Sierra Blogging Post Archives

Sam and Erin are a newlywed couple taking an 18-month bicycle tour of Asia and Europe… and they’re bringing Sierra Blogging Post along for the ride.

We’re sending them Sierra Trading Post gear and they’re sending us great stories and photographs from their adventure. They just sent me their latest dispatch on the technology they've used to stay in touch while abroad… good to know!

How to Stay In Touch While Traveling Abroad


Part of what makes our trip so rewarding is that we get to share our experiences with friends and family at home because we're carrying a cell phone with us. Purchasing and using a cell phone abroad is easy and convenient, even for travelers who are visiting only for a brief time.

Our experiences so far have been in Asia, but the same process applies to virtually every country in the world. US and Canadian cell phone systems function on a different frequency than the rest of the world, so trying to use a Canadian or American cell phone abroad can be complicated and expensive. We found the cheapest and most convenient option is to buy a cell phone abroad.

We bought a cell phone in Mongolia at the beginning of our trip. We spent $25 on the phone and were able to switch the SIM card inside the phone so we could switch service providers in each new country. SIM cards are tiny chips of plastic that you insert into the back of the phone, usually under the battery. SIM cards are what service providers (outside of North America) issue to assign a cell phone a particular number and to charge for a call or text message. Once you buy a SIM card, you can purchase more credit for the phone, so it's pay-as-you-go, with no monthly fees or other costs.

Each country has a variety of different cell phone companies, so it's necessary to buy a new SIM for each country. (Before we buy a new SIM, we ask around to see which company has the best coverage country-wide. Several times we've bought a SIM card in one city, only to discover as we travel through the country that we lose coverage.)

We now have quite a collection of SIMs, at least one from each of the 10 countries we have ridden through so far. SIM cards normally cost about $2 or $3, and require a nominal amount of paperwork. Local calls are normally very cheap, and calling the U.S. is even not that expensive. In Pakistan, for example, it only cost 6 cents per minute to call home from our cell phone!

Each SIM has a different number, so it isn't possible to keep the same phone number for a multi-country trip. But for us it hasn't been a problem. Once we have a new SIM, we email our new phone number to our friends and family, and they can then call our cell phone using Skype, an internet-based telephone service.

Skype is available wherever there's an internet connection, and requires registration, like signing up for an email account. But once you're signed up, you can use it to either talk for free (often with video) to someone on a computer anywhere else in the world, or dial telephones anywhere in the world at ultra-cheap rates. So our friends and family use it to call us, usually for pennies a minute, while we're on the road.

Having a cell phone in the most remote parts of Asia has also provided us with peace of mind. We can keep in contact with family and work with them to organize the things we need. The cell phone has also proved more reliable for staying in touch with the outside world than the internet - much of the time the internet is down or unavailable for weeks at a time.

The phone is convenient for logistics as we travel, too - finding out opening hours of a museum or calling ahead for reservations. And of course it would be an important piece of equipment if we ever had an emergency, although fortunately we have yet to use it for that! Any American traveling abroad should consider buying and using a local phone. It truly is far more convenient than the internet and more cost effective than trying to use your American cell phone.

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