How do I stay in contact with friends and family?

Emergencies, gossip, check-ins: there are a plethora of reasons to want to stay in contact with friends and family members while you travel abroad. A good rule of thumb is that the more immediate and direct the contact, the more it will ultimately cost. Can you wait to update your travel blog until you are at a hostel with included internet, or do you need to send an email right away? Do you need to call and talk to someone, or will a text message do? These are good things to consider and they'll all have a financial impact while you travel abroad.

Although I like to be an unfettered traveler, I do recognize the need to keep in contact with friends and family. I want them to see what  my travels are like, and I tend to favor typing to hand-writing anyway. So for me, a blog is a great way to keep in touch while also recording my travels. But what if it is more immediate? I don't know where I'll be every night, so it would be hard for my parents or friends to call a hotel that I'm staying at if there were an urgent matter to discuss. If it's not completely urgent, they can email. But if it is in fact a real emergency, it's comforting to know that I could be reached more immediately. That's why I am going with an international phone that is cheap on the front-end and more expensive after. I don't plan on using my phone often, if at all. But, if an emergency did indeed crop up, it's good to know that my friends and family can contact me almost instantaneously.

Source

The phone that I chose cost me only $40 and has no monthly fees. I just get charged what I use while I travel. There are certain countries you can't call out of (the US being an obvious one, and then some other countries including ones in Central America), but all countries I plan to visit are included. What I like is that receiving texts is completely free (so my dad texting to say "Brooke--haven't heard from you in a while. Please send an email update by tomorrow so we know you're OK" doesn't cost me anything to read and is cheap to answer if I just use internet). Sending a text costs $0.80 per message, which really isn't that bad. A call costs anywhere from $1.50 to $3.95 per minute depending on which country I'm in. Yes, it's pricey--but I honestly don't plan on using the calling feature of the phone except in true emergency situations. So, if you're like me and just need a phone for emergencies, check out Mobal's website. However, if you are closer to friends and family than I am or are just chatty person, you should read a blog post about the "true" costs of Mobal vs.other users. Hopefully, once I'm done with my trip, I'll remember to write a review and let readers know what I think of the service after actually using it.