Backpacking Holidays

When backpacking a mobile phone can be an incredibly useful tool to have with you. It’s not just a phone it can be your map, route planner, and guide to what’s available where you are amongst other things. If you have a phone that will support them, there are some brilliant aps now available which you can download and use on your travels. It’s also worth storing numbers on there such as your travel insurance company’s phone number, details of the embassies or consulates in the countries you’ll be visiting, and other useful contacts.

There are a few things however that you should bear in mind about your mobile phone and its capabilities, depending on where you are travelling.

Keep your phone and yourself safe
Mobile phones can attract thieves particularly if they’re the newer more expensive models. Make sure you keep yours hidden and out of sight just as you would things like cash and keys. It is best not to store details of your bank account or other important information on there that might help a thief. Keep a copy of your provider’s customer service contact details, your phones serial number and your mobile phone number somewhere separate from your phone, that way, if your phone is stolen, you can call the provider and get it blocked easily.

Dual or tri band
If you are planning on travelling in the US, you need to remember that they work on a tri-band system and most European phones are only dual band, so won’t work there. You can check if your phone is tri-band or dual band by asking your service provider or looking in your manual.

International Roaming
Most phones are capable of international roaming, but this facility is switched off as standard to stop thieves from using stolen phones abroad to run up huge bills. Generally speaking if you are on contract you should be able to talk to your provider and have this facility turned on. If you’re on PAYG however, you may find that your provider won’t offer this feature. Don’t forget also to talk to your provider about the charges as these will be more expensive than they would be at home.

Local Sim Cards
For some countries, or if you’re planning on staying in one country for some time, it can be worth buying a local sim card. Just remove your normal sim, put it somewhere safe, and pop the new one in. (Don’t forget to tell family and friends you are doing this and how to reach you in an emergency!). If you plan on doing this, you will need to make sure that your mobile phone is unlocked and open to all networks.

Changing Networks
When you’re abroad your phone will automatically search for the strongest network that it can so that you get the best signal possible. However, different networks can charge different amounts, so if you know which countries you are going to, it is worth checking in advance which networks are cheapest as it’s possible to manually change networks if you want to do so, and the signal on the cheaper network may not be the strongest, but it may be perfectly adequate.