Best Ways to Keep in Contact While Travelling
Best Ways to Keep in Touch while Travelling
Whether you’re travelling with someone, or you’re a solo traveller, there are always family and friends that we want to keep in touch with.
Furthermore, they want to hear from us, know that we’re okay, and where we are in the world.
More than that, it gives us a way to feel connected with someone that we care about. We can confide in them and share out latest travel adventures too.
In this blog, I’m going to explore the best ways to keep connected and in touch while travelling and off exploring the world.
The Separation Factor
I feel that travel is an enriching experience that brings joy, adventure, and variety to life! I love that!
Actually, I feel that travel is so beneficial and good for us that I wrote a blog about it! In fact, you can check out my 21 Reasons that Travel is Important!
Travel can also give us a sense of separation from friends and family back home.
We are so lucky now that we have access to so many interconnected ways to keep in touch now no matter where we are! Even 10 years ago, there were way less technologies and options than there are now.
Now we can connect with family instantly with the push of a button!
Airalo
If you’re looking for the ultimate in convenience, accessibility and freedom with your communication, Airalo is definitely your best option!
The reason that I like it is because I am not limited when I use Airalo!
I don’t need to search for quality wifi to send photos of messages.
I also don’t need to look for a store that sells sim cards when I first arrive at my new destination.
Instead, I can focus on enjoying settling in and exploring my destination with internet and communication readily available at my fingertips!
Once I arrive at that destination, I activate my plan, and that’s it!
The sim card is an e-sim card, meaning it’s not a physical card. The sim card is within the app.
Airalo is very versatile. For example, if you’re travelling to Columbia, you can pick a card for there.
If you’re travelling around a continent, you can choose a package for that continent.
You can pick world wide and have the ultimate freedom as well!
There are different packages for different amount of days and GBs too.
So, it’s really up to you and your travels!
Here is the link to the mobile link to get the Airalo App.
If you want to check it out more before you get the app, check out the website at Airalo home.
I feel that having a service like Airalo is especially important if you’re travelling for a longer time.
Keeping communication expenses low by avoiding international calling and texting fees, roaming fees, data overages, and more is important and helpful!
You can choose monthly packages for your destination if you’re travelling for a long time.
If you are going on a long trip, check out some other helpful tips on How To Be prepared for a long trip.
Online Messaging
It’s quick, easy and doesn’t take too much internet to send a quick message or even some photos.
It’s a way to quickly let family know that you’re okay and share all the amazing adventures that you have been having!
With most messaging apps you can send photos or short videos too.
If you’re sending a regular text, that can be quite expensive, so I wouldn’t recommend it, unless you know that your phone plan covers international texts.
This method is quick if you’re in a rush, or in a loud or busy environment.
Video Calls
I find this is the method the closest to actually being together.
You can hear their voice, see the expression on the their face. No emojis needed. 😁🤨🥰
You can give them a virtual tour of your latest hotel room or share your sunset view with them in the moment that it happens.
Of course, you need good internet.
I have had so many video calls that cut off or we can’t see each other well.
Sometimes the videos end up blurry or the audio is very delayed.
This option can be frustrating in these circumstances, so I recommend testing it out before you have any important video chats or meetings.
Postcards
Who doesn’t love to receive a postcard! Those picturesque scenes on the front and some nice little messages on the back from friends of family!
Not only it is nice to receive, it’s easy for a traveller to do while travelling!
Most tourists places sell postcards. They are in many shops and visitors centres too!
They are quick to prepare, and even include a beautiful photo all ready for you!
It can also be a nice activity to do if you’re solo travelling. You can write postcards while you’re at a restaurant or chilling at a cafe or somewhere nice!
You can capture the moment by painting a visual picture for your future postcard reader!
Letters
If you’re staying somewhere with limited internet, then letters are perfect!
I wrote letters sometimes, when I was working on the cruise ships.
At the time, the internet wasn’t great then, and less apps were available.
With a few of my friends, we would keep in contact through letters in the mail as I was gone for many months at a time.
It’s a nice way to be introspective and reflective about your travels and yourself.
You can share exciting stories and moments with your friends and family this way too.
This way of keeping in contact is for people who are not rushed. Writing takes time, receiving the letter may also take a while depending on the distance that the letter must go.
Emergency Collect Calls
If it’s urgent and you need to get a hold of someone, there’s always collect calls.
Provided that the person will accept the charges…
Of course, with a collect call, you’re asking the person that you’re calling to pay for the call.
So, I would only recommend this way if it’s urgent, and hopefully, it won’t be a long call.
If you’re ever in a situation where you need help, it could work for you.
If your purse or bag was stolen- which I hope never happens to you- you may have lost your money, credit cards, phone, and need some help from someone back home.
Maybe they could send you some money to get back on track, or help you to get what you need.
This is a good way to share stories with more details. You can attach some photos, although there is a limit to how many you can attach with most email providers.
The nice thing is, if you don’t finish your email, you can save it as a draft and finish it later.
You can also send your travel updates to a group of people at the same time.
If you don’t want the people to see each other’s email addresses or names, you can use BCC to write all of their emails at the top.
Emailing is great when you’re travelling with a device that you are comfortable typing on like a laptop.
Set up a Group Family Chat
Using WhatsApp or some other messaging service, you can create a group.
This way you can include all of the family, or a group of friends, all at once.
You can send out lots of photos at a time with an update, and it will go to everyone at the same time.
I like this method because it keeps you in touch with everyone efficiently.
You’re not messaging each person individually, it’s less time consuming this way too.
You can also have an ongoing group chat about each other’s lives.
Most of these group messaging apps allow for videos chats too.
You can video calls with one person, or to a whole group.
It’s fun when you get a group of people all on the video together!
This is an easy way to keep in touch using wifi only, as many of these apps run off wifi.
Share videos or photos
I usually use the same type of app as I would for the group chat or group video call.
You can send photos, messages, and short videos to keep in contact with friends and family while you’re travelling.
You can often share a number of photos at once too.
This is a nice way for friends and family back home to understand more about where you are and what it’s like.
Social Media
if you don’t have high quality wifi for video calls, posting on your social media is another good option.
Assuming that your friends and family are following you on social media that is.
You can add daily updates with your morning view, sunsets, your dinner, an activity you went on, and much more!
This is a quick way to notify all friends and family that you’re okay and to share what you’re doing too.
Of course, most social media has private messaging too, where you can send some photos, short videos and write a message to your friends or family too.
You can make a reel, share a video, a featured story, or just share what’s on your mind.
Maybe you book a really fun tour or excursion and you want to share your unique and interesting experiences.
(You can book your tours in advance here with Viator if you like too.)
You can go live while you’re on your tour, which is a really neat feature of many social media apps.
Your friends and family can experience part of the tour with you in real time!
Let’s say you’re at Carnaval or another great celebration of festival, you can ‘go live’ with your social media app.
When you ‘go live’ your followers or friends will often get notified that you’re streaming live.
They can watch where you are and see all the fun and amazing things that you’re up to in the moment.
This is a really nice way to keep enjoying your adventures, while sharing them with your friends and family at the same time!
You don’t have to worry about not being able to hear them on a video chat, they are simply watching.
They can comment on your live video and you can respond too.
Social media is a diverse way to keep in touch with friends and family while you’re travelling.
What's your 'go-to' way to keep in contact with friends and family while travelling?
Travelling doesn’t have to mean that you lose touch with friend and family back home.
Using technology or paper and pen, you can maintain strong connections with your friends and family while you’re adventuring about!
From video calls, social media posts, group video chats, postcards, and personalized letters, there are so many options at your finger tips to stay in contact with friends and family as you journey around the world!
You can share you experiences through photos, videos, ‘going live’, writing, and group chats to bring your friends and family closer to you as you travel further around the world!
So, enjoy every moment of your travels, knowing that your loved ones are just a click or a message away!
Where to Stay
Where you stay can effect how you can keep in contact with your family!
One of the features that I love, and have used often with booking.com is the rating section.
I check for the obvious: location, cleanliness, price, and room features.
For me, it’s essential to always check the wifi review. You will see a review section where it rates the wifi quality.
This way if video chatting and sending videos of your travels back home is important to you, make sure you pick a hotel with a good wifi rating.
Take your time and search for one that checks all of the boxes for you.
You can use this booking.com widget to shop around, check wifi quality, and book your hotel too!
Which is your go-to way to keep in touch?
Do you choose convenience, quick check-ins, long stories, video chats?
Maybe you use a combination of ways to keeping in touch with your friends and family as you travel.
Share your favourites below this travel blog in the comment section.
Besides being a travel blogger, I am also a travel writer, Amazon author and an English teacher. Check out my services here!
