Soft cover, classy/professional looking and I actually like the elastic that allows me to put additional papers/post-its, etc... in it without it coming apart. As some other reviewers have previously mentioned, the paper itself is pretty thin - but, I think that's the trade-off for the planner itself being so thin - thus more portable (since it's light, I'm not likely to carry it around with me everywhere). I'm currently not doing a lot of sketch journal/planning, but if you're into that, these pages might be a little too thin for you. You might want to just consider buying a sketchbook and making your own planner. Gel-based ink can be seen through these pages when I use them, so I try to stay with regular ink or pencil. Felt pens and highlighters you can see from the other side when you turn the page as well. Any pens that are really "inky," you'll probably see through on the other side. There's quite a few pages in the front of the planner that has information for a traveler, like time zones, flight duration, dialing codes, unit conversions, international sizes/conversion, "monthly" view - NOT in calendar format but just 2 columns. I don't really use those and end up putting a paperclip to hold those pages to the front cover of the planner so that I don't have to bother with them. Sometimes if I'm really pressed for scratch paper, I'll just write over them. But because the pages are so thin, you're not going to be feeling like you're carrying all that extra weight around. I've been using it for 4 months now, and like it, but I do wish the paper was a little thicker, so that if I don't have to pay attention to what kind of pen I'm using, or if I wanted to doodle/sketch journal, I can do it without worrying about not being able to use the other side.