) I decided to just get a note book and have begun to stick them in there. Gives a quick idea of where and when we were.
Also eye watering when you add up all the prices and find out you have spent near £40 on parking over a long trip away!
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Interesting to see the mention of Arthur's Field at Porscatho, brue. We walked past there a few weeks ago. I think that was the site that Caroline Quentin featured in her TV tour of Cornwall some time ago, just after she discovered the Hidden Hut cafe.
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I keep a statistical spreadsheet of sites, mileage, price etc. The OH keeps a narrative account of activities and meals in the old steam driven way.
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I have a few written notes of my very early travels but like AandJ it was only of limited sucess. They ended up being bitty and not very well organised and as a result difficult to consult. In 2000 I transferred some of these to a web site which I have maintained ever since.For the last two years I have also been using Polarsteps which I find easy to maintain and I had my last trip (not with the motorhome) turned into a book which I was very impressed with both in terms of the quality of the returned material and the presentation.
peedee
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I have photos of where we've been stored in a photo organiser and use these as a basis of a journal. The photos are stored in albums for years, locations, and events. The photos can easily be transferred to a printed photo album. Those photos taken for specific reasons have supporting text in the 'Description" box.
In addition, in a ring binder, I keep a summarised story of the trip and events - no more than two pages for three weeks away. If any places are of special history, I will research the place and write a lengthy note - these notes vary between a page and over six pages.
My objective is to have a record of my journeys which would be useful for when I get dementia - hence the photos which are ideal for stimulating conversation.
If you do start a journal, and there is plenty of advice on the internet, my advice is to be clear on the purpose otherwise you risk recording the wrong information. Journals can easily become a chore. It took me a while to find the right approach for my purpose.
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With the advance of tech, my phone, camera and laptop capture data from pictures taken. This helps to recall trips of all kinds.
For example, only the other day someone asked of anywhere near Perth, Western Australia where you could feed kangaroos as they wanted to do that on a holiday they have planned. We had done that last time we were in Oz, so I went into my phone photo album, clicked the 'places' option and followed the map to Western Australia where there were pictures of us feeding kangaroos at South Bunbury Bird Park, with the date and time. Clicking on the image title opens a map and link to website.
I keep a spreadsheet of the caravan journeys with location, distance towed, wether a CAMC site, CL or commercial. Each year I tally the distances towed and number of times the caravan is hitched up and provide that data to the service workshop in order they can establish anything untoward given that last years use.
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I just use the many thousands of photos I have amassed over the years as keys to those memories, HG !! When I get a few slides out I'm often surprised at what I have allowed to slip from my memory, so they are doing me a big big favour.
Other than that, I have taken to keeping the hand-outs from Club Sites ( my main choice ) to remind me whether I need levelers and which height they need to be etc.
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In the early days, when we shared a motorhome with the in-laws, I didn’t keep a journal, however when we sold up the motorhome and bought our own caravan in 2011, I started one. It’s an A4 hardback book. I wrote the (mis)adventures in the motorhome retrospectively, then started the caravan journal on our first trip. I write it up in diary fashion each day we’re away-date, site we’re on, pitch number (on the first day), and where we go/what we do. Nothing technical, unless I make a note about something that we need to get fixed on our return home. It’s nice to look back on our past trips.
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Thanks PeeDee, I've had a look at Polarsteps and it looks very good. I might use this for longer trips and still keep my paper based journal.
In my journal notebook I do a short daily diary and at the end of each trip I record miles travelled, MPG and number of nights out. I keep a record of sites visited and the names of any venues we visited like National Trust for example.
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When we first started caravanning back in 1988 we kept a hand written note of the sites visited with dates in a small book. After a few years I created an excel spread sheet to make keeping records of trips a bit easier. Over the years I have added columns to the spreadsheet to give added information. I now list the number of nights stayed, the cost per night and the cost of the stay (site fees only). These columns give me a running total of the number of nights per year and the total cost.
The next column gives me the mileage from home.
For overseas sites I started a column with GPS references and another column with the Michelin map page and grid number. For these overseas sites I colour code the line entries. green means good, amber means OK and would return for a night or so only and red is never return.
The last but one column is for basic notes, eg flat / sloping, Excellent toilet block etc etc.
The final column (at the moment) shows what caravan we had and when we bought it. There is also a hypalink in this column to the holiday photos associated with a specific holiday although at present this only works on my pc where most of my photos are stored.
It's surprising over the last 30 years the number of times that we have referred to the spreadsheet whether was just to answer the question, when did we go to X site / place or how many nights did we stay at Y site etc.
Additional to this spreadsheet we keep a hand written daily 'diary' of what we did each day and a brief summary of the weather.
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