How to keep your travel memories
Photos get lost among thousands of screenshots and the details fade. These ideas help you keep your travels in one place and remember them for years.
Why travel memories get lost
We come back with hundreds of photos that get mixed up on our phones with everything else. A few years later we no longer remember in which town we ate that dish or which year that trip was. The problem is not a lack of memories, but that they are scattered and without context.
1. Write three lines a day
During the trip, write down every night where you were, what surprised you and something small you do not want to forget: a smell, a conversation, a dish. Three lines are enough and are worth more than a hundred photos.
2. Sort your photos by trip
When you get back, create one album per trip and choose between 10 and 30 favourite photos. Delete duplicates and screenshots. A short album gets looked at again; one with 800 photos does not.
3. Mark the places on a map
A map with every country and city you have visited is the most visual way to remember your travelling life. With dates, you can also see when you went to each place and who with.
4. Keep the small objects too
Tickets, boarding passes, restaurant cards, postcards. If you do not want to pile up paper, take a photo of them and keep it with the rest of the trip.
5. Back everything up
Follow the 3-2-1 rule: three copies, on two different devices and one outside your home (for example, in the cloud). Losing your phone should not mean losing your travels.
6. Go back to them
A memory lives when it is revisited: look at your trips on their anniversary, make a photo book at the end of the year or look over your map before planning your next destination.
How to remember where you went years ago
To rebuild old trips, look at the location of your photos, the booking emails for flights and hotels and your phone’s location history if you had it on. If you do not remember the exact date, save the place anyway: a memory without a date is better than none.
Frequently asked questions
Where should I keep my travel photos?
In one album per trip, backed up to the cloud and to another device. To link them to the place, keep them with each city in a travel map app.
How can I find out which cities I have been to?
Check your photos’ locations, your booking emails and your phone’s location history. Then mark them on a map so you never forget them again.
What should I do with my travel memories?
Choose the best photos, write a few lines about what you lived, mark it on your map and back it up. Looking at them now and then is what keeps them alive.