What kind of travel journal is this?
A route tracker is built around where you went. Here My Story is built around what happened there. You place each pin yourself, write the story, add up to ten photos and set the date. Nothing is tracked, so it works as well for a trip from thirty years ago as for the one you are on now.
Night train to Porto. The heating was broken, so the conductor moved six of us into one compartment and we shared our oranges with him. He got off before the border and waved from the platform until we couldn't see him.
What is it good for?
- Trips from before travel apps. The honeymoon, the gap year, the summer you drove across the country. Any date back to 1900 works, and a photo of an old print attaches like any other.
- The stories behind the photos. Your camera roll has the view. It doesn't have who you were with, what went wrong or why you still talk about it.
- A lifetime of trips on one map, alongside the homes, schools and ordinary places of the rest of your life.
- Someone else's travels. A grandfather's posting overseas, a mother's journey when she emigrated, pinned while they can still tell you about it.
- A journal you keep on the road, one pin each evening.
- Family at home, who can follow your map and read along.
How do you map a trip you've already taken?
- Open the photos from the trip and write down the places you stopped. Six to ten is plenty.
- Add a pin for each. Choose "Add a story" and move the map until the pin sits on the spot: the hostel, the trailhead, the café on the corner.
- Write three sentences. What happened, who was there, and one detail you can still see, hear or smell.
- Add up to ten photos and set the date. If you only know the month, pick any day in it.
- Put the trip in the title, such as "Portugal 1987: the night train." Every pin lives on one map, so the title is what groups a trip together.
- Invite the people who were there. They will remember it differently, which is the best part.
Can you use it while you travel?
Yes, by hand. Each evening, open your map in your phone's browser, choose "Add a story," tap "Use my location," take or choose a photo and write a few lines while the day is fresh. It needs an internet connection, and it won't draw your route between stops.
People at home can follow your map with a free account. They get an email digest when you add stories, weekly by default, and they can switch it to daily for the length of your trip.
Why write it down when you have the photos?
Because photos keep what a place looked like and lose most of the rest.
- Photos favor the eyes. In four studies with nearly 1,800 participants, people who were free to take photos later recognized more of what they had seen and less of what they had heard (Barasch and colleagues, 2017).
- Ordinary details drift within weeks. When 54 students were retested 1, 6 or 32 weeks after an everyday event, their accounts of it had become steadily less consistent (Talarico and Rubin, 2003).
- You will want the record more than you expect. In four studies, people underestimated how curious and interested they would be to reread their own notes on ordinary moments months later (Zhang and colleagues, 2014).
What the conductor said, the name of the dish, the joke that carried you through a twelve-hour delay: none of it is in the picture. Three sentences written that evening will hold it. These are modest effects from studies done mostly with students, and they point the same way as common sense.
Can you leave a story for the next person who goes?
Yes. Mark a story "Only readable at this place" and it opens only for someone within about 200 meters of the pin. Write your daughter a note for the day she finally stands in the square you never stopped talking about, and it will be waiting there for her. How location-locked stories work.
How does it compare with Polarsteps and country-counting apps?
| Here My Story | Polarsteps | been, Visited | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Built around | Places and the story of each | Trips made of steps | A map of the countries and regions you've been to |
| Tracks your route | No | Yes, automatically, using your phone's location | No |
| Trips from the past | Any date back to 1900 | Yes, you can create a trip for a past journey | You mark the places you've been |
| What a place holds | A story, up to ten photos and a date | Photos, videos and text for each step | The place marked as visited, with notes |
| Where it runs | Any web browser | iPhone and Android apps, with a website | iPhone and Android apps |
| Cost | Free | Free, with an optional Plus plan at €29.99 a year | Free, with paid upgrades |
| Printed book | No | Yes | No |
If you want your route drawn as you go and a printed book at the end, Polarsteps does that and Here My Story doesn't. If you want to count countries, been and Visited are built for it. Here My Story is for the stories, and it sits comfortably beside either.
What doesn't it do?
- It doesn't track your route or your location. Every pin is placed by hand.
- It doesn't work without an internet connection.
- It doesn't count countries or miles.
- It doesn't plan trips or hold bookings.
- It doesn't print books.
- It keeps every pin on one map. There are no separate albums for each trip.
Common questions
Can I add trips from years ago?
Yes. You place every pin by hand and can date it any day back to 1900, so a trip from 1975 goes on the map the same way as one from last month. Attach a photo of an old print if you have one.
Is there a free travel journal with a map?
Yes. Here My Story is free and runs in any web browser: you pin each place, write what happened and add photos and the date. Polarsteps is also free and adds automatic route tracking in its phone apps.
Does Here My Story track my location?
No. It uses your location only when you tap "Use my location" to place a pin, or when you unlock a story that is readable only at its place. It never follows you in the background.
Can my family follow my trip?
Yes. Invite them by email or share a public link. With a free account they can follow your map and get an email when you add stories, weekly by default or daily if they choose.
Sources
- Barasch, A., Diehl, K., Silverman, J., & Zauberman, G. (2017). Photographic memory: The effects of volitional photo taking on memory for visual and auditory aspects of an experience. Psychological Science, 28(8), 1056–1066. doi:10.1177/0956797617694868
- Talarico, J. M., & Rubin, D. C. (2003). Confidence, not consistency, characterizes flashbulb memories. Psychological Science, 14(5), 455–461. doi:10.1111/1467-9280.02453
- Zhang, T., Kim, T., Brooks, A. W., Gino, F., & Norton, M. I. (2014). A "present" for the future: The unexpected value of rediscovery. Psychological Science, 25(10), 1851–1860. doi:10.1177/0956797614542274
- Polarsteps, Travel Tracker.