Tech Tools For Staying In Touch When Traveling Abroad
January 26, 2012 by Karen Amin · Leave a Comment
It’s hard to be apart from loved ones when you’re away for any length of time, but when you’re traveling for business, it’s 
also essential to keep in touch with your colleagues and clients — being in a foreign country isn’t an excuse for not staying in touch anymore.
Even in recent years, your only options were either buying international phone cards and relying on land lines and pay phones to check in every so often. But the more technology advances, the easier it is to stay in touch.
If your cell phone has a SIM card, you can purchase an international calling plan and swap out your domestic SIM card for an international one, which will enable you to make calls normally from your cell phone. If your cell service provider offers good international plans, this can be a great option. The same goes for texting and data plans.
Better still: Many devices, including iPads and smart phones like iPhones and Androids, have certain apps that operate best over a wifi connection. If you can get yourself to an area that has a good wireless signal and connect to that, you’ll be able to use many of the services you’re used to — including e-mail — with almost no changes and at minimal cost.
That note on wifi brings up a great option for international calling and meeting: Skype.
Skype operates on smart phones, tablets and computers, so you have a lot of access options. What’s more, you can make both voice calls and do video chats through Skype, so you can even go face-to-face with family, friends and colleagues if need be, without ever incurring international calling rates.
One last option if you’re traveling light: Internet cafes. These are everywhere throughout Europe and all over the world. For a small fee, you can connect to the Internet briefly — while enjoying a cup of coffee or a snack — and check up on your e-mail, Facebook, Twitter accounts without worrying about whether your own technology is compatible with what’s available abroad. For the cost of a SIM card and your phone calls, you may even be able to cover your communications with nothing but Internet cafes.
