We all love our smartphone. Why not? It cost us an-arm-and-a-leg to get that shinny flagship phone. And besides, we want to share the photos we take during our travels. Smartphone are actually mobile computers with the capacity to connect to cellular data networks and wifi networks anywhere in the world. Social Networks make it easy for us to share digital assets from our smartphones.
If you don’t want extra charges while traveling abroad, set your phone to Airplane mode before you board your flight from your own country.
Having travelled in Europe a couple of times and visited several states in the U.S., here are some observations I’ve noticed when using your own smartphone abroad.
- Border Officer can examine the contents of your phone. This is more true when going to the U.S. At the customs (or TSA)/border crossing booth, the officer might request you to unlock your phone. Not complying to the order of the officer might deny you entry to the U.S. It is better to bring your ‘old’ smartphone on factory-reset if you don’t want prying-eyes on your personal messages, etc. European border/immigration officers haven’t done this yet.
- Data service abroad is expensive if you use your own home service provider. Recently, mobile service providers have launched ‘roam-like-home’ add-ons to monthly service contracts. For a small fee ($5 or $10) a day abroad, you will be able to use your monthly service allowance (calls, text messages, and data bandwidth). If you are abroad for over 4 days, using your home (country) service provider becomes expensive. See #3 for the solution.
- Bring an unlocked smartphone and purchase a Prepaid local SIM. One of the advantages of an unlocked smartphone (with multiple universal bands on it) is to be able to use it around the world. Prepaid local SIM and decent service (call, text messages, and data) in Europe cost anywhere from €20-€30. And in EU countries, ‘roam-like-home’ is free! The service you purchase in France is free to use in Germany. And the service is good for 4 weeks. Prepaid (Tourist) service in the U.S. is about $30-$35 (Prepaid SIM included).
- Travel Map. There are several maps application that will allow you to your use the map in off-line mode (not using data). You can use it for navigation (walking, biking, or driving) and in some cases, check the transit schedule. Downloading the mobile application and the corresponding map data of the country you are visiting will save a lot of data bandwidth and aggravation during your travel. I’ve used Here Maps extensively. I’ve downloaded maps ahead of time (on wifi) and deleted them when I get back home to recover the storage space. Multiple maps will require over 500MB.
- The only camera you have. Cameras on smartphones had point-and-shoot quality over the last 2 years. Bringing another camera would be nice if you can otherwise, photos taken from a smartphone are decent enough. Just make sure you have enough memory space.
- Bring an external battery and required cable. Depending on your usage and length of time away from a power outlet, an external battery and charging cable will keep you going. Most phones can give you 5-6 hours of continued use. Newer flagship phones will probably get you from 8-10 hours which will be enough for most trips or excursions. But just imagine a visit to Victoria from Vancouver and you forgot your power charger and cable. It happened to us last year. We didn’t have our charger and cable. Our phones ran out of power in the (last trip) ferry to Vancouver.
- Bring a zip-lock bag, just in case. It is nice if it is always sunny during your vacation abroad. However, weather can change and having a water-proof case for you smartphone is a plus.