The most prudent, when they leave national borders, turn off their cell phones to avoid paying super high rates, able to drain any remaining credit and generate very high bills (for those who have a subscription). Fortunately, today the situation has clearly improved compared to the past and we can really travel with our trusted smartphone by adopting some simple precautions that will allow us to save on mobile phones when we travel to the European Union or another international destination outside the EU., thus allowing us to surf the Internet (without overdoing it of course) and make free calls using the VoIP services or calls included in modern messaging apps (WhatsApp and Telegram).
READ ALSO: Internet data roaming costs, SMS and calls abroad
Saving money with your mobile phone abroad
By carefully following all the advice below, we will be able to save a lot when we are abroad, without having to completely turn off the phone. We will be able to surf the Internet without problems and even make unlimited calls, so as not to exhaust the telephone credit or the limited call offer included for travel abroad.Rates for the European Union
As we know from June 15, 2017 , roaming is free for calls, internet and SMS in Europe ; this means that if we travel to a country of the European Union, we will be able to take advantage of a part of our offer also abroad without paying any additional cost.
In these scenarios we will have a certain number of Gibabytes available to browse the Internet (based on the operator in use, never less than 2 GB anyway), while we will have all the remaining minutes of our offer available. Even if roaming is free, limits are imposed on its use: we will not be able to stay in the same EU country for more than 3 months and we will have to return to our country at least once every 6 months. In the event that we finish our Gibabytes available for overseas, we will be able to continue browsing by paying every single megabyte 0.54 euro cents (they may seem few, but in reality it is enough to navigate on a simple Web page to pay immediately 5-6 €).
To avoid going too far, we recommend setting a limit on data traffic, so as not to run the risk of overspending.
Rates for non-EU countries
If we decide to travel to a country outside the European Union (for example the United States), the roaming costs are still active and always very expensive .
To avoid bleeding, we will have to activate a specific foreign offer for the country in which we decide to go, so as to significantly reduce costs (even if we do not have the same Gibabytes that we can have in Europe).
In this regard, we have collected all the pages of the various operators in which to view the roaming costs and the specific offers for each country:
- TIM Abroad
- Vodafone Abroad
- Foreign WIND
- 3 Italy Abroad
Use Wi-Fi hotspots
If we intend to surf the Internet a lot, we can take advantage of the numerous Wi-Fi hotspots that many large foreign cities provide in practically every corner of the street or in large meeting places (parks, hotels, shopping centers etc.). In order to find these free Wi-Fi networks faster, we recommend using the WiFi Map app, available for Android and iOS.
In addition to showing the map with all the available hotspots, it allows you to connect to the private VPN in order to surf safely. If we are looking for other similar apps, we invite you to read our guide to the Apps to find free Wifi and free wireless networks on the map .
If instead we look for other VPNs to be exploited when we are abroad (so as to protect ourselves from the dangers of public Wi-Fi networks), we can read our article on the Best VPNs for Android, iPhone free and unlimited .
Use an offline GPS navigator
There is nothing worse than getting lost in a foreign country after running out of Gigabytes available on the phone! To avoid these dramatic scenarios, we recommend using a GPS navigator with offline maps, such as Google Maps (available for Android and iOS).
By downloading the map of the city or area in which we travel, we can always find the way to the hotel even without an Internet connection (which we can deactivate while using the navigator, so as to save a lot of data). To save offline maps on Google Maps, we recommend you read our guide on How to use Google Maps Offline without connection .
If we are looking for other GPS navigation apps with offline maps, just read our two guides to GPS Navigators with free offline maps for Android and Offline Maps and navigators on iPhone and iPad .
Make calls and video calls for free without limits
If we are connected to a Wi-Fi hotspot abroad, we can make unlimited free calls by taking advantage of the calling or video calling services offered by WhatsApp or Telegram .
All we have to do is open our contact among those in the app, then click on the top of the handset (or in the menu with the three dots) and start the call or video call. The quality of the same will depend on the speed of the hotspot to which we are connected, but in most cases it will be enough to be able to warn our relatives of the trip and tell everything that has happened.
As an alternative to chat services, we can always use the good old Skype, which allows you to call and video-call Skype contacts at a much higher quality than the competitors.
Use the right adapter for charging
Each country has its own electrical standard and a specific electrical outlet, in many cases profoundly different from the one available in Italy: to avoid surprises we recommend that you have a universal smartphone charger, such as the one available here -> Lencent Charger Adapter from USB travel (13 €).
With it we can recharge up to 4 USB devices, using one of the adapters available according to the country in which we arrive (the various adapters allow you to recharge in over 100 countries in the world).
To be on the safe side, we recommend that you also get a very large and compact power bank, so that you can recharge your smartphone even when we are outside the hotel.
Conclusions
If before traveling abroad with a smartphone was really a business, today very few precautions are enough to be able to continue surfing the Internet and always find the right way with offline GPS navigators. If we use a fast enough Wi-Fi hotspot we will be able to surf abroad without limits and make any type of online call (with WhatsApp and other similar apps).Always to stay on the subject of travel, we advise you to continue reading our articles on the best apps for traveling and going on vacation Android and iPhone and how to make a price comparison by train, plane, bus or car to get to any place .
