The question is always, “What’s the best way to stay in contact with friends and family back home?”

The approach I take when travelling abroad is to purchase a short-term service plan through a service provider (AT&T, Verizon, T-Mobil, etc.) that allows me to text, use data and to make phone calls whenever in cell range. These plans and their service providers have agreements with many of the service providers in the country or countries in which you are travelling. I’ve found this to be a quite manageable solution, one that provides much convenience, but at a price. This approach works well in Europe and many other parts of the world. Check with your service provider before hand.

Other methods to stay in contact by phone are purchasing, if you have a simple cell phone or a smartphone that has been unlocked, a SIM (Subscriber Identity Module) card and service package for your phone (either before leaving home or once in Europe). Or, you can purchase a simple pay-as-you-go phone when you arrive in Europe. I have not witnessed much success with the SIM card approach, but I know this works well for many travellers in many other countries. One time, a friend of mine spent three days emailing back and forth with his IT group back home trying to get a SIM card to work on his business phone. Too, there are scams being used on the pay-as-you-go phone method. With either approach, if you purchase either option, make darned sure the phone works before you leave the shop. The salesperson will say things like, “It takes a few hours to activate, no problem.” Only, there is a problem, the service never does come online and by the time you discover this, you are too far down the road to bother going back.

When it comes to the security of your data online there are only five words: Your data is not secure. That said; don’t go through life worried about it either. But, do take precautions and be aware.

If you do find yourself in an Internet café on a public computer never use your personal passwords or do any kind of financial business, including purchases. Just assume there is software on that computer that is mining your information for less scrupulous types to use whenever and however they like. Realize too that avoiding the use of your passwords is hard to do and still be able to check your personal email using a web browser. So, what to do? Have a password for your email that is completely different from any other passwords that you use.

And if you are using your smart device on a Wi-Fi hotspot that does not require a password to connect to the Internet, make the very same assumptions and avoid using your personal passwords or performing any kind of financial business online.

Now, if you are on a Wi-Fi hotspot that does require a password to connect to the Internet, please know that you are not much better off. If you are in a park on a public, wide-area Wi-Fi network or in a busy coffee shop with many Internet users—take caution. If in a remote hostel with a couple others on the Wi-Fi, use your common sense; the odds are forever in your favor.

If you perform work online or otherwise spend a lot of time exposing your data to the Internet, there are applications that should be used to help with your security. What I’ve discussed about is for the average traveler, smartphone in hand. To find information on these apps for advanced users, check out www.toomanyadapters.com.

When phoning internationally, the use of country codes is required. To place phone calls internationally from a mobile phone simply dial the “+” sign, followed by the country code, city code and local phone number. If you plan to use a number often, save it into your list of contacts including the “+” sign, saving time and hassle the next time.

If dialing from a landline you must use the International Direct Dialing (IDD) number and the respective Country Code.

Examples:

Phoning to US with a mobile: +1 555 555 5555

Phoning to US with a landline: 001 555 555 5555

Phoning to Spain with a mobile: +34 555 55 55 55

Phoning to Spain with a landline: 011 34 555 55 55 55

Example of use: When in, say, Europe and using a mobile phone with a north American service provider, dial as if you are phoning from North America. Example: When calling on an AT&T (for example) phone brought from the US and calling a number in Burgos from your hostel in Pamplona, first dial +34, then the number provided. Most businesses along the Camino list the +34 with their numbers.

An advantageous use of technology and one that also reduces the weight of your bags or backpack, is to store useful information and travel documents on the cloud, Internet based storage sites. There are various free cloud-based services on the Internet where documents, important phone numbers and addresses, even your pictures, can be stored. This method of storage allows for access almost anywhere in the world and is extremely secure. By secure I mean the data is stored under a user name and password only you should know, behind ultra high tech firewalls in redundant computer networks with reliable power supply and backup.

When I’m making trip plans with other people, we use Google docs to develop these documents, each of us in the group collaborating on schedules and packing lists. From almost anywhere in the world you now have access to this information. Save a copy of important information to some sort of cloud based solution. Also, I save all my contacts, notes, calendars and photos to my iCloud (Apple) account. This occurs automatically anytime my phone is connected to the Internet via Wi-Fi. Another simple method is to email all such data to your own email account. Make sure you are able to—and you know how to—access your email from a web browser on any computer.

Imagine you lost your phone, your ID and all your important documents and you have made your way to the nearest embassy representing your country. If you have scanned a copy of your ID (passport), insurance cards and other important documents to PDF and saved them to a Dropbox.com account, emailed them to yourself or taken pictures of them with your smart device and saved them to a Flickr.com or similar account, then all you need is Internet access. In such cases this will seriously expedite replacement of a passport and allow you to put your hands on any other documents you may need. There are several options and approaches to meet this possible scenario. Check them out and determine what works best for you.