We’ve had this convo at least 4 times in the last couple of months. Pardon me if my response is repetitive.
Many people use virtual places partly because its nice to have a dedicated palace for a particular purpose and also because you can customize the structure to the data and be more efficient.
You can do the whole thing ‘virtualy’ or you can make some kind of model. @Maya uses her game software to build Palaces.
https://forum.artofmemory.com/t/mayas-memory-palaces/31129?u=zvuv
Some do sketches. This is my favorite. I like any excuse to fool with my pencils so it’s fun for me but more importantly, the engagement with the drawing will fix the image very firmly and review is very quick.
Here is my Palace for the JavaScript Object
https://forum.artofmemory.com/uploads/default/original/2X/0/09d7cb15f2cc1f4ec4508e193f916bcade108869.jpeg
As I say everytime I show this, color would be an asset but for various reasons, I don’t draw in color.
There’s no need to draw anything - one can cut and paste Clip Art, print out and mark up an existing image, make a collage, use a simple editing program. No drawing skill is required.
There are also physical models. I have a friend who makes marvelous little houses with furniture all out of carboard and balsa wood. Which brings up the Lukasa introduced here by @LynneKelly. This thread has a lot of material in it.
https://forum.artofmemory.com/t/miniature-memory-palaces-including-your-palm/28864/105