Traveling in 2022 is sooo much easier than it used to be!

A quick round-up of how technology is making this trip so painless

Amy and I are both pretty well-traveled (she’s probably been to more countries than anyone else you know!), but it’s been a while since we did a trip like this. While she did a semester abroad in Granada, Spain, I did one in London, back in 1999. It was an amazing experience, especially since I didn’t just study there; I also got a job as a bartender, started dating a Welsh girl, and then dropped out of college and stayed on for several more months, living with one of my co-workers and continuing to explore the city on my own…until I was too cold and too broke to do it anymore!

Of course, getting around then was done with paper maps, books, and just by wandering around somewhat aimlessly. Cell phones and even the Internet were still pretty new, and I communicated with my family at home—and even when they came to visit me—by popping into Internet cafès and emailing them or using a payphone (sparingly!). And unfortunately, there was no known way to translate from the heavily accented south London English to American English, so I often had no idea what people were saying! 😵 (That hasn’t changed!)

My trip to London also coincided with my decision to become vegan—not the best timing. Trying to find plant-based sustenance in that city, especially on my shoestring budget, was challenging at best. I subsisted on veggie samosas, hummus. baguettes, and espresso, and lost a lot of weight!

I came back to Europe a couple of times, most recently in 2005 (has it been that long?) for a fast-paced lap through Paris, Nice, Barcelona, Rome, Venice and Cinque Terre, Italy. Technology was a bit better then, but travel was still something you muddled through with a lot of dumb luck and missed trains. It was challenging, invigorating, and sometimes humiliating…all the things that I think those with a wanderlust enjoy about it.

Fast forward to today, when traveling now feels almost like cheating. To start with, we have our smartphones. Both Amy and I switched our cell phone carrier to Google Fi in anticipation of this trip. It boasts voice & data coverage in over 200 countries. As soon as we touched down in Barcelona, our phones popped up with a “welcome to Spain!” message, then worked as they always had. Data and texting are included, and so are calls made over WiFi. They only thing we have to pay for (and not much) are calls made to or from the U.S. when we’re not on WiFi. (Update: see the postscript below.)

So that we never have to pay for calls and to ensure we have coverage everywhere, we also got an inexpensive hotspot from HippocketWifi that works in most of Europe, and it usually has a good signal even when our phones don’t. So go on, text us or give us a call. Better yet, try WhatsApp and Google Duo. We’d love to chat!

Google Maps has never been so useful. In our rental car, navigating the labyrinth of narrow, meandering cobblestoned lanes in some of these villages, especially when many of them are one-way, would be a lot more challenging without voice-guided navigation. When we’re out exploring on foot, I’m constantly amazed by how almost every path, staircase and passageway (even ones under buildings!) seems to be on the map. And it’s incredible for plotting routes by public transportation, since it knows all the schedules for buses, trains, trams, subways, and more. Google Maps is a huge upgrade over Lonely Planet for finding lesser-known landmarks or obscure things like, say, highly-rated vegan restaurants open at a particular time. And Street View allows us to see if some avenue we were thinking of wandering to is actually interesting—or just some dark, sketchy alley. In each city we visit, I tag all the places I want to visit, then take us on self-guided walking tours that string together these spots, relying upon nothing but Google Maps. Sure, you could go exploring without it, and you’d probably stumble upon more hidden gems and serendipitous moments that way…or just plain get lost!

And when you do get lost…Google Maps location sharing saves the day. Amy and I are both permanently sharing our location with each other, which means we can see on our map where the other one is with pretty good accuracy—super useful when we split up, either intentionally or unintentionally. I can’t count how many times I’ve tracked down my wandering wife this way…even inside museums! I also have location history turned on, which allows Google Maps to remember all the places I’ve been and even the routes I took to get there. Under most circumstances, I find this tracking a bit creepy, and I typically delete this history periodically. But on this trip, day-by-day reconstructions of where we’ve been is incredibly helpful for writing this blog.

Google Translate is just downright cheating. It can translate words or phrases into almost any language, and then pronounce them for you. (Especially helpful with Portuguese!) With the mobile app, you can point it at a sign or menu and it will translate the text on-the-fly, changing the image to English. You can even have it translate someone’s voice in real-time. But we often fall back to just showing people the translation on our phones when we can’t manage (or don’t even want to try) a comprehensible pronunciation…which happens a lot!

AirBnB has been an amazing way to find quaint places for our family to stay. We’ve used it in every city we’ve visited so far, avoiding hotels entirely. We’ve found especially awesome places in Barcelona and Ronda, and got a place in Lisbon big enough for us and some family friends from Berlin. Each place has its quirks, but it’s fabulous to have a place to call home and avoid eating out every meal.

I’m surprised how credit cards and bank cards are used for virtually everything. Europeans encouraged the use of them over cash as as a hygiene measure during the pandemic. No more fumbling for the right number of Euros and asking for change; just tap your card and you’re on your way.

But not everything has been revolutionized (yet) by technology. For instance, there is no such thing (yet) as Amazon Portugal. (You can order from Amazon Spain, pay for shipping, and wait a couple weeks for it to arrive.) That could be a little frustrating when I’m used to free next-day delivery back in the States. Then I decided I sort of liked it. Because isn’t it the quaint little shops and the slow pace of life that is so endearing about Portugal? We think so.

Travel still isn’t effortless, but it ain’t nearly so formidable as it used to be. The challenge, just like at home, is looking up from your phone once in a while and remembering to take it all in. And allowing yourself to get lost once in a while. 😉

Postscript

Aug 22, 2022: Seems that there’s one hiccup with using Google Fi for a year abroad: the Fi terms & conditions apparently state that you must the service “primarily” in the U.S. After 4+ months abroad, we got a polite note from them stating that we obviously weren’t doing that, and that they were going to turn off our mobile data within 30 days if we didn’t come home! Shucks…I guess it was too good to be true. But still great for anybody who travels for 3 months or less at a time! And interestingly, they said that voice calls and text messages would still work…just not data.

For anybody geeky enough to care and/or traveling abroad for more than 3 months (I’m looking at you, Lars), read on to find out how we plan to deal with this. For Amy, since voice calls and messages should still work, we’re going to switch to a pay-as-you-go data plan with Fi…which should cost reasonably little (about $25/month) because she won’t be able to use any data (unless/until she comes home again). Meanwhile, we’ll buy a cheap local SIM card and stick it in her phone, leveraging a feature on Google Pixels that allows you to use dual SIM cards and configure which features (voice, text messages, data) that each will provide. Apparently, newer iPhones have this as well, and probably some other late model phones too. Pretty cool!

For me, since making and receiving calls from home is less critical, I’m going to use a local SIM card as well, but turn off Google Fi entirely, then port my U.S. number to Google Voice ($20 one-time charge). This should in theory allow me to keep my U.S. number and still make and receive calls and messages through that number, through the Voice app. Lars Minnini apparently did this, and said it works nicely, except that incoming calls go right to voicemail and he has to then call them back. I can handle that. Meanwhile, I can use WhatsApp or Google Meet for local calls, and (depending upon the SIM card and country) may also get a local European number for calls and texts.

We’ll see if it all works! And then update this post accordingly. 🙂