Do you journal?  If the answer’s no, please reconsider for your next trip.  Years down the road, photos alone probably won’t be enough to help you remember where you ate, where you stayed, or even where half your photos were taken.  This is where a travel journal can help.  You can fill your book with pages of detailed stories about cab ride arguments, make brief factual accountings of the trip, or create mini-scrapbooks filled with sketches, ticket stubs, and brochures.  Whatever kind-of memory recorder you are, there’s a travel journal for you:

   THE URBAN TRAVELER: Moleskine City Notebook ($17.95)--This travel version of the classic Moleskine notebook has maps of major international cities, removable pages, tabbed archive sections, and is small, lightweight, and bendable--perfect for carrying with you anywhere. 

   THE WRITER: Cavallini & Co. Notebooks ($16 or $12)--Whether you get the 6”x8.25” or the 4”x6” size, all of these books have romantic, retro-inspired covers filled with images of old postcards, stamps, maps, or art deco travel posters--nothing else inside but lined pages to fill with travel stories.

   THE ADVENTURE TRAVELER: Rite in the Rain All-Weather Travel Journal Kit ($38.95)--This all-weather, water-resistant notebook comes with an all-weather pen and zippered carrying case--perfect for someone who might be tromping through the jungle one month and sledding across a frozen tundra the next.

   THE ARTIST: Wanderlust Travel Journal ($16.95)--An artfully-designed journal with funky, travel-inspired photos to accompany the blank pages (for writing), grid-lined pages (for sketching), and colored pages with helpful travel info like metric conversion charts, foreign plug/voltage info, international dialing codes, basic phrase translations in 12 languages, and four pages for addresses. 

   THE KIDS: Kid’s Trip Diary ($6.95)--This memory book will not only keep the kids busy with games and puzzles, but give them plenty of prompts to think and write about, from pre-trip planning questions like, “What to Take Along,” to pages for pics/drawings of things seen along the way.

   THE FIRST-TIME TRAVELER: Abroad: A Travel Organizer & Journal ($17.95)--Although short on actual blank journal pages (only 25), this book is filled with travel tips on how to travel, quizzes to help you decide on destinations and travel partner(s), and areas to track your route and expenses; even has an area to decompress your thoughts post-trip.  Perfect for the youngster planning their first trip sans parents. 

   THE BUSINESS EXECUTIVE: Fine Keepsakes’ Leather Travel Journal ($68.95)--For the busy professional who only has time to fill in the blanks, this hand-crafted, elegant diary lets jetsetters neatly record details about their itinerary, transportation, travel documents, currency, hotels, restaurants, baggage, sights seen, souvenirs, vaccinations, and anything else that strikes your fancy.
   THE BACKPACKER: The Lonely Planet Travel Journal ($14.99)--From the travel guide synonymous with the backpacking lifestyle, this book is spiral-bound for easy writing on any train or rickshaw, and has plenty of tools to assist your journey, such as a time zone conversion wheel, clothing sizing chart, and helpful travel website addresses.