Comments on: Traveling Offline: How to NOT use an iPhone abroad

By: Brad Benner

Brad Benner — Mon, 04 Apr 2011 23:12:06 +0000

International data costs are completely ridiculous. Somebody has to be pocketing the huge fees.

I’m currently traveling for 5 months and I was able to figure out a way to use the maps app without incurring international data roaming charges. Before I head out for the day, I cache the maps I’ll need using a Wifi connection and then use the GPS functions of the phone to locate myself (which don’t require a data connection). I’ve posted all of the details here: http://www.howtotraveler.com/2011/03/use-the-iphone-maps-app-internationally-for-free/.

By: Wendy Hoechstetter, CAPS

Wendy Hoechstetter, CAPS — Wed, 19 Jan 2011 02:59:45 +0000

I couldn’t agree more. Even having access *anywhere* to email while traveling can really suck the life out of the whole experience.

And it’s not just when traveling, either. Our lives at home become much more constricted when attached at the hip to the electronic babysitters. I’m making it a new goal for the new year to disconnect a lot more.

By: Bill in San Diego

Bill in San Diego — Wed, 25 Aug 2010 15:33:07 +0000

Map reading is a valuable skill that’s being lost by the GPS toting generation. When a solar storm crashes the system, everyone is gonna be dependent on people like me to find their way.

The money I save each year by not having a “Pocket-size Facebook” (Smartphone) pays for my flight and the first night’s hotel room. Easily!

By: Natalia

Natalia — Tue, 10 Aug 2010 21:01:35 +0000

Fantastic post with a lot of relevant comments.

I need a reliable phone when I travel. We live in the UK but travel to Europe and my family situation means I have to be contactable by phone (and no, not in a so my mother and I can chat every night. I am apart from my husband, and he is in a situation where if there is an emergency, I have to know ASAP). And having an iPhone was cool as there were apps I could use (without wifi), I could email pretty regularly, take a photo and email it to someone straight away. But … I too found the tug of ‘just checking’ whenever there was wifi was hard to resist.

So when we are in Germany in a couple of weeks, I am resolving to only have the phone on during the day, no internet. I wonder how long I will last however. I will have a laptop and hopefully an internet connection in the evenings, so maybe once I am off the streets, kid in bed, I can have a guilt free hour or two of cyber-time.

By: Kiki

Kiki — Thu, 05 Aug 2010 10:58:31 +0000

🙂
Tom; you just confirmed ALL the reasons why I (still) haven’t got an iPhone….
It saddens me beyond belief to see literally EVERYBODY glued to a phone, everywhere…. I live in the greater Paris region and just going out of the house means being surrounded by people on the phone; I have seen couples at the same dinner table, both using their phones, instead of talking to each other; in the trains & metros I am mostly the only one reading a book. When travelling, I want to be wide open to all things new, I want to discover, to talk to people, to learn, to be surprised, to be enchanted, to be connected with the there and then, NOT to be connected electronically…
I admit, I already struggle with my Blackberry and I added a password long ago for exactly the same reasons you mentionned. Being Swiss, I DO wear a wristwatch, I also never think of taking (rubbish) phone-photos but schlep with me a magnificent camera of about 3kg…, and since I can’t read maps anyway, I ask people or even better, get driven or guided to where I need to go!
It’s however very interesting to read the above and having said it all; it was ME who was mad at Hero Husband for NOT bringing the extra ‘mouse’ to our holiday place and it was ME who was complaining about not having a good connection every day…
Going back in my corner and hanging my head in shame…. Kiki

By: Andrea

Andrea — Tue, 03 Aug 2010 21:11:16 +0000

Totally and completely agree with you. I am heading to Europe for a year’s sabbatical. I am bringing my laptop, but will be leaving it behind at friends’ places, etc. while I take small sojourns all around (when I’m not based in once place for a while)… I’ve been worrying that I don’t have a smartphone with me — just have a plain oldschool handset… but you know what? After reading this, I don’t care. It’s all I need anyway, to cover emergencies. The rest? I’m looking forward to finding out on my own by just simply being in the moment, every moment. 🙂

By: Wanderfree

Wanderfree — Tue, 03 Aug 2010 17:04:29 +0000

To me, the saddest thing about technology in respect to travel it how it’s dampened, if not completely destroyed, my favorite part of the travel experience: Discovery…real-time discovery. Turn off the phone, put down the map, leave the guidebook in the hostel. Hell, even take off the watch. Take a walk, open your eyes and tap into LIFE.

By: Hungary for Budapest

Hungary for Budapest — Tue, 03 Aug 2010 14:33:44 +0000

Love this! Inside a lobby in Budapest, I went to an online chat room to ask people where the hot ‘kerts’ in the city were. About a minute after I posted, I realized I was being ridiculous. I was in Budapest. I was already ‘tapped in,’ and ‘connected live.’ When I asked the manager of a youth hostel where the kerts were, (ten feet away from the computer terminals!), he handed me a map and crossed out the kerts that were closed before having a real time dialogue about kerts. Koszonom Magyar!

By: jared

jared — Tue, 03 Aug 2010 13:46:40 +0000

jail break your phone (now legal)

move to t-mobile and add the $20/mo unlimited international data plan … which they will even pro-rate based on travel days