Remembering travel details

If you want to keep these specific information the best would be to have some travel journal. Unfortunately I did it only twice. Once in Nepal and once while traveling in the Southwest of USA. Otherwise I rely on my memory which some people say is not that bad and lately I stopped deleting the names of hotels where we stayed (electronic bills) so if I need it I can find it. And it is easy to remember some memorable hotels like hotel Elephant in Salzburg or hotel Kempinski in Strbske Pleso. Not everyone can give specific information on all topics but each of us have some expertise area which we know much better than other areas. Information about transportation is easy to find on internet. Now when I am in retiree age I cannot expect that my memory will get better, rather vice versa so I will have to start travel journal to keep the information.

We keep a small log of when and where and then supported by memory. In our preparation for the trip we create a day by day log. That, of course, is in the computer and can easily be pulled up. However, don't be overly impressed by some recalled details. Some posters are very good at doing internet research and then posting it as their travel experience. In the past there was one notorious poster who had make one trip to Europe years ago but was an expect on all aspect of European travel because he was a superb internet research. He was a good at that. For the experienced traveler that is fairly easy to spot but if you have not been there then you accept it at face value. I personally follow the idea of posting what I know but not what I think I know.

With nearly a year's travel in Europe over the past 20+ years, things like trains, taxis, etc., become almost second nature as far as usage. The hotels used over the years are more vague as times passes.

I have a good memory. :-)

When i travel, if I enjoy something I encounter I remember it. Ask me what hotel I stayed at in Rome and I can tell you exactly which one, the room number, and what color the bed spread was. But don't expect me to remember the name of anyone I went on a Rick Steves tour with without checking my notes. That's just how my memory works. But there are plenty of things I have done on tours that I don't remember without looking back at photos or other mementos because they did not stand out as something special.

I usually only have to be shown something once for me to catch on. Take the subways in most European cities. The quick "how to" provided by the tour guide is all I need and then I am off on my own and have never managed to get lost. I may not find the destination I set out in search of, but can always find my way back to the hotel.

When I walked my Camino, I wrote notes in my guide book each day. Who I met, how was the food, how was the place I stayed over night, sort of my own reviews. My camera has the date and time on it, so when I got home I was able to upload everything to a separate FB page I had created and I could match my photos to my notes and what day of the week it was and where I was at when I took them. Otherwise, I could have never remembered so much stuff. I did start a journal about half way through, just a short page per day and that was helpful.

The other information on here that I post is embedded in my brain as I have answered so many posts on this forum, on Trip Advisor and on Fodors. I do use the internet to find places, activities, tours, locations, and other things that I know about, because I like to be accurate when posting and also let the poster do some research on their own by clicking on the link. Memory isn't what it used to be.

My memory is worse than bad (and the older I get, the worse it gets). I have to keep some kind of record of anything I want to remember. I used to keep a journal that I wrote in every night with hotel name, restaurant names and what I had to eat and if it was good, sights I visited, etc. I really liked having that to look at after the trip but, unfortunately, I kind of let that type of journaling go by the wayside. Now, for hotels, I keep a detailed itinerary in a word document (I reserve all hotels ahead of time) so I know which hotels I stayed at, but I'll still forget which hotel had which amenity that I enjoyed or had the best bed, etc unless I write a short note about it. If I want to remember a restaurant name I'll take a picture of their sign and sometimes of the food itself. Same with sights I visited. I upload pictures every night and label the group with what and where it was, so I can supplement my notes with photos. If I don't label my pictures immediately I'll forget where they were taken, thank goodness for time and date on the camera.

I never remember much about the details of my train journeys or flights so can't help much with advice on transport questions.

There are trips in which I have not kept much of a journal, so I have devised this system just in case I am not diligent, so I always have some information. I bring a journal notebook, perhaps 7" X 4"...if too small it is a pain to write in. In the front of the book I use a double page for each day and log in everything I need to know, particularly if it is a travel day; i.e. reservations, how to locate, alternative transportation options, etc. On the non-travel days, I write down ideas for the day. I also keep a list of my expenditures for the day. In the very front of the book I keep the tally per day of all my expenditures on one page. In the rest of the book, I keep my journal. I always start out quite well with my journal, but sometimes my regularity deteriorates as the journey goes on. I do best when I'm solo as I'll write in my journal while I wait for my dinner to be served. I know it is old fashion, but I don't want to be distracted by a tablet, and this way I'll always have them and won't have to worry about being lost in the digital world when a new system comes into play, etc.

I am pretty sure that some specific info, like train timetables, is looked up by the person answering the poster's question. I don't usually get that specific.

I have a spreadsheet that lists my itinerary, hotel reservation info, transportation schedules and purchased tickets or sight admission vouchers.

Best tip for my aging memory: I take a business card from every restaurant and hotel that I would recommend to someone, or want to return to. The rest don't really matter. I keep these cards in a binder sectioned for each trip, in the order of my itinerary. I also have a small spiral notebook when I travel with a page for each day, sort of a backup for the spreadsheet, plus room for handwritten notes.

Another thing, once I learn one train system, the others are just variations. Same with buses.

And yes, I go back to the same beloved places, so those are the easiest to remember.

My trouble is remembering the names of restaurants, these simple small places. The bits of travel info and the historical facts are no problem but I keep a small pocket notebook and also use 3x5 cards for dotting down info, train schedules, bus lines info, directions to places, etc. Names of hotels for recommendations I write down on the 3x5 cards or the notebook. After the trip I do go through the process of organising these random notes. I don't use Trip Advisor at all.

I keep a small Moleskine with me at all times to record some details, especially where we ate, but I also have a trip planning spreadsheet that lists our trains, hotels, plans/intentions for the day. I edit that as we go along to a degree, and finally, I create a SS with expenses and a paragraph about what we did, some memories, etc. My husband also journals and we take a jillion pictures which are saved by trip in Picasa. I also blog about almost every trip, which helps. I also bookmark a ton of resources that I use in trip planning and as to details like train times, driving times, I will look those up if I can to help someone.

HI Tamara, it helps that I'm the person who works on our itinerary each year, so I'm spending a lot of time researching what we could do at each location and which hotel we want to stay. Even before we arrive, I have the picture printed of our hotel and the map to get there. Then when we're there, we don't spend much time on a travel journal - mostly just a quick note of what we ate (ha!) and which places we saw that day. I keep our museum tickets, etc. in plastic binders by country also as a previous person mentioned. And, I do have a good memory. My husband has a better memory of each hole he has ever played at golf courses! : )

I make two booklets of all of our itinerary reservations, train tickets, etc. with the top page an Excel page of our hotel names, dates, whether the hotel is already paid, etc. As we travel, I tear out each page on my booklet to present to the hotel/use the train tickets. When we're back home, we have the 2nd booklet in tact from my husband's luggage. So far, we've never had my booklet lost during the trip so didn't need our back-up booklet. So, I have a good record for us which has also been helpful for friends and Travel Forum questions.

Lately, I've created a photo book of each trip that is printed from an on-line website. We enjoy remembering our trips by flipping through those books and talking about some great memories.

I keep hotel e-mails and printouts as receipts / souvenirs, so I can always look back and see where I stayed when. As far as restaurants go, I never remember where I eat because I don't care that much about food.

I'm not very confident with regard to booking train tickets or even taking the train, so I'm reluctant to give advice. I'd rather give no advice than wrong information!

Some travel experiences create an indelible impression, like a specific restaurant, sight, or person (or the enormous, gray Italian mastiff standing on a corner in Rome). Years later, the name is easy to recall. After a number of trips, the harder part is recalling just which trip had that experience.

Heading to Europe, I've always carried printouts for reservations, and now those are in my i-Phone, too. I've made notes in a Kitten Book (so-named because the first one had kittens on the cover, but that got filled up and has been replaced several times with other small notebooks that don't have any cats), and scribbled notes in my Rick Steves (or other) guidebooks. Coming home, I've got receipts, cards, and other physical mementos that get kept, but it's often surprising that I can recall some small detail (sometimes after thinking pretty hard) about a trip long ago.

I remembered exactly where a particular Indian restaurant had been in Paris, and it had been a refuge during a tremendous thunderstorm one night in September, but on a return trip, that restaurant was no longer there. Sometimes it's only the memories that remain, and they are a huge part of traveling for me.

I make two tabs on an excel spreadsheet (being an accountant--this is all i know lol). The first contains our proposed itinerary--what we think we want to see, where to stay, etc that I make prior to the trip. When we start our travels I use the notepad on my iphone to document what we did throughout the day and take notes on anything special I may want to remember--especially places to eat/visit and any unexpected blunders or successes we experienced. I keep my notes pretty detailed (like by the hour) so I can remember how much we accomplished each day and how time constraints were utilized. When I get back home I create an 'actual itinerary' tab. I like to compare the two tabs to see how much our itinerary changed from what we anticipated. It's nice to have for future travels or for providing recommendations for friends without remembering every detail :)

These are some great ideas! I keep bringing a notebook with me on the trip but get so busy I forget to use it. I'm going to resolve to write at least a few notes each day when we go to Italy this year. I like the idea about keeping tickets and receipts in a zip lock by date - I think I'll give that a try too. And getting a business card for the places you would recommend is also a great idea! All of these things would greatly help me when I'm trying to finish my online scrapbooks at home. Sometimes it takes me a few months to dive in and by then I forget a lot of details and spend a lot of time searching for the names of specific buildings, churches, hotels and restaurants we stayed at to caption my photos. Thank you all for all your tips! Many of you are much more organized travelers than I will realistically ever be, but you gave me some great ideas!

I think most of us have selective memories. We remember what is truly important or relevant to us.

On my first trip to Europe (4 months in 1977-78), I took no camera, so I had no pictures. I had only the most basic of itineraries and plans: start with the UK in September and head south as it got colder, stay in hostels and cheap pensions, keep going until the money starts running out, then head for home. But somehow I remember what I think were the most important parts of that trip. Some were part of my minimal planning and some were happy surprises. I don't go to the same places over and over, but parts of my trips do include things I saw so long ago.

I think by taking lots of pictures you are already using a great method of organization. My assumption would be that the photos are in chronological order. By using some of the suggestions and examples already given, you could supplement that. I do lots of the things others have mentioned to help with the Facebook postings I do upon my return.

I don't keep a journal, but I am big on pre-trip planning. I create a spreadsheet with a row for each day of the trip. The one I have in the works now for my next trip includes the following columns: Day (trip day number), Date, Location, Details (including those for lodging, planned entertainment/tours, transportation), Paid (yes, no, how), Lodging (2 columns, one in GBP and one with an exchange formula to USD ), Entertainment (2 columns like for lodging), Transportation (2 columns like for lodging) Total (2 columns like for lodging).

You can tell by those column headings that this is a planning spreadsheet to give me an idea ahead of time what the trip will likely cost. I add the food and miscellaneous costs later. The Details part is where I put notes about where I want to go each day I'm in a particular place. I'm pretty loose about that and don't necessarily stick to it unless I only have one day to do something big.

I'll add columns to write in food and miscellaneous costs in GBP and deal with the exchange part when I get back home and add up the actual costs of the trip. I'll print the thing out, one-sided only so there's blank space for more notes on the back. With a spreadsheet, I can put in my own page breaks and hide columns and/or rows to print it however I want. I can highlight the rows in different colors to separate the locations, making them easier to see.

The point is that before I go, I have a pretty accurate itinerary of when, where, what, how and how much. From the other responses, it sounds like I'm not the only one who plans their own trips and is somewhat obsessive about these kinds of details. Confession: I also have a packing spreadsheet and one with pictures of the clothes. Truly obsessive.

One thing I did in planning my next trip that I've never done before is to use sticky notes on a calendar and move them around as I did research for the trip. I copied the relevant calendar pages, got the smallest sticky notes, cut them in half and put the location on them. That was the easiest way I have ever done the base planning for any trip and it made it much simpler for me to adjust the nights in each place to suit what I wanted to see/do there. I used 4 colors of sticky notes and alternated them each time I changed locations. I'm a big picture person and I find I'm using that daily in my planning. It's much easier to see the trip at a glance that way.

Happy New Year and a toast to great travels in 2016!

I take my little Acer laptop, and jot down notes everywhere, often in a café where I sit to rest between exploring. In the evenings, if there's wifi, I send a blog home each night with my notes and some photos. If there are details I wish to remember but which would make the blog too wordy, I send an e-mail to myself. Later, I just have to look back through the blog from that trip if I want to remember something.

"I like to compare the two tabs to see how much our itinerary changed from what we anticipated."

Scott, I do this too. I always have a long list of possible sights and/or places to day trip to and it can be a real reality check to see how many or how few of those places I actually get to. My 'possible' list is organized by priority (high to low) and I almost always hit all the 1's and 2's but seldom get to the 4's or 5's. My eyes are always bigger than my stomach when it comes to sightseeing possibilities.

I am always amazed at all the detail info many people give.... I can barely remember what hotel I am staying at while I am there.... And frankly those details are not important to me. I sometimes wish I could recall a particular place one restaurant, but what I am more likely to remember is the overall ambience of a town. I am a photographer, so I could record more details, but in the end it is more about how I felt in a certain place, and its overall beauty. I will leave the details to the people who enjoy that and I will continue to focus on the big picture.... I do often write in my journal, but again it is my feelings and perceptions instead of a travel guide.

I remember more details when it is a place I have to get to on my own. I look at maps, walk it on googlesatellite, write out instructions for myself as I travel solo. That kind of burns it in my brain, lol!! I remember less when I am on a tour and depend on others to get me there. I try desperately to remember the routes of walking tours I have been on and no luck on that, lol!!

I have done journals before and this year I did not. I could kick myself for not taking just 10 minutes every night to do it! I do try to post pictures to FB every night with a quick summary of my day but retrospectively, I like to know how much I spent, where I ate, what I did so want more detail that I am going to put on FB.

BTW, I love this topic! So interesting to see how others think!

Another good thing about using credit cards for travel -- I download all my card and checking account information into Quicken and classify expenditures by trip, with hotel names in the details section if the download description isn't specific enough. Cash withdrawals from ATM'S are put in so I can get a pretty good estimate of each trip's total cost.

This is an interesting thread. I do an itinerary spreadsheet for each trip and keep those on file. It includes where we were each night and the hotel, so that helps. I also can search my Yahoo mail if I need a hint about things like hotels. I try to keep a travel journal but always abandon it after a couple days of running myself ragged trying to see as much as possible in the time allotted. Mostly I subscribe to Rick's theory that travel is intensified living. This makes the experiences especially vivid and memorable, and I also have an especially good memory as someone else said. High emotion also tends to cause a memory to be especially well imprinted. I can visualize some moments from my wedding day especially well, it's almost like a movie in my head. Same for certain travel experiences. I am very visual generally and that probably helps. I am a knowledge worker who spend most of every work day staring at a computer screen. My work is highly abstract, and getting out into three dimensional space for a couple of week solid is a true vacation. I think there is a lot to say for the whole notion of mindfulness too – being present in the moment. When I travel I always think, remember to savor every moment. But in the end I lose myself in the moment and forget to self-consciously savor. But in a way that is where the true savoring really happens, when you just forget yourself and be in the place where you are. One thing that I need to get better at is not taking so many photos. I come back from a two week trip with 700 photos because the marginal cost of snapping a digital photo is so low. Research that I read somewhere shows that when you are constantly snapping pictures, you actually remember much less well.

Tamara,

I use a combination of methods for remembering travel details. To begin with, I have a reasonably good memory and can often recall even some of the smallest experiences. Photography is also an important component of my trips, so that's another of the methods I use to remember things. Although one of my Cameras has GPS capability to tag the location of each photo, I never bother with that. The EXIF data is perfectly adequate for determining the locations.

The most complete and detailed record of my trips is provided by my travel diary, which is written in a Word document. I always update this at the end of each day while everything is still fresh in my mind. If I'll be publishing any details of the trip online, the content is drawn from my diary (edited of course to remove any sensitive information). I travel with a small Netbook and having a regular keyboard allows me to write very quickly so it doesn't take long.

All of my travel practices from Itinerary preparation to packing to record keeping are always a "work in progress", so these always get fine tuned a bit every year.

There's a fair number of posters on this site who have lived in Europe, either on semester abroad programs or longer work assignments. Living somewhere reinforces these types of memories in ways that brief travel visits can never do.

Tamara, I have to leave a contact list of where we'll be for a family member so the list of hotels - in order and for however many number of nights - are compiled in an email that I save a copy of.

Photos are the BEST way for me to remember what we did where and when. They're always in order! Some of them - entry signs, menus, train-station schedule boards and whatnot - I use simply to label others and then delete 'em. The camera comes home with thousands of snaps which are eventually sorted into a more manageable size. Admittedly, that's a chore I'm woefully behind on right now so my Mac is groaning!

Lastly, I grab any sort of printed information available at any attraction we visit and/or purchase smaller guide books. The pile adds to weight of the luggage but they're very good memory joggers once we get home, and we buy little else for souvenirs. A pen or highlighter is useful for circling on the brochures/books things we found especially interesting or making short notes during our visit.

I keep an online journal (via Travelpod), which I usually don't fill out until I get home (you can use it on tablet or desktop). I'll make little notes about our daily activities then flesh it out when I have time.

Also, looking at my photos help to remember so much. I will hang onto receipts from restaurants (or look at the credit card bill) to remember where we ate. I'm not big on taking pics of my food, but if we have a really nice meal, I'll take a photo. And generally our accoms are charged to a cc, so easy to go back and look as my memory is horrible. I downloaded an expense app that allows you to take photos with the expense so it would be a great way to remember where you ate, what you ate and the cost or where you stayed and what the room looked like etc. (Dang if I can't find the thing on my iPad - I think I deleted it because of space constraints and will install it again before our next trip - I didn't have it in time for our last vacay)

It's funny while trying to remember some of the places we ate where we used cash and I didn't make note - I'd go on google earth as most times I'd have a good general memory of the area we ate in - thinking of the little place we ate at in Aix and one in Carcassonne - and using google earth to try and find it (I did, eventually). Google earth is a great way to relive your vacay!

And for some of the places, we've returned to more than once, so familiarity is a big part.

As an aside...I found the expense app that allows you to take photos...it was on hubbys iPad. It's called Wealthy! (With the !). Haven't used it yet, but I think it will be useful for recall. I think it's a paid app. I got it free one time via app of the day...