For years, I wished I could bring home a more meaningful record of my travels…
Journaling has always helped me process experiences, remember details, and make connections among the events and sensations in my life. Yet when I traveled, my journaling practice often fell away. I was too busy exploring. Creating a good travel journal seemed to require more time, planning, and artistic ability than I had.
Sense of Place grew from that frustration and a simple belief: the memories that stay with us are often found in the details. The meal shared with friends. A tiled doorway. A favorite market stall. These small moments are what give places their character and what allow us to carry them home with us.
Our travel journals are designed to help curious travelers sketch, taste, discover and remember the places they visit.
I. Discover
Learn about each city through historical context, maps, and notes on culture, architecture, and the influences that shaped it.
II. Sketch
No artistic experience is required. Through simple prompts, hand-drawn examples, and daily itineraries, the journals encourage you to sketch without self judgment and capture memories in whatever way feels natural to you.
III. Taste
Recipes, food notes, and culinary traditions offer another way to experience a place. Recreate favorite dishes at home and relive the flavors that made your journey unique.
Featured Pieces
Collecting Lisbon provides the foundation for creating a meaningful record of your travels.
It begins with historical context, maps, and cultural influences that bring the city to life and provide a deeper understanding of the city you'll explore.
Next, Mary Beth shares a thoughtfully paced four-day journal with sketches, observations, and an itinerary intended to inspire rather than prescribe. From there, the journal becomes your own, with space to sketch, write, and record your favorite experiences.
The book concludes with regional recipes and cooking inspiration so you can revisit the flavors of Lisbon long after you've returned home.
Collecting Athens provides the foundation for creating a meaningful record of your travels.
It begins with historical context, maps, and cultural influences that bring the city to life and provide a deeper understanding of the city you'll explore.
Next, Mary Beth shares a thoughtfully paced four-day journal with sketches, observations, and an itinerary intended to inspire rather than prescribe. From there, the journal becomes your own, with space to sketch, write, and record your favorite experiences.
The book concludes with regional recipes and cooking inspiration so you can revisit the flavors of Athens long after you've returned home.
Travel is better when shared.
We would love to see the sketches, recipes, photographs, and memories you collected along the way. Whether your pages are polished or delightfully imperfect, they reflect the people and experiences that made your travels uniquely your own.
With your permission, we may feature selected submissions to inspire fellow travelers and celebrate the many ways we experience a sense of place.
Hi, I’m Mary Beth
I love sketching, cooking, learning, and exploring new places, and I've found that journaling is one of the best ways to make sense of it all. I hope these journals help you notice the little things and carry a bit of each place home with you.
Happy Travels,
Mary Beth