With my travel diary I tend to write quick notes, not sentences, about places visited, impressions and especially the food enjoyed. I also take photos of signs and inscriptions, maps etc. to remind me of what I have taken photos of and this helps when making notes. Then when back home I enjoy writing up a trip tale. As this will be our first tour I'm hoping to catch up on note taking while on the bus, and putting some tour tales on the BB. Hopefully we'll find an internet cafe for sending a quick email home. Enjoy your trip Flowers.

I also like to keep a tour diary to remember my experiences while I am on tour.

I teach and study at university and find the best way to keep notes is to make dot points of daily highlights and to record facts in detail, such as the weather and time of departure and arrival and driving times etc. Doing this, I find I remember everything very well when I get home and can then type it up in more detail.

I too have thought about taking my laptop when I leave in September for a month away, but although it is compact and lightweight, I won't take it, as it is just one more thing to carry and worry about losing.

I hope you have a wonderful trip and you will tell us all about it when you get back

You guys have given me lots of great pointers! I'll really think about them all. I think I'll see how packing goes and if it looks like taking the laptop is reasonable, even if its just for journaling I'm going to consider it. But I'll have to see how packing goes and how heavy everything is. I want to leave lots of room for things I buy, though to its credit, I could pull it out and take it as a carry-on on the way home. Otherwise I would keep it packed. Though doing a written journal would be lighter and more compact, its also much more time-consuming and literally painful based on past experience especially when sleep deprived. I'd be worried if I left it to bus rides that it might not get done. I don't know, really have to weigh the pros and cons of both scenarios. Still have plenty of time to decide.

The internet is nice but not a big deal, thoguh I know my family would get a kick out of receiving e-mails once and a while. The journal though is most important to me. My memory isn't great but when I read my old trip journal from 10 years ago, I really remember it all! Things I had forgotten and memories that could have been lost completely.. At least I am a much better photographer now than I was then :P .

Actually I've had two Italy dreams so far. The first was a little scary. I was at Lake Maggiore and couldn't remember the first half of the trip! Of course I hadn't had the first half of the trip so I couldn't possibly remember it, but I found this very distressing in the dream! Hehe. The second dream was of Capri and was a very nice dream .

Flowers, having been to Capri in February, your dream of here is right and you will love it there

Internet access is very expensive in Italy and if you use internet in the hotel lobby make sure you check the rate as I had a terrible experience with being told a price that was wrong and cost me a fortune (in Rome).

If you connect to the internet in your room on your laptop it is a bit cheaper, but still expensive. I would try and find internet cafes, which are cheap, but this proved difficult in most places except Rome.

There was an elderly single man on my tour of Italy who would always get out his note book on the bus and write things as they happened. It is easier to do this than at night when you are tired.

Have a great trip and enjoy writing your journal

Flowers, like you I wanted to keep a journal but found I just couldn't keep up when we travelled in 2006.

Last year when we travelled I used a voice recorder similar to those used by reporters. It was small, lightweight, had a huge storage capacity & was reasonably priced. I recorded much of my information on the bus - I didn't have to speak loudly & disturb others. I also taped our TD on our tour in Spain (with her permission!)

Good luck with your decision.

Tuffet

Another suggestion, purchase a nice digital voice recorder. They are small, efficient, and reasonably priced. The one I have also has software that will download the files to my PC and transcribe the files as well. I haven't used that feature yet but would have if I had used the recorder on our trip.

While I admire anyone who has the dedication to maintain a journal I just couldn't do it. To do it right takes a consistent and time comsuming effort. I was afraid I would miss something that I would never get the chance to see again.

Happy Travels.

Natalie..... we took a 9" computer for Internet access (on the Italian Escapade tour), but it was too expensive in the hotels. Internet cafes were more practical. I'd leave it home next time, just because of the weight. We took 3,000 digital pictures, so that was our journal. I had a small camera that took incredible pictures and fit in my hand, so I literally snap pictures everwhere and of everything. I had very vivid pictures that I could have written up a journal from when I got home.

We didn't have time at night to do anything but get ready for the next day, and on the bus I spent the entire time watching Italy go by, I didn't want to miss anything.

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