REVIEWED: Moleskine Traveller’s Journal
Beautifully crafted with space for 20 short or six long trips, this travel journal proves a great antidote to the digital age
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Until a decade ago, every traveller kept a journal. From rooftop restaurants in Delhi to Hong Kong hotels, wherever you went there was always someone scribbling about their latest adventure. Then came the digital age, which was supposed to make keeping a travel journal that much easier. Did that happen? Definitely not. Now entire trips can go by and all you have done is fill your camera with photos, perhaps posting a couple on social media during the trip. So hurrah for Moleskine’s latest effort at a plush Traveller’s Journal.
Moleskine Traveller’s Journal: design
Part of Moleskine’s ‘Passion Journal’ series that also includes luxury notebooks for recipes, wine, books, weddings, babies, and even wellness (say what?), the Traveller’s Journal is designed for ‘consummate traveller’. Well, thanks. Designed to hold the memories of up to 20 short trips and 6 longer ones, it includes tips and tricks as well as an eight-year calendar for planning ahead. Yup – eight years. Now that’s pressure.
Moleskine Traveller’s Journal: features
Arriving in a forest green slipcase, the notebook itself contains three tabbed sections, one for travel memories and wish lists, a short trips section divided into 20 parts, and a long trips section with room for six trips. There are before and after sections for planning, budgeting and checklists, so instead of just being a journal for taking on a trip, this is one for using beforehand. TravGear is not convinced this is how people plan trips anymore. Even if some people still do keep paper journals, or at least aspire to, surely everyone uses the Internet to look for ideas and to book travel. However, there is no doubting the beauty of this 400-page journal, which comes complete with a couple of ribbon bookmarks and expandable in a pocket for keeping train tickets, receipts, and other mementos.
Moleskine Traveller’s Journal: summary
The eight-year planner is a bit weird – it may as well have had a page for writing a bucket list – but there is a lot to like about the Moleskine Traveller’s Journal. The provision of stickers does make it seem like it is aimed at children, and nor are we convinced by its structure, which does seem a little claustrophobic. In practice, some sections are not going to get used at all. The answer, of course, is not to run back to Instagram, but to simply buy any big, blank notebook – a nice empty Moleskine, why not – and start at page 1.
Price as reviewed: US$29.95/UK£26.99