Travel Journal: Whistler

Author: Alison Hazel   –   Updated: August 2025

Introduction

This week I’m going to show you my travel sketchbook for a recent weekend we did away this summer in Whistler, BC, Canada. 

I only began my travel journal back in 2022 when I started with a weekend in Toronto. From there I did a few little visits here and there, so this is about my eighth entry into my travel sketchbook.

This really means that I’m a beginner, or dare I say a hobby travel sketch-booker person sharing my journey with you as I developed my skills with travel sketch booking.

If you haven’t got a travel sketchbook yet, I urge you to start one the next time you go away for a weekend. Get yourself a travel sketchbook and start recording your adventures.

Travel Sketchbook

A5 Book

The sketchbook I’m using is an A5 from Peter Pauper Press their premium sketchbook small. The pages are quite thick, but not completely watercolor quality.

It’s a nice handy journal with plain pages and a black cover.

Travel Drawing Supplies Kit

Pencil Bag

I have a nylon see-through grey pencil bag from Muji and I carry all of my travel drawing supplies in there. I like this one because I can clearly see what I’ve got in the bag.

Pencils

I take, two Staedtler pencils they come in many hardnesses, but I like the HB and 2H. A selection of my Faber Castell polychromos coloured pencils in neutral shades of greens, browns and grays. 

I don’t take all the colors, it’s just too much to cart about. You can check out my What to Pack for a Writing Retreat article for the full details of everything that I took with me on this trip.

Markers

Coloured markers about five, in brights like red, blue, yellow, orange and turquoise.

Extras

An eraser. A pencil sharpener. A roll of washi tape. A compass. A ruler.

Photos

Phone

I did take a few photos with my phone as we were out and about this weekend. I could have taken more.

Camera

It occurs to me that maybe a need a GoPro which is a light camera that is more adaptable for the outdoors, but I’m still thinking about that. I do have a Canon M50 mirrorless camera which I use for videos, but I didn’t even take it out of the bag on this weekend.

Process

Near and Far

I like to have little sketch of things big and small. or near and far. Like the micro and the macro.

Composition

Regarding the layout of the items, I first eyeballed them and then decided what I’d draw where. This took quite a bit of time.

Pencil

With a 2H pencil I sketched out each little drawing.

Pen

For the black pen work I used my Pigma Micron 0.3mm pen mainly. This is the best way to get the ink over the pencil. Afterwards I gently erase the pencil marks.

Color

Using some of my travel colored pencils I added highlights and lightly laid down some color.

First Double Spread Detail

What to Draw

Here are the details of the page. It can be viewed individually or as a whole. I’ve highlighted the feature that I added to my travel journal page as these are some of the things that you can add in your travel journal.

Left-hand Page

Map

On the left-hand page, I drew a little map of our journey from Vancouver up to Whistler. Actually, I had prepared this at home by pulling it from Google Maps and then tracing it into the book.

Dates

I noted the date of our trip in June 2025.

Hotel

There is a cut out from the Pinnacle Hotel, Whistler Village flyer and I noted my room as number 308.

Sticker

A sticker from the Armchair books where I bought the book I talk about below.

Cocktails

Mini sketch of the pink cocktails which Joanna and I enjoyed in our rooms before going out to dinner on Monday evening.

Right-hand Page

Title

I put the weekend title Writing Retreat for Artists across the top of the page as a reminder of why we went away on our weekend in the first place. Sometimes you look back at travel pages years later and things can get a little blurry in your mind, or at least I find it’s so.

Food and Drink

Sketched in a little bit about the Starbucks coffee and a lunch plate.

Activity

Next a little sketch of me typing outdoors at the coffee shop patio, in amongst the trees and bushes and whatnot.

Temperature

I added the temperature because it was scorching hot 30°C.

Meal

And highlighted our Peak-to-Peak cheeseburger and yam fries with apple juice which we had at a meal.

Second Double Spread Detail

Left-hand Page

Library

The library details where I went and did an online class.

Tea

Green Tea at Squamish on the journey home.

Map

A large map of the Whistler village given to me by the hotel concierge. I do like to have a map on my travel sketch book. Maps really provide an overview of other features in the area that perhaps I didn’t see, and they could encourage another trip back there one day.

Right-hand Page

Hotel

Picture cut out of the Pinnacle Hotel and also a note that they were doing a fire alarm testing the Monday morning which you just could not ignore!

Logo

The logo from the White Spot restaurant where we had lunch on the drive home.

Transport

 Johanne’s fabulous burnt orange car.

Purchases

Book

We went to the Armchair Books in the upper part of Whistler village. After spending a lovely half-hour browsing the goods in the friendly shop, I plumped on a book titled Revered Roots: Ancestral teachings and wisdom of wild edible and medicinal plants by Lori Ann Bird an indigenous Métis author, herbalist and educator. 

It documents the indigenous peoples of the areas and how they use plants as food and medicines down the ages. I was particularly drawn to this book because. I am really interested in plants as medicine and I have other herbal books in my collection like Culpeper’s Complete Herbal.

 

Art

As an artist at heart, I felt I couldn’t come away without supporting a local artist in some fashion. I managed to pick up a poster titled Mountains of the Sea to Sky which is by local artist Sarah Keller who lives in Squamish. This is a pen and ink wash print featuring ten mountains surrounding the Howe Sound and the Whistler area. It’s such a great memento of my trip to Whistler and I get to hang it on my art wall.

Reflection: What I’d Do Differently Next Time

The Rush

It was quite a rush to create these two travel journal pages. I did a little throughout the day so as not to forget what really happened.

 

Draw More

Next time I travel, I may draw more and detail more events, like the places we went, meals we consumed and the things we did. I tended to leave my travel sketchbook in the hotel if we went out to lunch, dinner or for a walk through the village. 

For no particular reason, I just did.

Not a good move on my part.

Really, I should have taken my sketchbook with me, so I could have done a little quick doodle type sketch to capture the mood like when we stopped for coffee, picked up an ice cream or browsed in a gift shop. I think the moral of the story is that you need to always have your travel sketchbook with you. As they say, “Never leave home without it.”

 

Snap More

Next time I will take more photos. And not just photos, I’d like to take a few more videos as well. I was traveling around seeing some breathtaking panoramic views of the actual beauty of the place, the mountains, the trees and the nature in which we immersed ourselves. I probably took twelve photos this whole weekend and it really is just not enough.

The thing is, I get so caught up with what I’m doing and the interesting conversations I’m having, the writing I’m doing, the art I’m doing and what I’m looking at, that it goes out of my mind to snap a photo. I must do this better. If I’m going to document my journeys, I need more photos and I definitely need more videos.

 

Another Full Day

I would have liked another full day. We traveled one day, stayed overnight, had a full day in Whistler, stayed overnight and left the next day.  So technically we were really only there for one full day and two half days. Admittedly, this is the first time we’ve been to Whistler or to that particular hotel. But how had we had another full day, so staying three nights, I do feel that a lot more could have been achieved.

I would have appreciated what the place had to offer a lot more. I feel that I skimmed the surface and Whistler village is certainly a place I would like to return to. There were some art galleries that I would have loved to have explored and a museum which I never got a chance to enter.

So, if we decide to do Writing Retreat for Artists again next summer, I would definitely push to get a three night stay so that we can make the most of the environment which is very beautiful. 

Otherwise, I might as well have checked into a hotel in downtown Vancouver, shut the door, done my writing and then come home. I know this trip was a first and foremost a writing retreat, but I feel remiss not seeing more that the place had to offer.

Overarch

Sketching is Fun

I really liked creating these pages in my travel journal. The journal itself is slowly building up with places I’ve visited recently. If I’d started it ten years ago it would be bursting by now, but I only began my travel journal the year before last. 

As I said before, I’m not much of a traveler and I have only been away for a weekend twice this year. Also, I don’t have any plans to go away later in the year either.

 

Next Year

I’ll let you into a secret that I’m planning a trip next September to visit my daughters who live in Ontario. That is something Im already looking forward to. And so far it’s the only thing in my travel calendar.

 

Share the Love

I hope you enjoyed seeing how I create my travel pages. It was a lot of fun.

Remember you can see more about this particular Whistler trip I took in my mini-series, see below.

• What to Pack for Writing Retreat for Artists.
• How to Plan a Writing Retreat for Artists.
• Reflections on my Writing retreat for Artists.

Bookshelf

Travel Sketching

Here are a few travel journal ideas books which you may enjoy.

 

• The Art of the Travel Journal by Abbey Sy
• Draw your Adventures by Samantha Dion Baker
• Capture the Moment by Jim Lammers

Author Bio: Alison Hazel

Alison Hazel is a hobby artist and she shares her ongoing journey about becoming an artist later in life. She creates simple art that anyone can make. She hopes to inspire you to reach your creative potential in the area that suits you. Read more about Alison’s story. Get her newsletter.