Something I took for granted when I first started traveling was that my cellphone would work no matter where I went, and that I would simply have to pay roaming charges. That couldn’t of been further from the truth. The minute I stepped off the plane in Spain, my cellphone couldn’t reach a single carrier, and neither will yours without a world wide coverage plan, or a new sim card. A sim card is simply a card you place in your phone that will allow you to connect to a local cellphone carrier. You can buy them at any airport you visit. In fact the choice for new sims or calling plans in an overseas airport is as vast as the food venders at your local state fair. But speak the language, or you can be taken.

There are a many other ways to communicate internationally. One is to have satellite internet coverage on your phone, where you can use programs such as instant messengers to communicate. Skype is a big one. In fact if you have satellite internet coverage on your phone, simply load up the mobile phone version of skype and start calling anywhere you want. But again, unless you have a service that allows international connection to the internet, this will not work either. I have T-Mobile. so I called them up and signed up for their world wide roaming plan. But at 99 cents a minute, I used my cell phone sparingly. The name of the game is plan, plan, plan! Call you cell phone provider and ask questions. You may need a special sim card put in your phone to use world wide roaming. So you may need to take your phone to your local cell phone dealer. If you’re not so worried about a cell phone, your laptop is a great way to communicate in almost all extended stay motels, hotels, inns, …anywhere they provide internet access. My suggestion, connect to the internet, and use Skype to communicate. The video feed is almost like seeing the person in real life. It’s very fast. The audio feed is just as superior. It’s amazing, and it doesn’t cost you anything if the other person has Skype. If not skype use any number of the other IM services out there. But I’ve tried them all and Skype is the only one that seemed to reliably work across the oceans without a problem. I’m not even close to an expert in this field. So if anyone has another suggestion please feel free to list them.