7 Awesome Travel Journal Apps You've Always Wished For

When traveling, we often tell ourselves to write about our experiences “when we get home”. Some of us are even compelled to write an entire novel! Then we touchdown on home ground and before you know it, we’re back to our busy routines and all those lovely musings we had become fragments of our memory. Tragic.

The good news of the 21st century is: For every problem in life, there’s an app with a solution! Well, almost.

There are now so many travel journal apps available that it's hard to make excuses for not documenting our travels on the go. While some of us still prefer the tactile experience of thoughtfully putting pen to paper, it's worth exploring the practical and beautiful features some apps are designed with.

We’ve picked out a few favourites and categorised them into Easy-to-Use (like really, really easy to use), Free, and Paid.

Easy-to-Use Travel Journal Apps

Image by Oleg Magni from Pexels

1. Bonjournal

They say a picture paints a thousand words, and the team behind Bonjournal totally get that. They’ve created a photo-first journaling app that allows you to create your photo journals offline and later shares it directly on your social media platforms. You can also download the whole layout as a PDF for your own safekeeping. You don’t have to bother upkeeping a blog for this one, just tap open the app and start snapping away, adding snippets of your thoughts to each photo. This app cuts to the chase and helps you collect all the moments, stories, and photos of your journey into a single, beautiful narrative. (Yep, those are their exact words). It’s basic at best and you’ll love its minimalist interface and the fact that it's free! Just remember to save your drafts if you want to exit the app before you publish.

Available for: iOS

Source: Polarsteps

2. Polarsteps

If the very act of uploading photos sounds like too much hassle, then Polarsteps is probably the app for you. This travel app lives up to its name by automatically geotagging photos that you take using your phone, and plotting it all out on a map once you’re done - with your permission. This works even without an Internet connection and only uses up to 4% of your mobile phone battery for a full day. You can also choose to share your route on your social media pages or with selected friends on Whatsapp with a unique link. Likewise, you can follow the journey of other travelers too. By the end of your trip, you can also choose to order and pay for a personal photo album that automatically includes metadata which the app has collected for you along the way. It’s that easy. However, if you prefer having a little more say (in words) on your travel experience, then maybe check out another travel app on this list. Keep reading!

Available for: iOS and Android

Source: Momento

3. Momento

Experiences are made of words, images, sounds, movements, and even other documents you could be interacting within the moment. For this reason, Momento is designed to collate content that you post or view on other platforms such as Spotify, Flickr, Medium, YouTube, GoodReads and more. It does this automatically with your permission, compiling a daily “journal” of things you experienced throughout the day using these other apps, making it a great journaling app not just for traveling but also for project, work, or personal use. Expecting mothers may also find this app extremely handy in documenting their pregnancy journey. It’s free to use for up to three social feeds.

Available for: iOS

Source: Journi

4. Journi

The features of Journi include a useful combination of the basic photo journaling function, geotagged photo maps, social media sharing, and printable photo books with layout templates for up to 1000 photos. In addition to these funky tools, they’ve also partnered with Polaroid so you can turn your photos into printed Polaroid lookalikes collated in a box! They make great conversation starters the coffee table in your living room. If you’re a typical nomadic person you’ll appreciate how lightweight this is in comparison to a whole photobook. Journi also has a printable calendar feature so you can create a useful and personalised desk gift for your family and friends if you’re traveling on a budget and don’t want to lug around souvenirs.

Available for iOS and Android

Source: Grid Diary

5. Grid Diary

Sometimes we’re so overwhelmed with our thoughts from the day that we don’t know where to start writing. Well, you can now forget the narrative entirely because there’s always Grid Diary! This helpful app provides writing prompts such as “What new thing have I learned today?” or “What smart travel tip can I glean from today?”  allowing you to take note of the most important things on your travels. You can also customise these prompts to improve self-awareness in your personal life with questions like “How have I spent time with my family today?” or “What is one thing I’ve done better today?”. The paid version allows more features such as the ability to sync your entries across devices, otherwise the free version is sufficient.

Available for: iOS

Paid (but awesome) Travel Journal Apps

Source: Day One

6. Day One

Easily known as the best journaling app, using Day One is like having an elegant-looking personal assistant who cares about the amount of time you need to reflect on different parts of your life - work, travel, personal - on a daily basis. Yes, it allows multiple journals on one app with unlimited entries! If you’re an Apple user, it syncs across all your devices and you can print out your journals as a book. It also sends you reminders throughout the day, and automatically records data such as the weather, location, time of day, even the music you’re currently listening to. You can even do audio journaling on the go or illustrate your ideas with its drawing feature. Day One also keeps your data secure while allowing you to publish on social media whenever you like. It’s available as a 7-Day Free Trial before you need to pay for Premium access at USD 35.99 a year.

Available for: iOS and Android  

Source: Journo

7. Journo

Have you ever witnessed a conversation where two people are sharing events of their day, but each of them has a different perspective on how things happened? That can sometimes be the most engaging way of storytelling and Journo enables you and your travel buddy to do that. It’s got all the bells and whistles of the best apps we’ve mentioned, but with an added collaboration feature so you can group journal. It’s great for traveling partners and family trips. Pricing starts at USD 1.99 per month or just buy their Forever Plan at USD 49.99.

Available for: iOS only.  

----------