Monologue Travel Notebook Review

In the past, I had written about why I no longer use travel notebooks or journals, since they take up lots of precious space, but I decided to test out the Monologue Travel Notebook since it seemed ‘travel sized’ and unlike the other journals I had bad experiences with.

I was only expecting to get one travel notebook, but eventually Monologue sent me 4 travel notebooks and a passport holder, luggage tag and more. Thanks guys! Though these products were sent to me free of charge, this review contains only my honest views and opinions, as usual.

The Monologue Travel Notebook contains 80 pages and is about the size of a passport, except thicker. The notebook has a hard cover and contains generic lined paper and a calendar/planner along with some other travel specific pages in the front of the book. Each of the travel notebooks in the Monologue Travel Series has contains the name of a city and contains a map and a list of the top 10 attractions in that city.

Pros:

• Specialized for traveling
• Includes a basic packing list in the front pages
• Lightweight and travel sized
• Durable and water resistant pages
• Includes a bookmark ribbon
• Has an elastic closure
• Small folder-like ‘pocket’ in the back cover of the notebook

When I first read that the pages of this notebook were water resistant, I decided to place the open notebook under running tap water for a 1 second, just to test it out. While the results weren’t miraculous, they were certainly better than how a normal piece of paper would do.

The page ended up absorbing some water, but strangely, the water only affected the page that it was in direct contact with. The water did not seep through the first page. A couple of minutes later, the page dried off, and it was back to normal, except a bit more crinkly than usual. Unlike normal lined notebook paper, the ink lines didn’t smear when wet. The water resistant (not waterproof) feature could probably be helpful if your backpack gets soaked or you get caught in the rain while traveling.

Cons:

The travel specific sections, such as a packing list, a list of the top ten attractions in the specific city, a table for documenting your expenses and traveler checks, and a basic calendar can become irrelevant if you aren’t traveling. These pages take up over 20 pages in the front of the notebook, which is more than ¼ of all the pages. I usually don’t use traveler checks and usually don’t write in physical calendars, so these pages in the notebook are almost wasted. On the other hand, if you use traveler checks and calendars, these pages might be useful for you.

It would be nice if the pages were simply lined, like in a traditional notebook, so that the user could write whatever he or she wanted. This would also make the notebook more versatile, rather than being solely a travel notebook.

Also, while this isn’t a major problem, I’d prefer it if the notebook didn’t overtly contain the name of a city or have the words ‘travel book’ imprinted on the cover. The words on the cover make the notebook overly specific, for example, if I were traveling to Iceland, it wouldn’t really make sense for me to carry around a notebook with the words ‘New York’. Also, if I wanted to use the book as a shopping list, I wouldn’t want the words ‘travel book’ on the front.

The Verdict:

While the Monologue Travel Notebook isn’t perfect, it is a great option if you are looking for a lightweight and travel friendly notebook.

Where to Get It:

You can get the Monologue Travel Notebook here: www.ilovemonologue.com

The Monologue Travel Notebook was provided for this review. As always, this review contains only my honest views and opinions.