How 2 Egyptian Entrepreneurs Are Changing The Way We Travel With Their New Scratch-Map Journal

Admittedly, I’m not much of a traveller; the farthest I’ve gone in life is Hurghada and I haven’t been back there ever since some dick-ass crab pinched me when I was but a sweet autumn child. Regardless of where you go and how far it may be, you’ll always need a neat little companion to go along with you on your journey (mine is toothpaste), and for many a brave globe trotter, that companion is a travel journal; a wonderfully personal record of your experiences, thoughts, tips and tricks.

It was this kind of simple and endearing notion that avid travellers, friends, and fellow GUC grads Khaled Moneir and Amr Mashaly decided to capitalise on with their burgeoning venture, Wanderkit; a cheerful marriage of old and new and a veritable “Travel Journal 2.0” for all you would-be nomads.

Wanderkit, a fully Egyptian endeavour with pretty ambitious global intentions, is the first travelling journal of its kind; offering travellers an embedded Scratch Map where you can scratch off the countries you’ve set foot on, a pretty neat touch to say the least, and since their first edition is dedicated to Egypt, it’ll include both world maps and domestic travel maps for Egypt. The actual Wanderkit journal, designed by Ingie El Seddawy, works hand in hand with its upcoming companion app, which you can use to scan the included QR codes, giving you easy access to essential travel info specific to your location, Wanderkit also includes a handy little checklist for all your travel planning needs as well as contact info, and to top it all off, the journal comes with 97 free pages to jot down all your thoughts and plans on, giving users the chance to personalise their Wanderkits to their roaming heart’s content.

“We wanted to take an alternative direction of focus when it comes to traveling. Most ventures focus on the commercial and external aspect of travel like upselling, but that may sometimes only increase the budget of the traveller, and not the experience. Too few try to focus on the traveller's personal experience, hence our introduction of Wanderkit as a travelling journal that focuses on the traveller's perspective.” Khaled told me regarding their rationale and thought process leading up to Wanderkit.

Wanderkit is currently available for a discounted price of EGP 150 for the first 500 copies, eventually going back up to EGP 200, with the beta version of the app coming out this month. Khaled and Amr plan to expand internationally past their initial market in Egypt as soon as Wanderkit gets enough steam going.

Head over to their Facebook page here to pre-order your very own Wanderkit and give their Instagram here a gander while you’re at it.