We love taking trips. And being organised and planning well is all part of the fun for me. I like to research and know exactly what and where we will be.

Every time we take a trip I make up a trip planning journal that holds all of our information. With 198 days to go, I decided it was time to work on this. So with a sunny Sunday morning I took my planners and stationery in to the garden to get this made.

There’s a particular type of planner that I like to buy. I always get mine from Paperchase. They are 170 x 222 cm and are wire bound. I love that they come with various sections, pockets & plastic pockets too. They make the perfect travel journal.

You can see one here that they currently have so you can see what I mean:  Map Design . They are usually around the £8 mark and the deigns vary all the time.

I bought the tab top stamp a few years ago from Cocoa Daisy and it’s really come in handy. Unfortunately it’s not available to buy anymore, so if you would like some stamped out, just leave a comment here and I can post you some ready stamped.

Once stamped and cut out, I write each section out on the tab and staple to the page. This way it’s easy to find what I need in the journal.

I love adding cute stickers and using pretty pens to do this. Any excuse to use cute stationery!!

Inside it then looks like this and you can now start adding your lists, to-do’s, itinerary etc….

I also love using my Websters Pages CraftMate Folio. It’s so handy to store pens, pencils, washi etc.. It zips up all the way around, so everything stays in safe. This is perfect if you move around alot, plan on the go and ideal for traveling. This will definitely be coming on the plane with me.

So, that’s how I stay organised for our trips. For me, the trip planning is almost as fun as the actual trip. Some people think I’m a little odd planning in so much detail, but it helps us out no end. I love going away with peace of mind. I like staying on top of everything and having all the details stored in the one place.  Plus it’s so much fun to look back on. I treasure each one.

Here are my 2 previous planning journals from our Florida trips. They are just full of so much information. So handy. I’ve also doubled them up and used them to keep my notes and stories for my trip reports.

I didn’t have the cool tab stamp when I made my first journal for our 2012 trip, so I used a circle punch instead and cut the circles in half and stapled them in.

They really do make planning so much easier. I find that I just had so much stuff swimming around in my head before, but this way I feel so much calmer. I love having everything written down.

My categories include:

– Planning paid so far

– Trip details

– Notes

– Itinerary

– Addresses & details

– Music (for our car playlist)

– USA shopping list

– To-do’s before we go

– Lists to take

And we each have a double page for our packing lists.

It also makes planning so much easier when it comes to planning the next trip. You have all the details in front of you and it’s nice to be able to compare prices too.

Definitely worth making in my opinion.

If you have any questions, please ask.

Lisa x