Against our better fight to preserve memories of our trips, often little pieces of them will slip away. That happens no matter how many pictures we took, how many small trinkets we took as souvenirs with the expectation we’d remembers or just assuming that we’d never forget. For some people, the trip blurs together in a rush of adrenaline, long days, and extenuating factors (like jet lag!). This blog is my own way of preserving travel memories while also offering tips from my own experiences.

There are plenty of ways to strengthen those memories. You can do that by writing a blog, keeping a journal, taking photos with detailed notes, picking up souvenirs at locations to remember names, places, and events. One other way to do this is to take those memories and create a personalized, one-of-a-kind souvenir that only you could make. This is especially great if you went with friends and family. It’s a fantastic post-trip gift that helps you immortalize the travel and create a sentimental gift.

One of the companies I use the most is Mixbook. Sidenote: I am not sponsored or affiliated with this company in any way. There are plenty of other companies, but the principle remains the same. You take your photos, your words, and combine them together to be treasured forever.

Some tips for assembling your book:

• Try and limit the number of photos on one page. That way, you’re able to truly admire the details in your pictures
  
• Pick highlights or risk a hefty fee for the additional pages
  
• Make sure that when you are getting into the design, don’t get too fussy with the backgrounds and the fonts. The focus is on your trip and you don’t want to clash with the photos you’ve taken
  
• Pay special attention to the cover and back cover photos. After all, if you’re planning to have this out on display, that’ll be the first thing that people see

If you’re just trying to preserve memories for yourself, then there are plenty of options that you can do:

• Find fun containers. Ages back, I found fake hollowed-out books at Marshall’s. I was able to buy enough of them that I was able to assign one book for each area (US, Europe, UK, France, etc.) and put all my trinkets and souvenirs into them. Then, every few months, I’d open them up and go through them to remember the fantastic trip
  
• Write it down! As mentioned above, whether it’s writing it in your own blog, keeping an electronic or physical travel diary, the best way to remember what you did is to write it down in the moment and revisit it later. It’ll be surprising just how much you may have forgotten
  
• If you’ve had a once-in-a-lifetime trip, pick the best photos of that trip and get them printed out, put them in a photo album, and display it prominently in your home like a coffee table book. It’ll be a great way for you to remember and an entertainment option for guests
  
• Lastly, make your notes on your photos and add commentary while it’s still fresh. You might think that the details will stay with you forever, but they’ll fade as new experiences start to creep in. Making sure you write journals or take notes or add photo commentary while everything is still fresh is the best weapon you have to retain accurate memories of your experience that you can revisit from time to time

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