Connecting with Home from Europe
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| If you'd rather not lug your laptop to Europe, Internet cafés are cheap, convenient places for email and blogging. |
By Rick Steves
Just because you've left behind the job, the kids, and the dog doesn't mean you want to be completely out of touch while traveling. There are several ways to keep in contact with family and friends when you're on the road, whether you prefer communicating electronically, or the old-fashioned way — by voice.
Phoning Home: A cheap and easy way to call the kids is to purchase a prepaid phone card. An international phone card lets you ring the US for as little as two cents per minute, and it works from any phone, including the one in your hotel room. There are also cards that insert into a pay phone and tick down the minutes until your time expires.
If you need a constant connection, you can buy a new European mobile phone in most countries for about $40-75, which typically includes some call time. The EU is looking into standardizing roaming fees across Europe, which would be great news for travelers who want to use a single phone and SIM card in multiple countries.
If you already own a cell phone that works in Europe, call your carrier before leaving to activate international service — and make sure to ask about extra charges for international roaming and data transfer. Users of some smartphones and handheld wireless devices (most notably the iPhone) have been surprised with astronomical bills for unwittingly roaming — such as when the phone automatically checks for new emails. You can turn off the default Internet data-roaming feature to avoid per-kilobyte charges, which add up fast.
Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP), such as Skype (www.skype.com) and Google Talk (www.google.com/talk), remains the cheapest way to call between Europe and the US. If you make a lot of calls to someone in Europe, both of you have good Internet connections, and you don't use this...then you're throwing away money.
Getting Online: With the abundance of cheap Internet cafés in Europe, you don't need to bring your computer. But as laptops shrink, Internet access becomes widespread, and blogging gains in popularity, many travelers are taking their computers with them to Europe. There are a couple of ways to get online from your laptop:
Wi-Fi (wireless Internet access, sometimes called "WLAN" in Europe) is increasingly common. If your laptop is Wi-Fi capable, you'll be able to get online at many hotels and cafés. Sometimes it's free; other times, you'll have to buy a drink or pay a fee to get the log-in password. Some towns have Wi-Fi "hotspots" scattered around highly trafficked areas. You pay for a password, then get online in your favorite idyllic spot — find a bench on a floodlight piazza, overlooking a sandy beach, or along a bustling people-watching boulevard, then log on and surf away.
Many hotel rooms and some Internet cafés have high-speed Internet jacks that you can plug into with an Ethernet cable (which looks like an oversized phone cord) — no special software or password required. I travel with a small length of network cable just in case, but most hotels will loan you one if you ask. While many hotels offer this service for free, some charge an access fee.
Blogging from the Road: Instead of sending postcards or lengthy bulk emails to family and jealous co-workers back home, more and more travelers are writing blogs. Short for "Web log," a blog is an online journal in which you can write about your experiences, and post photos and short video clips. Set up your blog before you leave and access it on the road wherever you have Internet access.
If you don't have your own website, choose from one of many free blogging services. Blogger (www.blogger.com) and Wordpress (www.wordpress.com) are good general blog hosts. If you use a social-networking site such as MySpace (www.myspace.com) or Facebook (www.facebook.com), you can simply post your blog entries on your personal page. Travelpod (www.travelpod.com), MyTripJournal (www.mytripjournal.com), and Realtravel (www.realtravel.com) specialize in travel blogs, providing custom maps with "pins" for the places you've visited. Other trip-focused blogging services worth checking out include Travelblog (www.travelblog.org) and Travellers Point (www.travellerspoint.com).
When choosing a website to host your blog, read the fine print to see how long your blog will be stored, whether you can download your photos and text later (and in what format), and if there's a fee for premium services, such as uploading high-resolution photos. Also consider whether to make your blog "public" (anyone can see it), or "private" (viewable only by invited guests).
Many services can email friends and family to inform them of an update, and they also allow readers to post comments — so expect a ribbing for those crooked Eiffel Tower photos.