How do you document vacations?

I do the same as you take camera and get good pics. Then each day I look at the picture number at the beginning of the day and at the end of the day and write them down and some notes about them. Like where what and who might be in the pics. Then I know when I get home when I took the picture and what they are. I journal about each day. I have a note app on my phone that I take notes as I go through the day like names of shops, restaurants and anything else I might really want to remember then at the end of the day I can write it in my journal. I also take a report folio note book with some page protectors in it in my suitcase so that I can put stuff in it like hotel postcards, stationary, brochures, or anything else I might pick up along my trip. That way it stays all together and doesn't get damaged. I also take a small tablet so I can wrote notes and put them in the page protector with the item. Good luck and have fun.

You are on the right path! and all the above are great ideas.

This is what I do. I take both my point and shoot and my cell phone camera. DH takes a point and shoot. The first photo I take is of our luggage sitting by the door with the airline tix. Yay! Then I take a photo of every random thing for 7, 10, 12, 18 days. I'm also collecting maps, train tix, brochures, etc. When I get home I take a photo of the house. A few days later I transfer all 2,000+ photos to my laptop. Put all the ephemera in a drawer and forget about it until I want to scrap. Then I decided it's too big of a project to tackle and put it off - for years. LOL! I don't recommend doing it this way.

ETA:  DH only takes photos of me taking photos.  I know it's weird, right?. 

I'd definitely take the digital camera. And make sure you pass that bad boy around to get pics of YOU in Paris!

Journaling at the end of each day is a good idea.

I would also send myself a few postcards. It's always fun to see the postmarks, the stamps, and the pics on the front.

When I'm on a trip, I also use a gallon size zip bag, and write each vacation day's date on the front of it. Then I put memorabilia from each day in its bag, and zip it shut at the end of the day. 

I agee that taking your digital camera with you instead of just relying on your iphone camera will be well worth it! 

 For trips I like to collect memorbilia along the way such as tickets, brochures, paper menues, shopping bags, hotel stationary (which is great to use for journaling later in the album),basically any paper piece I might be able to use later). To store these I like to bring along a plastic accordian file you can get at Staples, because it keeps the items flat and crease free, but most important it keeps them organized. Before I
go I label the top of the files with the dates of the trip.  After day 1 everything collected from that day including the plane tickets go into that opening. DAY 2-and so on. When I get home I label the outside of the file with the trip and year and store it until I'm ready to scrap that trip.

I like to buy postcards at the various sites we go to because even though I'm an avid photographer, they are fairly inexpensive and sometimes I can't get the shot exactly how I want it-tons of people in the way, night shot, or as it happened in 2008 when I took DS to Japan and the tour took us to see Mt. Fugi that day it was covered in clouds. For some reason postcards overseas are much better quality and I like using them in my scrapbook.

Another idea that I do that you might consider is I take photos of signs. This worked in Japan because the signs were in japenese and english. So when we were visiting the 8th temple of the trip snapping a photo of the sign at the temple identifying which temple it was made it much easier later.

Debbie in MD.

Definitely take your digital camera.

Mail postcards to yourself--this is fun plus it provides back-up.

Here's is one of my tricks: each day before touring, write the date and place you are visiting, and then take a photo with your camera. You will then have a good record of that adventure, just in case memory fails. Make a new card for the next day,etc., and you will have a photo record to go along with your journal notes.

Have a wonderful trip,
jamh

I tried to do it this way when we went on a Disney Cruise a couple years ago. I did a great job with the pictures, that part was easy. Did okay on the first few days of journaling too, but quickly fell off that wagon when we had longer excursions, later nights with dinners or shows, etc.   I did keep perfect copies of all of the daily itineraries from the ship and assorted memorabilia though and hopefully that will spur some of the memories when I finally get around to scrapping that trip.

When we went to DisneyWorld for DD's first trip there, I thought index cards would be the way to go. Sadly, no. That didn't work any better and for the same reason, we just were too busy with DD and/or tired once we got back at night that I just didn't want to sit down and do it. I never even took them out of the little pouch I brought them in.

I'm thinking the next time we go somewhere, it will be Post-It Notes in my purse so I can jot things down quickly on the fly and stick them right onto the memorabilia they correspond with since I do a pretty good job of collecting and keeping track of that kind of stuff until I get home. That way the journaling would be right in with the ticket stubs, brochures, etc. that I take pains to get home neatly and in one piece.