Best Travel Journal Apps in 2026 (Hands-on Comparison)
An honest hands-on comparison of the top travel journal apps in 2026: Polarsteps, Visited, Stampie, Been, Journi, and more. Pick the one that fits how you actually travel.
I work on one of the apps in this list, but I tested all of them with the same notebook of trips so I could compare them fairly. This is the honest result.
Quick comparison
| App | Best for | Price | Platforms |
|---|---|---|---|
| Polarsteps | Auto-tracked GPS routes | Free / Pro | iOS · Android |
| Visited | Country counting | Free / Pro | iOS · Android · Web |
| Been | Progress percentages | Paid | iOS · Android |
| Journi | Photo-heavy journaling | Free / Pro | iOS · Android |
| Stampie | Passport-stamp aesthetic | Free / Pro | iOS · Android · Web |
How I tested
I logged the same 31 countries from my actual travel record across two weeks of testing each app. I looked at how easy it was to import old trips, how the share and export looked, how the app felt on a phone, and how much friction it added to my routine.
Polarsteps: best for auto-tracking
Pros: zero-effort GPS log of your trip route. Pretty maps. Cons: feels more like a fitness tracker than a journal. Use it if you want a passive record of where you went without typing.
Visited: best for completionists
Pros: clean country list, minimal app. Cons: not much beyond counting. Use it if "how many countries have I been to?" is your only question.
Been: best for progress percentages
Pros: shows your progress as a percentage of countries visited globally, or per continent. Satisfying if completion stats motivate you. Cons: paid app with no real free tier. Not much beyond the percentage view. Use it if a "% of the world visited" number is the thing you'd come back to.
Journi: best for photo-heavy journaling
Pros: timeline-style entries with multiple photos per trip. Strong for travelers who already document everything through their camera roll. Cons: more diary than collection. Less of a "places visited" focus, more of a Google Photos with prettier covers. Use it if your trips are photo-heavy and you want a chronological diary, not a checklist.
Stampie: best for the passport-stamp aesthetic
Disclosure: I built this one.
Stampie exists because physical passport stamps are quietly going away. Some countries still stamp proudly. Others have already stopped completely, like Argentina in 2022 and Peru in 2023. The EU's incoming Entry/Exit System ends stamping across all 29 Schengen countries in 2025 to 2026. The little ritual of an officer flipping for a clean page is fading out.
If that ritual mattered to you, Stampie is the answer. A passport-style journal with curated, illustrated stamps for every country, continent, and world wonder. You collect them as you travel, and the passport lives on your phone or in your browser instead of in a book at the bottom of a drawer.
Pros: cross-platform sync (web, iOS, Android), shareable public profile, curated illustrated stamps for countries, continents, and world wonders. Cons: city-level tracking isn't shipped yet. Auto-import from other apps isn't either. Use it if the stamp ritual mattered to you and you want a collection that feels like the real thing.
How to choose
If you want auto-tracked routes, go with Polarsteps. If you want simple counting, Visited. If you want photos plus a diary, Journi. If you love the stamp aesthetic and want a shareable profile, Stampie.
FAQ
Is there a free travel journal app? Yes. Most apps in this list have free tiers, including Stampie.
Best travel journal app for iPhone? Polarsteps and Stampie both have polished iOS builds.
Polarsteps alternative? If Polarsteps' GPS-tracking style isn't for you, try Stampie or Visited for a more intentional collection model.
Is there a cross-platform travel journal app? Yes. Stampie works on iOS, Android, and the web with synced data across all three. Visited covers all three platforms too.
What's the difference between Polarsteps and Stampie? Polarsteps auto-tracks your trips via GPS. Stampie is an intentional collection where you add stamps for places you've visited. Different philosophies: passive logging vs. active collecting.
Which travel app has the best share feature? Stampie has shareable public profiles at stampie.app/@username. Polarsteps lets followers see live trips. Visited is more private.
Behind Stampie
The idea for Stampie started in Peru, back in 2023. I’ve always loved collecting passport stamps, that small thrill of seeing a new one land at the border. On that trip they just waved me through. No stamp. A small thing, but it stuck with me.
Turns out a lot of countries have quietly stopped stamping. A couple of years later I built the first version of Stampie for a hackathon, somewhere to keep that little ritual alive even when the ink doesn’t come. A passport-style journal for anyone who still wants this souvenir from every trip.
It quietly found its way to people. As an indie team, we keep working on Stampie in coffee breaks, on weekends, and from wherever the next trip takes us.
More posts
How this post was made: AI-assisted tools may be used in research and drafting, then reviewed and edited by the author. Travel policies change quickly. For visa, border, and entry requirements, please check primary sources (official immigration sites, your embassy) before you go.