6 Best Travel Diary Apps to Document Your Next Adventure
I come back from a trip filled with excitement and great memories, but I found that over time, those memories slowly slip away. So I set out to find a way to store them all. How?
By using travel diary apps.
When we use these apps, we can write down crucial details about our travels and, in many cases, add in other multimedia such as photos and videos.
But with so many apps out there, how do you figure out where to start?
In this post, I’ll show you exactly which ones to use.
Day One Journal is created for the on-the-go generation—people who don’t have time to sit down and write huge blocks of text.
Instead, with a Twitter-like interface, it lets you record those little tidbits of your holiday that you would otherwise forget.
By connecting with other functionalities on your phone, it can stamp your thoughts with a location, time, date and even how many steps you took that day.
Pros: Day One Journal has been created to encourage journaling and sharing, even if it’s just a quick thought every once in a while. You can even use voice commands if you’re too busy to type.
Cons: Some people might find the functionalities a little intrusive—does everyone really need to know that you only waddled 50 steps to the buffet on holiday? It’s also quite tricky to share with others, so this app is more suited to private journaling.
Cost: Free, but limited to one photo per day and stored locally, not in the cloud. If you want full functionality, it’s $34.99 USD per year.
Have you ever felt a little guilty posting 40 holiday photos in a row on Instagram?
With Tripcast, you can create a private feed for your friends and family to view. Your trip photos are automatically uploaded to a map showing your travel route, and people can comment on your adventures.
If you’re traveling with a friend, you can generate combined albums and feeds to share with others. To view your photos and comments, your friends and family must able to download the Tripcast app. They can also sign up to be automatically notified when you post something new.
Pros: Being able to combine your efforts with fellow travelers will help create a memorable diary. And Tripcast creates a beautiful feed for you to share (privately) with others.
Cons: It’s a little challenging to share photos with friends using Tripcast, unless they also have the app. It’s really for you and your loved ones, as opposed to being used for social sharing.
Travel Diaries was created by Dutch software developers to create beautiful records of your travels. You can include text, photos and maps in many different styles.
It’s possible to use the app on various devices or in your browser. You can share everything with your friends and family and then print your diary into a book at the end of your travels.
It’s highly customizable and you can choose from numerous fonts and colors. Everything is stored in the cloud so you will also never lose your diaries or information.
Pros: It’s probably the most visually appealing app on this list. You can add an unlimited number of photos, which is a huge plus!
Cons: It’s a bit pricey. If you decide on this travel diary app, you’ll have to pay a monthly subscription to use it.
Cost: 30-day free trial. After that, there is the basic plan ($1.10 USD), online plan ($3.30 USD) and print plan ($5.50 USD).
Penzu is intended to be used as a private diary, which will be a benefit for some people but a disadvantage for others. However, you can choose to share specific posts by email or by publishing your entry and sharing that link with others.
Pros: Offline usage and post categorization are the key features of Penzu. It’s very private, and the pro version includes nifty features like handwritten fonts.
Cons: It’s not really made to share with others.
Cost: The price ranges from free to $49.99 USD per year for Penzu PRO.
Esplorio is an easy and free way to share your travels with loved ones.
For those of us who are extra lazy about journaling, Esplorio actually maps out the routes you travel, checks you in to various visited places and uses your photos to create a journal.
Esplorio is designed in such a way that it doesn’t run down your battery. And while your content is automatically private, it can be shared with others if you change your settings.
Best yet, if you’re a social media fiend, you can set Esplorio to integrate with your social media and create travel stories from there, too!
Pros: Offline usage is a huge plus. This travel diary app doesn’t run down your battery, even when it uses your GPS.
Cons: I think the social media integration is pretty neat, but it might feel a little big-brother-esque to some.
Want to keep things extra simple? Evernote is exactly what the name suggests: A note taking app.
Evernote is a well-known app that can be used across a wide variety of platforms. While it doesn’t exactly offer a beautiful interface, it’s clean and simple and very easy to get started with.
Pros: Its compatibility across platforms is useful, and it’s remarkably easy to use.
Cons: This isn’t the app for people who want to share their travels with others. It’s really created for your own use, as opposed to being used for social sharing. Just like a real diary!
Cost: Free.
Things to Consider When Choosing a Travel Diary App
There are a few different things to consider when choosing the perfect app for your trip:
Cost. While many travel diary apps are free, others charge you for downloading. Or in some cases, they require a monthly payment to keep using it. You can also use free versions of some apps but upgrade to premium versions for a fee. Be sure to check out all costs involved before you start using an app to avoid disappointment.
Accessibility. Some travel diary apps allow you to create a feed so your family and friends can view your travels online. Others require your peers to download a specific app if they want to read your work.
Ease of use. You’re on holiday. You should avoid anything complicated that will just make life harder! Make sure you choose an app that’s easy to use.
Image and video integration. Many travel diary apps are specifically created to include these elements. Be sure your app lets you insert images and/or video if this is important to you.
Reliability. The last thing you want is an app that crashes and deletes all your memories! Be sure to only use apps that are reliable and stable. It’s a good idea to read reviews to check what others have to say about the app. If they’re having issues, they’ll be sure to pass that information along.
While you’re traveling, you might need to brush up on the language of your destination. FluentU, a language learning program, uses authentic content made for native speakers to help you learn ten different languages.
You can watch movie clips, commercials and more with interactive subtitles. You can even download the Android or iOS apps along with your travel diary app.
With so many different options available, even the laziest of us can create a travel journal—even if all we’re doing is tagging the local coffee shop on Instagram!
When you return home, you’ll treasure that you have memories you can reflect back on.
