These days there are all kinds of great ways to preserve the memories from your educational tour, but one of the best happens to be the oldest: the time-honored tradition of the travel journal. It’s perfect for recording your thoughts, feelings, questions and memories from this travel experience that you’ll remember forever. Of course, what your travel journal looks like is up to you, but here are five things to think about:

Will this be a journal that you’ll share with friends so they can read about all the amazing things you saw and experienced? Or will you write only for yourself, including some more personal reflections that you wouldn’t necessarily want the whole world to see? 2. Describe the sights in detail. Even though the details of your sightseeing highlights might be fresh in your memory as you’re writing in your journal that night, think about reading this in 20 or 30 or 60 years. Recording the tiny details you noticed on the Lincoln Memorial or describing the path you walked through in Peru will be fun to read when you’re older and will vividly recreate the scene in your memory.

The sightseeing and activities are a huge part of any trip, but don’t forget the special people you’re sharing the experience with. Someday down the line you’ll probably get a big kick out of reading something funny your best friend did on Hollywood Boulevard, or remembering a nice conversation you had while eating lunch by the water in Venice.

If you’re artistically inclined, great! Do some drawings of the things you see or of how a sight made you feel. If you’re not so handy with the sketch pencil, do it anyway! Even if your attempt at the Statue of Liberty looks like a lady in a bathrobe holding up an ice cream cone, you can be pretty sure it’ll give you a chuckle when you’re flipping through the journal some day.