4 Creative Ways You Can Document Your Travels Using Smart Tech

For most travelers, taking pictures and videos during your travel is a must. At times, this is done to share all the cool places and activities you were able to experience while out and about, whether by sending them directly to friends and family or by posting to your preferred social media platforms. For others, however, documenting your adventure can also be a good way to start a travel journal. 

Journaling, in general, is known to help reduce stress and establish a sense of clarity and personal growth. A well-kept journal can be a great avenue for all your thoughts, moods, and memories for you to share or look back on in the future.

Keeping a travel journal, specifically, is a great way to memorialize your travel experiences. Whether you’re writing from a Parisian cafe or on a sunny Hawaiian beach, taking the time to write in your travel journal and talk about your travels can help you reflect on all the new things, food, and experiences you’ve tried. By journaling your travels, you can explore your values, likes and dislikes, and needs. Most of all, a travel journal can help boost your self-esteem and provide a sense of accomplishment.

Today, thanks to digital technology, there are many ways you can document your travels to add and digitize your travel journaling process. Below, we’ll be sharing four creative means of travel documentation using smart tech:

Drone cameras

One of the most recent upgrades to travel documentation is the drone. These have a built-in camera and can be flown and controlled remotely to capture images and videos from various viewing angles and distances you wouldn’t easily get using a regular DSLR or your smartphone. Today, drones can be used to take breathtaking aerial perspectives and birds-eye views of beautiful landscapes. New Zealand, for example, is a great place to use drones, thanks to the island’s diverse scenery, with terrains ranging from glaciers to rainforests and fjords.

Smart glasses

Today, smart glasses come to serve various purposes, from communications and social media to AI assistants. Some smart glasses also have built-in cameras that can capture images and video. The latest Ray-Ban smart glasses, in collaboration with tech giant Meta, have a built-in 12MP camera that can be used for hands-free photo-taking and video recording, as well as livestreaming to Meta platforms, Instagram and Facebook. Allowing first-person recording, smart glasses are best used for walkthrough or tour travel experiences — maybe like a walkthrough of the Louvre or MoMA — instead of landscape photography. 

Journal apps

Another creative way to capture memories on your travels is by using journal apps on your smartphone. Thanks to their digital format, these conveniently combine multimedia formats like text, images, video, and even voice to elevate your travel journaling experience. Apple’s new journal app allows users to record their thoughts and impressions and document their adventures. The app also comes with helpful journaling prompts, like asking you to record a voice note of your surroundings — from the crashing waves at the California coastline to night market sounds in Chinatown — and writing what strikes you.

Postcard apps

Finally, despite all the digital innovations, postcards haven’t become obsolete. Today, postcards are still used as a means of personalized communication. Due to their size, they make for good snapshots of a moment or destination and force you to write only the things that matter.

Still, if you find traditional postcards too slow for today’s digital pace, there are many smartphone apps you can use to create digital postcards using your photos. Your friends and family can receive your digital postcards instantly, even if you’re far away on an African safari, or you can post them on social media for a more creative take on travel documentation.