It is very useful to have a record of the dates of your travel trips and the hotels, restaurants and airlines and even the fellow travellers, hosts and people you met.
My husband has a travel spreadsheet on his computer, as a diary on Excel. If I want to know how many years I have lived in a foreign country, I can ask him the dates of our first trip to or from that country. He can do a search for the country or destination or date.
In my family history book, a page at the back lists all your vacations. When I was just married for a year or so after the birth of our son I started compiling the family history book and added the list of where we went on our honeymoon and first anniversary. It seemed like overkill as I could remember the dates and places clearly.
However, as each year passes, the list become more important and interesting and relevant. I went to Morocco for my honeymoon.
Which year did I visit Morocco on my honeymoon? Morocco is a country in the ancestry line of my future daughter in law.
How many times have I visited the USA? Which year was my first trip, before or after the Vietnam war? When did we live in Rockville, Maryland? When did we move to Connecticut? Which years did we go skiing? How long after the earthquake did I visit San Francisco? Was it the same year or a year later?
Which trips did I take without my husband and without my son?
If you don't already have a list, start one.
You may also wish to keep a record of the number of countries you have visited. This is useful when writing the introduction to yourself when giving a talk on your travels, visiting a country on a conference, talking to your in-laws and the audience at a wedding.
In the good old days you could keep your passport forever with a record of your travel trips. After my late uncle died I could see which countries he had visited and when. I knew whether his stories about going to America on a cruise ship and visiting Berlin postwar were lies, fanciful, muddled dates, or the truth. I could see the exact truth, the day he arrived in and left each place.
Now that concerns about stolen or copied passports make the authorities ask you to return documents. it is helpful to take photocopies of photos of yourself in your old passports and on holiday and in ID documents, as well as recording dates, visas, entry dates.
Author
Angela Lansbury
Travel writer and photographer, author and speaker.
My husband has a travel spreadsheet on his computer, as a diary on Excel. If I want to know how many years I have lived in a foreign country, I can ask him the dates of our first trip to or from that country. He can do a search for the country or destination or date.
In my family history book, a page at the back lists all your vacations. When I was just married for a year or so after the birth of our son I started compiling the family history book and added the list of where we went on our honeymoon and first anniversary. It seemed like overkill as I could remember the dates and places clearly.
However, as each year passes, the list become more important and interesting and relevant. I went to Morocco for my honeymoon.
Which year did I visit Morocco on my honeymoon? Morocco is a country in the ancestry line of my future daughter in law.
How many times have I visited the USA? Which year was my first trip, before or after the Vietnam war? When did we live in Rockville, Maryland? When did we move to Connecticut? Which years did we go skiing? How long after the earthquake did I visit San Francisco? Was it the same year or a year later?
Which trips did I take without my husband and without my son?
If you don't already have a list, start one.
You may also wish to keep a record of the number of countries you have visited. This is useful when writing the introduction to yourself when giving a talk on your travels, visiting a country on a conference, talking to your in-laws and the audience at a wedding.
In the good old days you could keep your passport forever with a record of your travel trips. After my late uncle died I could see which countries he had visited and when. I knew whether his stories about going to America on a cruise ship and visiting Berlin postwar were lies, fanciful, muddled dates, or the truth. I could see the exact truth, the day he arrived in and left each place.
Now that concerns about stolen or copied passports make the authorities ask you to return documents. it is helpful to take photocopies of photos of yourself in your old passports and on holiday and in ID documents, as well as recording dates, visas, entry dates.
Author
Angela Lansbury
Travel writer and photographer, author and speaker.
