Travel Tools - Mobile Phone

We decided it would be a good idea to have a cell phone that works during our trip, and I took on the responsibilty of figuring it out. Kate's phone is a simple Verizon phone. We didn't even consider carrying this because it doesn't support web browsing, GPS/maps, and isn't GSM (the phone technology used throughout Europe). My phone is an unlocked, Android, GSM phone with T-Mobile. At home I use a cheap monthly plan that won't do international roaming (even for a fee).

After a bit of reading, along with suggestions from a friend who had also traveled in Europe, I decided to get a pay-as-you-go SIM card in Europe. Acquiring it was one of the first things we did in Ireland. No contract. In fact, aside from the intentionally unclear pricing, it was as easy as buying fast food and only a bit more expensive. This ease of purchase is not true for all countries. Some require a local address and more customer details.

After swapping my T-Mobile card for the Irish one I had a working phone. Once we left Ireland roaming rates started applying. A one minute "hi, I am here" call costs about $1. Expensive, but effective for emergencies. We went with a data plan that's 2 Euros for 50 MB that expire after 24 hours. We normally leave data disabled on the phone (to avoid paying at least 2 Euros per day), and only enable it when necessary. In the 6 weeks that we've been traveling we've only spent about 20 Euros in charges.

Travel Tools - Google Voice

Despite telling Visa we'd be traveling, Kate's card was rejected and disabled when we arrived in Greece. Annoying, but solvable. We just needed to call them. We'd even written down the collect number in case we had a problem. After some failed attempts and conversation with the hotel manager we realized that we had no idea how to call collect from a Greek card-based phone. We did a few searches online and still came up short.

Luckly, I thought of using the Google Voice calling feature.

Google voice calling: It's awesome. We've used it repeatedly since and I recommend it.

The calls go over the internet and work great as long as you have a decent internet connection (we've been using hotel WiFi). Open up gmail, and in chat (without hangouts) there's a little icon of a phone. Click the icon, punch in the number and off you go. It's that easy. Calling to the USA and Canada is free (yes, from anywhere in the world). We've been using it to call family without paying a cent. Calls to other places are extremely cheap. I spent five minutes on the phone with a hotel in Switzerland for ten cents.

We do have a cell phone (more on that later), but it's much pricier to use and the audio quality isn't as good. The improved audio quality is helpful if you're talking to a non-native English speaker.