15 Travel Sketchbook Pages to Capture Your Dream Journey

Looking for travel sketchbook page ideas that go beyond basic journaling?

These creative travel sketchbook ideas will help you capture your trip in a way that’s visual, meaningful, and fun – even if you’re not an artist. If you need help with finding the right palette, you can check out my blogpost ‘The Essential Guide to Middle Eastern Colour Palettes.’

From packing lists to mood boards, I’ll walk you through 15 unique page ideas you can use whether you’re travelling through Oman or sketching from your favourite café.

1. Packing List Sketchbook Page Idea

Packing can feel like a chore but in your journal, it can become a creative ritual. This page isn’t just about what to bring. It’s about preparing your senses for what’s to come.

How to Create This Page:

• Use small illustrations or icons to draw your essentials – your journal, walking shoes, sunhat, scarf, camera.
• Leave room for a few imagined items, if you don’t own them: a book on local history, a beautiful notebook and pen
• Add side notes or doodles for items you want to buy along the way – a handmade bracelet or a khanjar from a local souq.

Imagine This Moment

The night before your trip, your suitcase is still half empty, but your packing page is already full. There’s a sketch of your sandals, your favourite sunglasses, and in the corner, the word ‘Explore.’ Somehow, you already feel like you’re travelling.

To get a practical, easy-to-use packing list for your trip to Oman, check out my blogpost ‘What To Pack For Oman: The Ultimate Year-Round Packing List.’

 

 

2. Daily Snapshot Page for Your Travel Sketchbook

Sometimes the smallest details are the ones that stay with us – what you ate for breakfast, the colour of a person’s scarf, the sunlight at dusk. A daily snapshot page is a simple way to pause and capture a single moment from each day of your trip.

How to Create This Page

• Dedicate one small box or space per day with room for a quick sketch, word, or phrase.
• Don’t overthink it—just jot down what caught your attention that day.
• You can repeat this across multiple days focusing on different colours to capture the specific mood of that day.

Imagine This Moment

It’s your third morning and you’re in Nizwa. You open your journal and draw the cup of Omani coffee the hotel served with dates. Next to it, you write one word: “stillness.” Nothing fancy – but it’s enough to remember exactly how that morning felt.

Ideas:

Want to build a journey like this in Oman? You’ll love my 7-Day Cultural Itinerary, which passes through Nizwa and other inspiring places to sketch.

Also, for more real-life inspiration, you can browse the Urban Sketchers community to see how people document their travels through drawing, one scene at a time.

 

3. Create a Travel Map in Your Sketchbook

Maps don’t just show us where we went. They help us understand how places connect. This page turns your journey into a visual thread, linking moments and memories through geography.

How to Create This Page:

• Draw a simplified map – even an imaginary one – of your route (a country, region, or city layout).
• Add symbols for key locations—stars, hearts, tiny sketches.
• Write short notes or impressions beside each place: “best biryani,” “sunset hike,” “quietest beach.”

Imagine This Moment:

You trace your finger along the line between Sur and Ras al Jinz in Oman. Next to a tiny turtle sketch, you’ve written: ‘First time seeing baby turtles scuffling on the beach.’ You’re back there for just a moment.

Travel sketchbook ideas like this one don’t just help you document locations—they also spark emotional connections to each stop along the way.

 

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4. Sketch Your Market Treasures – Travel Page Idea

Local markets are full of colour, texture, and story. This page captures the items that caught your eye – not just what you bought, but what made you pause.

How to Create This Page:

• Sketch or list 3 to 5 items you found in a souq or open-air market.
• Include small details – the price, smell, how it felt in your hands.
• Leave space to reflect on what you didn’t buy – and why.

Imagine This Moment:

If you enjoy collecting beautiful objects and stories, this is one of the most rewarding travel sketchbook ideas to try. Markets offer rich sensory details that go beyond what you can capture in a photo.

Sketching what stood out – whether it’s a silver khanjar, a cinnamon bundle, or a stall packed with textiles – lets you remember the moment through touch, scent, and emotion.

Tip: To create your own Frankincense burner, check out my blogpost: ‘9 Beautifully Simple Frankincense Burner Ideas You’ll Want To Try.’

 

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5. Add Local Words & Phrases to Your Sketchbook

Language holds emotion, and sometimes a single word can stay with you long after the trip is over. This page is for the words that made you smile, created surprise, or made you feel connected.

How to Create This Page:

• Choose a few local words or phrases (with translations if needed).
• Decorate the page with hand-lettering, Arabic calligraphy, or playful typography.
• Note how and where you heard them – at a café, on the radio, from a stranger.

Imagine This Moment:

The word marhaba is written in sweeping ink across your page. You remember the man who said it when you walked into the café in Muscat.

Some of the best travel sketchbook ideas are the ones that focus on language and memory—not just what you saw, but what you heard and felt.

If you want to read about my own ‘adventures’ in learning Arabic words, you might enjoy this post.

 

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6. Stillness on the Page – A Mindful Travel Sketchbook Idea

Every journey has its pauses. This page invites you to slow down and honour one quiet moment.

How to Create This Page:

• Choose a single moment from your trip that felt completely still.
• Use soft colours or sketch a simple scene: a tree, a rooftop, a path, the desert.
• Write a few sensory notes: what you heard, saw, felt.

Imagine This Moment:

Stillness pages are one of my favourite travel sketchbook ideas because they help slow the rush of travel and make space for reflection.

They’re not about how much you see – they’re about how deeply you feel the quiet parts of a journey. A window, a shadow, or a single tree can be more powerful than a busy landmark.

 

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7. Draw Street Food Memories in Your Travel Sketchbook

Food is memory and sometimes, street food tells the best stories. This page captures the meals that weren’t fancy, but unforgettable.

How to Create This Page:

• Draw or list 3 street food dishes you tried (or wish you had).
• Include the location, how it tasted, or what made it memorable.
• Don’t forget the surroundings – plastic chairs, a sizzling grill, the evening buzz.

Imagine This Moment:

You draw a triangle of foil filled with mishkak – charred skewers and pieces of meat or shrimp. You’re sitting on a low wall, eating with your fingers. It’s salty, smoky, perfect. You didn’t even need a table.

 

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8. What You Saw Through the Window – Page Prompt

Windows are like slow-moving postcards. They frame the world and remind you to look closer.

How to Create This Page:

• Sketch what you saw through a window—on a bus, from a guesthouse, or your rental car.
• Use a simple frame or outline to mimic the window shape.
• Add textures: curtains, raindrops, dusty glass.

Imagine This Moment:

From the window of a tiny mountain inn in Jabel Akhdar, you watched the wind move the trees. The view was wide and made you feel alive.

Scenes framed by windows are timeless additions to any list of travel sketchbook ideas. They give your journal a slower rhythm and help you zoom in on the world outside in a more focused way. Use this page whether you’re in motion or sitting still – it works either way.

 

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9. Soundtrack of Your Journey – Travel Sketchbook Idea

Sometimes, it’s the sounds that stay with us – a song on the radio, the beat of a local drum, the rhythm of a new place.

How to Create This Page:

• Create a playlist of songs you listened to during the trip.
• Add lyrics, or note where you heard each one.
• Leave room for ambient sounds too: birdsong, footsteps, market chatter.

Imagine This Moment:

You write “Desert wind, oud music, children laughing.” No melody, just moments. You hear them again every time you open this page, like the background music to your trip.

 

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10. Faces & People You Met – Portrait Page Idea

Some people pass through a trip like moments. Others stay with you. This page helps you remember the conversations, the kindness, and the characters who gave the journey a human face.

How to Create This Page:

• Draw small portraits or silhouettes of people you met.
• Write a name (if you remember it), or a small note about what made them stand out.
• Add quotes, gestures, or one sentence they said that you’ll never forget.

Imagine This Moment:

You are drawing in a café as people are walking around you. You take in their movements and expressions. You capture their personality and mood.

 

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11. Travel Reflections – A Personal Sketchbook Page

Travel shapes us. This page is a space to let the journey speak, quietly, honestly about what you discovered about the country’s culture and about your own culture.

How to Create This Page:

• Dedicate a page to what surprised you, what challenged you, what moved you.
• Use freewriting, poetry, lists, or even abstract doodles.
• There are no rules. Just listen to what wants to be remembered.

Imagine This Moment:

You write in coloured ink: “I learned I’m more aware of what I see when I don’t know the words.” It’s not profound, but it’s true. You let the words sit there.

When creating a list of travel sketchbook ideas, I always make space for a reflection page—it’s where the meaning of the trip often unfolds. You might discover that what moved you most wasn’t a place, but a feeling. A page like this reminds you that you’re not just documenting a journey – you’re learning from it.

Idea:

This National Geographic article explores how journaling during travel deepens awareness and helps us be authentic with ourselves.

 

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12. Objects That Tell the Story – Travel Day Page Idea

Objects can hold entire days. This page invites you to remember a single day of your trip through the small things you carried or collected.

How to Create This Page:

• Choose one travel day that felt vivid.
• Sketch or list 5–6 objects from that day: a bus ticket, a bracelet, a napkin from lunch, your dusty shoes.
• Add tiny notes: ‘worn on the hike,’ ‘bought from a local shop,’ ‘smelled like rosewater.’

Imagine This Moment:

It’s the day you went wadi hiking. You sketch your scratched sunglasses, the leaf you tucked into your pocket, and a torn receipt from a cold mango juice. You feel the sun again.

 

 

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13. Doors, Tiles & Details – Architectural Sketchbook Page 

You don’t have to be an artist to fall in love with a doorway, a mosaic, a rooftop line. This page is for the little corners that caught your creative eye.

How to Create This Page:

• Sketch interesting doorways, tiles, carvings, balconies.
• Use ink, coloured pencils, or watercolour touches.
• Add where you saw them and what drew your attention.

Imagine This Moment:

There’s a sketch of a wooden door with chipped paint and a brass handle. You found it in an alley in Birkat al Mouz. Above it, you’ve written: ‘It made me travel in time.’

 

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14. What You Brought Home – Travel Sketchbook Souvenirs Page

Not everything that comes home fits in your luggage. This page helps you gather the tangible – and intangible – souvenirs of the journey.

How to Create This Page:

• Draw or list what you brought home: postcards, spices, a silk scarf, memories.
• Divide the page into ‘physical’ and ‘emotional’ keepsakes.
• Add notes about where they came from or how you use them now.

Imagine This Moment:

On one side: a pouch of frankincense, a book of Arabic words, your pressed boarding pass. On the other: ‘Confidence in unfamiliar places.’ Somehow, both feel equally precious.

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15. Design a Moodboard Page for Your Travel Sketchbook

There’s something deeply grounding about collecting images, colours, and textures that evoke a place you’ve discovered. A trip moodboard page lets you dream on paper – and relive your journey with intention.

How to Create This Page:

• Choose a blank sheet of paper and gather visuals: magazine cuttings, printed Pinterest images, fabric swatches, or hand-drawn sketches.
• Include a colour palette that feels like the place: maybe sandy tones for the Omani desert, indigo for the night sky over Jebel Akhdar, or peach and aqua for coastal moments at the beach.
• Add quotes, ticket stubs, or Arabic poetic words that reflect the mood of your trip.

Imagine This Moment:

You’re sitting at your desk with a cup of cardamom tea, flipping through old magazines and photos on your phone. Slowly, your moodboard comes to life. The page smells faintly of glue and cinnamon. An image of the Wahiba Sands at sunset reminds you of the silence you experienced there.

 

So whenever you’re ready, open your journal, choose a page, and start creating.

Whether you’re just starting out or looking to expand your collection of travel sketchbook ideas, this post is here to help you create pages that feel personal, grounded, and inspired by the places you’ve seen. You don’t need to be an artist—just someone who wants to remember the journey a little more deeply.