There are two types of travellers. The ones who genuinely believe they will remember everything, the café name someone mentioned in passing, the shop on the corner, and when hotel check-out is. Then there are the rest of us, who know that the moment we step off a plane, it's all gone. I'm very much the second type. I've picked up a few habits I want to share with you, so I decided to create a guide to travel journalling for beginners.
With a sourcing trip I took to China, I needed a travel planning system that could hold all the moving pieces without turning into a second job. Not just a list of bookmarks or a string of saved Instagram posts I would never open again. That's where my inserts filled the gap.
The A6-sized ring planner is ideal for travelling. Compact enough to sit in a bag, but structured enough to carry everything I need for a full trip. Here's exactly how I set it up.
The Travel Planner Inserts That Make Up My System
When thinking about travel planning for beginners, I started with the basics - things we all need when visiting a new place. The first thing I added was a DIY map insert of the regions we visited across China. I printed a satellite view and trimmed it to size. It sounds simple, and it is, but having a physical reference for where things are spatially has always helped me orient myself in a way that scrolling through Google Maps on a phone just does not. It also means I can mark things by hand, turning the map into a souvenir of its own.
Next came the Quadrant Lists insert. This is one of my favourite travel planner inserts to use because it gives each destination its own organised section for shopping, food, things to explore, and a running to-do list. For this trip, I had two locations, Hong Kong and mainland China, each with its own spread. Recommendations from friends, things I've had saved for months, places I want to source from - it all had a home, instead of living in a scattered collection of tabs and notes.
The Undated Daily No.03 insert is what I reached for on the day itself. It has space for a schedule, priorities, a to-do section, and notes at the bottom. On travel days, it became an itinerary; on work days, it became a loose plan for factory visits and supplier meetings. Having a Today Page Marker sitting alongside it meant I could flip straight to where I was without searching.
Why Blank Pages Are the Best Place to Start with Travel Journalling for Beginners
For journalling, I included blank Tomoe River paper inserts. Travel journalling for beginners isn't about writing structured entries on the road; you just need space to capture the moment before it disappears. Smells from a cafe, a conversation with another tourist, or something you ate that you want to remember. The Tomoe River paper is smooth enough that writing on it feels effortless, even if you're scribbling fast.
Keeping the Practical Pieces Organised
One of the things I noticed when travelling without a proper travel planner setup was how quickly the physical clutter accumulated. Hotel keycards, transport cards, receipts, ticket stubs. All the things I wanted to keep but had nowhere intentional to put them. So I made sure to include those organisational essentials in this travel journalling for beginners guide.
The Crystal Clear Business Card Planner Pocket keeps your cards and small papers orderly. Hotel keycards slot in on one side, travel cards on the other, and after the trip, they became a little archive of the journey. The Top Loading Planner Pocket handled anything larger, like receipts, documents, anything I needed to pull out quickly. The Ziplock Planner Pocket is reserved for ephemera: stickers, washi scraps, and anything I might want to add to a spread later.
I also packed the Mini Stationery Kit. It holds a micro stapler, tape runner, and staples. It weighs almost nothing, but it meant I could stick ephemera directly into my journal spreads on the go rather than saving them for later and inevitably losing them. The Adhesive Pen Loop keeps my Uniball One P in Coffee right on the cover, so I was never searching for something to write with. Top Tab Dividers in Barcelona Sand kept everything separated between planning, lists, and journalling sections, so I could open to the exact page I was looking for.
Why a Physical Travel Planner System Works
It's easy to default to apps and phone notes when you are travelling, but I've found that the act of writing things down on paper makes them stick differently. Writing things down means you process them and you remember them. When you're moving quickly through a new place, having one object that holds your itinerary, your recommendations, your journal, and your documents means your attention can stay on the trip.
Whether you are deep into the planner community or just getting started with this travel journalling for beginners guide, the principle is the same: give everything a place to go, and you will spend far less time trying to remember and far more time being present.