Staying Connected While Abroad

When I first started my international travels, I gambled…A LOT with the reliability of my U.S. based cell phone carrier. Verizon Wireless often claimed they would provide coverage to the various countries I found myself in, yet they were never able to back up their claims. In fact, looking back, they often left me in unsafe situations – relying on a network that was slow to connect, if it connected at all. Enter, my love affair with Google Fi. Check out Tip #20 to find out more…

Tip #20: FIGURE OUT YOUR PHONE GAME

When traveling internationally one thing to consider is how you will stay connected while abroad. I have found that many cell phone carriers tout their “international plan”, but their plans aren’t truly international – if you only cover a handful of countries (usually all in Europe), that does not an international plan make, my friends.

The good news is you have a few options to stay in touch while traveling internationally.

1. You can unlock your phone prior to leaving your home country. With an unlocked phone, you’ll be able to buy local SIM cards and access cheap data while you travel. This will greatly facilitate using Google Maps should you get lost (Hint-Hint).

2. You can also do what I did and purchase a Google Fi plan. While you can use Google Fi with an unlocked phone and SIM card, I didn’t go that route. I purchased a cheap Android phone to be used solely with Fi.

Currently, Google Fi has coverage in more than 200 countries/territories and their pay-as-you-go plan starts at $20 per month plus $10/gigabyte of data for a single user (and after you use 6GB, it’s free for the remainder of the cycle). Did I fail to mention texts are completely free and calls are 20¢ per minute?

3. You can also take a chance that your regular phone will work – I don’t recommend this. On one of my excursions, I tried using my phone only to return home with a $250 cell phone bill courtesy of all the roaming charges. Ouch!

One additional note here: Once you land, learn the emergency numbers for your location – hopefully, you won’t need them but better safe than sorry.

Want to see all 103…and counting Travel Tips? Here’s the link: 
https://soul-o-travels.com/travel-tips-2/

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