How To Stay Connected with Family while Traveling Internationally

July 11, 2018

We are currently on a high-speed TGV train, traveling from Toulouse to Lyon, France, after leaving Andorra earlier in the day. It’s hard to believe that we have been in Europe for almost a month now. As with any international trip, staying connected while being on the road has had its own set of challenges. Whether it be hiking on the Camino Portugues in Portugal and Spain or with our more recent travels through Spain and Andorra, we have had to deal with the challenge of staying as connected as possible without breaking the bank on calling and data charges. A combination of pre trip preparation at home and diligence while we travel has helped us thus far.

Using Wi-Fi Availability as an Accommodation Filter

When we made our European reservations, whether it be at an Airbnb, guesthouse, hostel, hotel, or hut, connectivity was one of our main filters in selecting accommodations. So we only booked places that had free Wi-Fi, figuring we would be covered most nights.

In Madrid we spent a week at an Airbnb. We used the time to recharge from our recently completed 150-mile hike, while spending time exploring the city.

While we were in Madrid, we took day trips to nearby Toledo and Segovia. In Toledo, we marveled at its cathedral, one of the largest in Spain. We also spent time walking through the myriad of winding streets inside the walled city.

Our day trip to Segovia included time exploring its Roman aqueduct, with more than 160 arches, as well as its Gothic cathedral and Alcazar, originally built as a fortress.

Not surprisingly, we had excellent Internet in Madrid. That allowed us to schedule Skype calls with family and easily upload pictures and video to our website. However, Wi-Fi quality and speed can vary from place to place. So we wanted to ensure that we had data availability on our cell phones as well so that we could use them during the day and as a Wi-Fi back up.

Our Cell Phone Connectivity Strategy

We both have Samsung Note 4 phones, now a few years old, but still solid performers. Because we completed our contracts, we had them unlocked, meaning we could buy SIM cards (an integrated circuit that holds mobile phone identifying information) on the road. Because they are older (and paid for), if either of our phones become damaged (like what happened twice on our PCT hike), we could always buy new ones when we get home.

Darren enjoys the challenge of getting SIM cards to work, so we decided to use his phone for in-country cards. I chose to purchase an international package with my AT&T plan. That way, we would potentially have different phone carriers to maximize our coverage options.

When we arrived in Portugal, Darren purchased a SIM card for 10 Euros (about $11.65) from Vodafone, which gave him a Portuguese phone number and 1.5 GB of data to use in a one-month period. Data roaming was recently allowed within the European Union, so we planned to continue using his SIM card when we crossed over to Spain.

The SIM card worked well, but there were some language issues with getting it perfectly set up. For example, Darren would get random text messages in Portuguese. The messages looked like warnings that his data was going to be turned off. And while it worked in Spain, after about three weeks the SIM card stopped functioning all together for no apparent reason.

We happened to be in Madrid, so we went to the Vodafone store there. We found a rep who spoke great English, and Darren bought another 10 Euro SIM card (now with a Spanish phone number and a similar data plan). This time, he worked with the rep to find the website to register his card, so he can just add money for more data on-line, without having to go to another store.

As to my AT&T plan, it was much more expensive, but we justified it as an insurance policy in case Darren’s phone didn’t work. For $60.00 a month, I get 1GB of data, unlimited texting, and calls at $.35 per minute. And it works in over 190 countries, so we don’t have to worry about places on our trip, like Andorra and Switzerland, that are not in the EU.

My unlimited texting has worked out great with staying in touch with family at home. Since Darren’s SIM card has very limited calling capabilities, I have already had to use my phone a couple of times to make calls to accommodations when issues have arisen. The funny thing is, with just a few days left on my month’s plan, I have only used about 200 MB of data. This is due to the priority we made to outfit ourselves with certain apps and to our pre trip preparation with the goal of keeping our international data usage to a minimum.

One app that we installed on our phones before we left home is called Datally. It allows you to choose which of your other phone apps you want to block from using any data when you turn it on.

So if you don’t want Facebook, for example, to start running in the background when roaming internationally (and using data), you can disable it using the app. When I set up Datally, I disabled almost every app in my settings. If I decide later that I want to use a given app, I just launch it. Datally then displays a button asking me to allow its use. The app has saved us from a lot of worry about “runaway apps” using background data that we can’t control.

Navigation Needs on Trail or in Town

We knew from our previous travels that navigation would be a primary use for our data, whether it be while hiking or exploring cities. As I researched each of the four treks we planned to complete, I found gpx files, which contain a series of waypoints used to designate trails, for each route. With the OSM app (which we used for our PCT and NPS trips in the past), I can display the track for a given trek and determine if we are on the trail or not, without using any data.

Even though the Camino Portugues was pretty well signed, I found that I got my phone out a couple of times a day to double check our location or resolve some conflicting arrows. Once, we got off the path by a few blocks, and I was easily able to reroute us back on to the trail. I suspect that this app will become even more useful to us on our other three treks.

Google Maps is a godsend for mapping distances and finding stores and restaurants in a given city. It also can use quite a bit of data. Before we left home, I did three things for each city that we were traveling to:

1. I mapped the walking distance between the train / bus station and hotel and saved it as a PDF file in Dropbox for reference. This also helped me determine if a given hotel was within walking distance.
2. I saved Google Maps pins designating the hotel, train station, and certain points of interest. These are then displayed even when the phone is offline.
3. I downloaded an offline Google Map of the city to my phone, allowing me to have all the needed street-level detail available to me.

When we arrived in a new town, I could usually get my phone’s location services (designated by a blue dot) to work without turning on international data. Then, I could just follow our walking progress toward my previously pinned hotel using the street detail from the downloaded map. In Andorra we had to walk about a mile from the bus station to the hotel. Using the steps above I was able to easily use my phone to route us there without using any data.

If the city was quite dense or had a lot of narrow streets (like in Santiago de Compostela, Spain), then I needed to turn international data on to get a better location reading. But I’ve only had to do that a few times.

We spent three nights in Andorra, the 16th smallest country in the world by area. Nestled between Spain and France in the Pyrenees Mountains, it boasts the highest European capital city, Andorra la Vella (at 3,356 feet).

There is no shortage of places to trek there, and we took a local bus to a nearby town to day hike to Engolasters Lake. I used my phone to track the progress of our bus toward the trailhead, enabling us to know which bus stop to get off. This was helpful when we didn’t speak the language well enough to ask.

Another way to minimize data was to start a walking map, say from our accommodation to a restaurant, while I still had Wi-Fi on at the hotel. Once I hit start I turned off the Wi-Fi, but the walking directions (and our location) still displayed on the phone.

And, perhaps best of all, my tablet, which I hesitated to bring, has worked out great for writing stories (like this one) in an offline mode, using Google Docs.

After spending a couple of days in Lyon, we will begin our GR53 trek in Northeast France. Our hike will cover 65 miles over six days.