New Moleskine Travel Journal lets you document your adventures


Last year, we took a closer look at the new Moleskine destination guidebooks, designed to help you navigate new cities. The newest product from this famous notebook maker was created to let you document every aspect of your trip. Everything in the new Travel Journal notebook is there to help you record and recall memories of your travels.

Inside the Travel Journal, you’ll find adhesive labels to help personalize your pages, themed sections to document planning and wish lists as well as several handy resources to help with your plans. Perhaps the best part of the Travel Journal is that the cover is designed to look like a retro airport departure board.

According to Moleskine, the new Travel Journal will be available in March for $19.95 – but we already found it in stock from Amazon for just $13.46.

Moleskine announces hybrid notebooks for the iPhone and iPad

After taking on the Amazon Kindle, Moleskine just announced an assortment of new notebooks designed for the Apple iPhone and iPad. The announcement only mentions the iPhone 3G and 3GS, so hopefully an iPhone 4 version won’t be too far behind.

The new notebooks are designed to let you take full advantage of your digital device, and switch to paper notes when it suits you. Of course, with this being Moleskine, the covers are extremely well made, with nice touches like a suede interior lining.

The new cases are available for pre-order on Amazon. You can learn more about the iPhone and iPad Moleskine cases on their product announcement page.

Moleskine celebrates pop culture with 60th anniversary Peanuts edition notebook

Most travelers love Moleskine notebooks – and everyone love Peanuts. Which explains why I’m so excited about a new line of pop culture Moleskine notebooks celebrating 60 years of Peanuts.

The notebooks come in two sizes – small ($14.95) and large ($19.95) and each is full of fantastic Peanuts treats. Inside the covers you’ll find the characters talking, and every page has a funny quote. Best of all, in the rear of the notebook is a set of stickers to help decorate your own personal Peanuts Moleskine notebook.

The new Peanuts Moleskine notebooks will be available at Barnes & Noble retail stores and barnesandnoble.com.

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Moleskine City Notebooks turn you into your own guidebook

We’ve mentioned Moleskine City Notebooks in the past here on Gadling, but this line of Notebooks deserve another mention. With a Moleskine City Notebook, you essentially turn yourself into your own guidebook. Instead of relying on tips from others, you create your own guide as you wander through a city.

Inside each Moleskine City Notebook is everything you need to find your way around – maps, a street index, public transit map, important phone numbers, transport information and room to write down your itinerary.

Of course, the notebook also has plenty of room to write down your own content, along with a section where you can write your own reviews and rate locations. This “city file” section is split into food, drinks, sleep, people, places and books. Handy tabs let you quickly browse to the right section.

In the back of the notebook is a page containing adhesive-tab tracing paper, which make it easy to overlay on a map and trace your steps.

The Moleskine City Notebooks are available for 14 North American cities, 24 European cities and 4 Asian cities. The guides retail for $17.95 each, but can be found for around $12.50 at many online retailers.

In sticking with the principle of going back to basics, leaving your high tech gadgets at home, and relying on good old paper to create your trip report can be a fun experience, it may not be for everyone, but without the distraction of mobile apps, you do have a better chance at seeing more of your destination. Of course, if you lack a sense of direction, you also have a better chance of becoming horribly lost – and everyone should experience the joy of being lost in Tokyo at least once.

To find retailers, or learn more about Moleskine city notebooks, head on over to their product page.

Beyond pins on a map: Three great physical reminders of your trips

If you’re looking for a great way to impress a potential suitor with how well-traveled you are, you can’t go wrong with hanging a massive world map on your wall at home and sticking pins in the countries you’ve visited. “You’ve been to Croatia!” she’ll marvel. “You are so worldly and continental! Now let me slip into something a little more comfortable…”

Of course, if this approach works for you, have at it. But to me it lacks subtlety and humility, and it feels a bit too much like you’re turning the world into a checklist of countries to be “completed.”

Now, buying traditional souvenirs can be a great way to incorporate the feel of a certain country into your home. Around my house, for example, I’ve got rugs and wall hangings from Morocco, beer steins from the Czech Republic, and a neatly-framed map of Poland (with, alas, no pins.)

But I find that even these displays are a little troublesome; after all, I don’t want to be the kind of person who ostentatiously displays his wonderful trips for all his visitors to admire. When people ask why I have a map of Poland on my wall, for example, I always groan and mutter, “I got it when I was in Poland.” Then I always feel like adding, “But I didn’t hang it on my wall so you’d ask that question… Honest!”

The trick to bringing your trip back home is to try to create an effective, meaningful reminder of your trip without turning it into a showy display of your own worldliness. Here are a couple ideas beyond sticking pins in a map:

The Wine Cork Keychain

I first learned about this idea when I arrived home from a trip to Israel with ten beautiful wine corks I had collected during the course of the trip. (Yes, ten. It was a fun trip.) To make a keychain, I took a screw with a loop on one side, and then screwed the cork onto it. It’s a subtle everyday reminder of a wonderful city and a pretty good bottle of wine too. And as a bonus, it’ll make your keys float.

The Beer Coaster Collage

After spending time in the Czech Republic and a few other places known for their suds, I decided to start a little coaster collection. (That is, I started swiping coasters from bars.) I didn’t know exactly what I’d make from them, but eventually I decided on a framed collage that’s currently hanging on my wall. Check it out:

See if you can pick out the coasters from the Czech Republic, Poland, Germany, Israel, and my hometown of St. Louis, Missouri.

The Travel Journal

If you’re not keeping a journal of your travels, you’re really missing out on the best way to commemorate your trip. Not all of us can draw like this…

…but every one of us can write about the beautiful things we’ve seen on our travels and the funny things that have happened to us. Not a month goes by that I don’t break out my old travel journals for a reminder of all the bizarre, humorous, unbelievable, and amazing things I’ve been lucky enough to experience.

Any other ideas for great ways to commemorate your travels? Share them in the comments.