You’re sitting in a rooftop café in Lisbon, sipping a cool drink, scribbling furiously in your travel journal. Capturing your memories and moments from a day’s wandering the different city neighbourhoods. The artists’ market you explored, the open air concert you attended in a park, the cafe you stopped by for lunch and people-watching, the bookshops you browsed in, the taxi driver you chatted with. You wrote it all down.
But now you’re back at base, staring at those pages full of bullet points, half-sentences, and half-remembered musings. You want to turn it into something more—a story someone else would want to read. But how?
Here’s how to turn your raw travel notes into rich, compelling narrative—without losing the immediacy and magic of the moment.
First of all, mine for moments, not itineraries. What’s the biggest mistake travel writers make?
Thinking the order of events is the story. It’s not. The story isn’t what you did, it isn’t the A to B of your day.
For example, your journal might start:
“Woke up early. Breakfast in the hotel. Walked the city. Evening at the open air concert in the park.”
But what you’re looking for in your storytelling are the unexpected moments, how things made you feel. Within these brief notes lots of different stories lie buried – for example, the way you noticed the beautiful coloured tiles on the fronts of buildings as you explored (what is the story behind those), or that you set your city exploring by mapping out a route of the bookshops you wanted to visit and how you chatted with strangers in the queue for the most famous bookshop about the history of booksellers in Lisbon, or how you found a workspace for writing in an arty neighbourhood and met friendly digital nomads who shared what it’s like to live and work in Lisbon. Or how the incredible singing at the open air concert filled your heart. Or the stories the taxi driver shared about the ways live has changed in the last thirty years in Lisbon. Look for the emotional peaks, the unexpected moments, themes or narrative threads, local connections, along with the sensory details. That’s your story’s heartbeat—not your schedule.
TRY THIS: Highlight the three most vivid or surprising moments from your journal entry. Build from there. Remember they can be tiny details yet hold rich storytelling.
Secondly, always try to find the story thread.
Great travel stories have a spine. It could be a theme (e.g., “traveling solo after loss and grief”), a question (“Can I find stillness in a chaotic city?”), or a transformation (“I arrived burnt out; I left feeling renewed and full of energy”). It could be a detail – like the tiles. For example, what is the tradition behind them, where were they made, by who, what’s the story of that industry? Did it die out? Are there young artisans reinventing old traditions today? Explore behind the details that capture your attention.
Read through your journal with curiosity:
- What patterns emerge?
- What kept bothering or thrilling you?
- What changed in you by the end of the trip?
These little clues will help you shape your story’s arc, even if it’s subtle.
Thirdly, use your journal as dialogue with your future self. One of the most helpful things to understand with journal note-taking is that your journal was written in the moment. However, your story is written with hindsight. You mix these together. Reflecting on what you saw in the moment, expanding it, deepening it, opening it out into themes or broader ideas. Pay attention to your emotions – what did this evoke in you?
This dual perspective adds depth and intimacy, drawing readers in.
Fourthly, show the scene, don’t just say it happened. It’s that old ‘show, don’t tell’ approach and the more you can bring this into your writing, the easier it is for the reader to connect to your words.
Imagine you have spent a day visiting a temple. Your journal might say:
“The temple was beautiful. Quiet. Cool inside. Peaceful.”
That’s a start. But your story needs more.
Imagine you’re painting with words:
“The guard sat cross-legged at the entrance to the temple. He gestured to me silently and I put my shoes next to the long row of worn sandals, leather slippers and old boots that lay across the steps beside him, before stepping barefoot onto the cool marble surface of the courtyard. Storm clouds had gathered and the sky hung heavy and dark, an expectant stillness in the humid air. I peered inside the temple. Rows and rows of tiny candles flickered along the altar, their light trembling on the giant Buddha’s worn face. My breathing slowed. On the mango tree in the courtyard hung colourful pieces of paper from threads, red, green, blue, yellow – and on each scrap of paper was written a wish, a moment of gratitude or hope, shared by those who had visited the temple before me.”
Now your reader is there with you.
TRY THIS: Pick one moment from your journal and rewrite it using all five senses. Transport yourself there as the writer, and you’ll be able to transport your reader.
Tip number five: cut ruthlessly, keep the magic.
Not every journal detail needs to feature in your storytelling, nor should it. Your job as a storyteller is to curate—not just document. So you always want to be asking yourself, does this detail move the story forward? Is it meaningful, does it bring the place to live? Will a reader care about this detail?
Think of your travel journal as for you, but the story is something beyond, something you are crafting for your reader.
Lastly, remember your travel journal is a doorway to the story – not the narrative destination. It’s the raw material you work with. Mine it for story, for patterns, for threads, for themes. Think of it like clay – now you just need to shape it.
Trust your voice. Revisit your memories with both honesty and imagination. And remember: what matters most isn’t where you went, but how it changed you—and how you tell it.
Over to You
What resonated with you from today’s post? Do you keep a travel journal for your writing? I’d love to hear your thoughts, questions, or your own travel writing experiences.
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Keep exploring, keep writing—your next story is just around the corner. Thanks for coming on the journey with me!
Laura McVeigh is an international bestselling author and travel writer. She has authored books for Lonely Planet, DK Eyewitness Travel and leading publications. Her work has been featured by Newsweek, BBC, Traveller Magazine, New Internationalist and many more. Her writing has been translated worldwide. She is Founder of Travel-Writing.Com – Helping aspiring travel writers build careers they love, and Publisher of Green Travel Guides – www.greentravelguides.world . She also loves to write about the art of storytelling and writing with purpose.
Learn more about Laura’s writing at lauramcveigh.com / lauramcveightravel.com