Travel With Your iPhone

I’ve been anticipating this long-overdue vacation to Europe for a very, very long time. We’ve been planning this trip for almost two years now but there was one thing I wasn’t looking forward to: Going without my iPhone, even if only for 2 weeks.

Now before you judge me, let me explain… I’m going to London, Paris and Barcelona — three cities where an iPhone would certainly be useful just to find my way around as opposed to lugging around travel books. If I were going somewhere like India where technology would disturb my spiritual journey, then yes, I would surely leave the iPhone at home. But due to the circumstances, my iPhone’s coming with me.

After some heavy research, here are some tips I’ve found to get your iPhone in travel-ready condition:

• Don’t make any phone calls when abroad if you don’t need to. But if you have to, 3G roaming, where available, costs no more than EDGE roaming.
• Use texting for communicating. Incoming texts hit your regular plan allowance and outgoing texts are 50¢ each.
• Enable Wi-Fi while in airplane mode. This way you can use your iPhone for the occasional map check.
• Find a pre-paid SIM card. Orange has the best data plan in Europe for 9€ ($11) a month unlimited. For calls, you can opt for a pay-as-you-go plan if you only need to use your phone for an emergency. Craiglist would probably be the best way for you to get your hands on one of these!

Of course, you can’t leave without downloading travel apps for your iPhone!

• Currency – A calculator that does currency conversions for you.
• iTranslate – Translate words and whole sentences into 43 languages.
• The Weather Channel – Allows you to store a variety of cities and just flip among them without having to reload the city the next time you want to check the weather. It even has traffic cams for select cities.
• Babelingo – This is a language translator with phrases and topics particularly useful for travelers. Even better, it doesn’t just teach you how to say something in a foreign language; it offers visual translations (shows the translations in type) that you can show to the person you’re trying to communicate with.
• Pano – Take panoramic pics with your iPhone. Don’t worry if you get a phone call or need to stop; you can resume your photo.
• Lonely Planet – The popular website is now available as an app!

For more information about traveling abroad with your iPhone, check out Wired.com.