Today, we’re gonna talk about international travel with kids and how to stay connected with people back home.
Watch the YouTube video here >>> https://youtu.be/8NY3emaZNvA
If you’re the kind of family who wants to go on vacation overseas to completely disconnect from people while you’re gone, then this conversation might not be for you. Just share it with a friend. But if you’ve got grandparents back home who would love to talk with the kiddos about the fun they’re having while it’s fresh on their minds, then let’s talk about how we tried.
The Internet. As much as it seems like you can get it everywhere these days, it can still be tough sometimes. Places you’d like to have Internet connection:
- The place you’re sleeping: hotel, apartment, condo, AirBnB, hostel
- On transportation: plane, train, subway, bus, boat
- While eating: restaurant, coffee shop, pub
- While planning: cafes, government buildings, tourist spots
- Out in the country, around the city
These are the places you’re going to want to use the Internet connection to possibly chat on video with family. The hotel is usually the most solid wifi signal, so you’ll need to plan for the time difference back home and see when you need to be at the hotel.
For phone calls, you have a bunch of options.
When you’re on wifi, you can call FREE via WhatsApp, but those people have to also be on WhatsApp … if you’re both on it, though, it’s awesome.
You can call via Skype if you pay to put money on your account.
You can purchase an international phone and SIM card. We bought ours from a vending machine, seriously. Phone and SIM card. It took some figuring out and asking a local how to do it, but we got it working. This is great for calling local locations in the area you are traveling. Ours also came with 700 international minutes, which we could use from anywhere when we weren’t on wifi. Having the local phone number was helpful to have for a few situations when people needed to call us back. And the beauty of now having the international phone is that I think we can use it anywhere else in the world as long as we buy a SIM card in that country.
Now, let’s get to the secret weapon that makes all this communication even possible. Electricity. This is where it can get tricky. If you’re like us, we’ve never thought about what kinds of power chargers we have. Well, if you want to have the electricity to communicate via phones, laptops, tablets, iPads or anything, you’ll have to figure it out. In the USA, the standard voltage of a power charger or power strip is 120V. In Europe and lots of the world, it’s 240V. So you have to check each of your adapters and see if they can handle up to at least 240V. It’s always super small print on the adapter, but it’s there. On this last trip, the one thing we didn’t was a power strip, and as soon as we plugged it in, it exploded inside, smelled bad, and tripped the apartment breaker box.
Next thing you need to figure out is what the plug adapter code is for the region of the world you’re going. The USA is region A&B. The United Kingdom is region G. So for every electronic device you want to charge, you need an adapter so it can plug in.
So to recap, you need the proper voltage range and the right region adapter.
And they look like this … I got this complete set on Amazon, and the work great for all regions of the world. They even plug into each other if you ever need just the right combo. We also got this pretty slick power strip we’re excited to try next time (since I blew up our last one). It has the right voltage for worldwide, multiple plugs and USB charging ports.
The last way we tried communicating to back home is through postcards. The girls wrote and drew their own postcards, put their own stamps on them, learned how to address them, and we mailed out. The postage costs a little more than domestic, but they were worth it.
So there you have all our ideas for your kids communicating back home while traveling overseas.
>>>>> Watch International Travel w Kids – Safety version (Episode 68)
>>>>> Watch International Travel w Kids – Communication version (Episode 69)>>>>> Watch Travel w Kids – Packing version (Episode 70)
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Conversation of the Day: If you were traveling overseas with kids, are you the kind of person who would want to connect with people back at home or the kind who would love to disconnect?
Hop on over to watch the video and share your thoughts in the conversation.
