Being a Tourist on Inishmore

The post to follow is part of a series of posts of my honest opinion of my time on Inishmore, however it should be noted that some of the expenses of this trip were waived or paid for by the Aran Island Hotel and the tourism board for the Aran Islands. Don’t hate me for taking free stuff and I promise, if I didn’t love the island, I wouldn’t write nice things about it.

by jmenard48When I came to Inishmore, my only real priority was to immerse myself in the Irish language and culture for a bit. Fortunately, I was kidnapped by James (aka “Blue”) who works for the Aran Island Hotel and who promised me an amazing day of site seeing. Our day started early (as early as I could muster: 11) at the Aran Island Hotel where I was greeted and shown around even though the hotel doesn’t open until April. The hotel looks simple enough from the outside, but is absolutely amazing on the inside. Adorned with rich dark wood paneling and vibrant colored decorations (including beautiful stained glass doors), it was love at first site. The hotel boast a huge banquet hall and conference room and an even bigger bar room with extensive bar space, loads of tables and stools and a real Irish feel. They have live music from either locals or mainland Irish acts shipped over for special occasions. I can tell that this place is a blast when the room is full. I had originally planned on staying at the hotel while I was on Inishmore but because I decided to come in low season, they pointed me towards Seacrest B&B instead.

Seacrest is a super cute bed and breakfast with a great location just off the main drag leading from the docks up to the top of the hill and less than a 5 minute walk from the ferry port. The room was comfortable, clean and quiet, which was just what I needed. My room also boasted a mounted television which I definitely watched considering I haven’t watched television in… who knows how long. The best part of Seacrest for me though, was the amazing full Irish breakfast that was waiting for me when I woke up after a long night of drinking. My first course was muesli, cornflakes, yogurt and fruit. Of course I had a large glass of orange juice and tea to go with it. Second course were generous portions of bacon, sausage, eggs and toast. I felt like a million dollars after I ate. And I was glad for the added energy as I had an exhausting day of semi-hung-over sightseeing to do.

I met Blue at a pub and over a coupleby celesteh of glasses of cider he offered to spend a day driving me around the island to show me all there is to see. We started the day by driving up the incredibly steep hill up to Dún Aonghasa which is an old three walled fort on the west side of the island. Three wall forts have three walls (obvi) but the less obvious part is why, unless you’re looking at it. The third “wall” of protection is the sheer dropoff of a 400 foot cliff. The fort had several layers of walls, with various modes of protection dividing them. The first was a series of rocks piled up loosely with their sharp ends pointing up meant to stop any mounted attack, the second, a ditch dug around a taller wall meant to stop people. The fortress truly was an amazing site to see and I spent a good hour just sitting on the edge of the cliffs marveling at the long drop to the water. I didn’t feel as vulnerable as I had the day before just a bit farther south because these cliffs were a bit more stable feeling and there weren’t as many crumbled up rocks on the edge. So glad I didn’t die yesterday.

After Dún Aonghasa, Blue drove me up to the most northern part of the island which looked out onto a lighthouse on a separate island, hosted a bunch of lobster cages and fishing boats and had a stunning view of the Connemara coast. We drove back on the ocean road (passing a dozen or so bikers who dared to tackle the huge hills – I was happy to be in a car) and made a stop at Ti Joe Watty's where we grabbed a pint and a bowl of chowder and chatted about the island and about Tedfest (the festival in honor of Father Ted of the Irish sitcom Father Ted – learn more about it here) and how crazy the event had been this year. After another pint at the American Bar, Blue bid me adieu and I headed for the ferry back to Galway. But this island hasn’t seen the last of me yet.

I was blown away by the amount of Irish culture you’ll find here. In addition, it really captures the small town feel without losing conveniences (since It is such a major tourist hub) so it really has everything anyone would ever need. I was amazed that every person passing me said hello and every car gave me at least a nod as I walked along the coast road. No, I will be back to Inishmore for sure.

Getting Lost on Inishmore

The post to follow is part of a series of posts of my honest opinion of my time on Inishmore, however it should be noted that some of the expenses of this trip were waived or paid for by the Aran Island Hotel and the tourism board for the Aran Islands. Don’t hate me for taking free stuff and I promise, if I didn’t love the island, I wouldn’t write nice things about it.

Taking a trip to the Aran Islands was something I wanted to do since I learned of their existence and their importance in the role of preserving the Irish language. However, with the launch of my new site and a plethora of writing commitments hounding me day in and day out, I found myself in my last couple of weeks in Ireland still having not gone. So I just went. I had originally planned to take the 5 PM ferry over, spend the evening and night on the island and then had a day of sightseeing put together for me by the Aran Island Hotel before hopping on the 6 PM ferry back to Galway. However, the insomniac that I am, I found myself awake at 7 AM (damn you Home & Away reruns) and so I decided to pop on the early ferry and spend a day of exploring on my own first.

by krat-osAs soon as I arrived on the island, I was hungry. After checking into my B&B (A lovely place called Seacrest which comes highly recommended) I headed to the American Bar which happened to be the only place open at the moment. As I mentioned in my post on the Irish language I sat in this bar for quite a while listening to the gentlemen sip their Guinness and banter about man stuff. I ordered a fresh tuna and sweetcorn sandwich (one of my favorite foods these days) and a cider (which has become like water for me) and listened to a conversation I couldn’t understand for a good couple of hours. A bottle of Jameson sat on the bar open and apparently available for anyone to pour into their glass at anytime. I really felt welcome and at home here. No one really gave me notice, but no one outcast me either. I was casually invited into conversation here and there, but for the most part, we all just enjoyed the comfort of other bodies near us.

After my gastric needs were satisfied, I decided to walk down and around the southern tip of the island. There’s really only one main road that runs down the island, so I knew I wouldn’t get lost, but I also didn’t really know what I was looking for to begin with. Like Galway, the tides here are extreme. At low tide, the beach is almost 100 yards wide, but at high tide, the water comes nearly up to the break walls keeping the water off the road. I found some amazingly perfect seashells, chased some birds digging for crabs and marveled at the strange sand formations created when half of the life of the beach is spent underwater.

I walked down the road past severalby celesteh houses and an old cemetery (which I found out later is actually several layers deep with relatives constantly being buried on top of one another and forming a sort of dome of graves). I found a hiking trail and decided to follow, not really knowing where it went. I walked through some fields that looked like a natural golf course and when I approached one of the “holes” to see if that was, in fact, what it was and learned very quickly that I was on top of an enormous rabbit field. I saw the rabbit dive into the hole and pop up about 20 meters away. Now looking for them, I saw the rabbits. Hundreds of them. Absolutely littering the field. Every step I took sent 2 or 3 dozen rabbits scattering for burrows or mounds of dirt to hide behind. And this went on for a good ¼ mile. At one point, I turned around to see if the rabbits came back out after I passed them and they did, it was like I was this orb of rabbit free zone. When I came out of rabbit town, I was on a cliff. It literally just ended like that.

I stood there about 20 feet over the water and looked over the black rock into the ocean. The weather was absolutely beautiful, so I took off my coat and balled it up as a pillow and took a little nap. When I awoke, I was accompanied by an old fisherman trying his luck as the tide came in. Nothing coming in today, he said. And he disappeared back around the edge of the cliff. I wondered now, if I could continue all the way around the base of the island and walk back on the West coast. I started up the hill to find a large old stone circle watchtower filled with stones. I was walking on incredibly unstable ground, climbing over piled stone walls used to divide livestock and sure I was going to fall off the edge of the cliff into the ocean at any minute. I threw a rock into the watchtower (not sure why, but looks like other people had done it) and proceeded across the unsteady ground around to the West, hoping to find, well, anything.

by Rusticus80Then I was there. And don’t ask me where because I don’t actually know. It was just… this thing. The cliffs I was on stopped and I was on an overhang. This oval carved out of the side of a mountain. The cliffs were at least 400 feet high here, and I was on a sliver of rock jutting out over the seemingly unforgiving churn of ocean below. The waves thrashed against the walls and I watched the water rise and fall at least 50 feet in a small cave/blowhole thing. Do one thing every day that scares you, do one thing every day that scares you, I kept repeating to myself. Any Holy Jesus I was scared. I am not afraid of heights, I am not afraid of jumping off cliffs, but Oh. My. God. I was scared. Don’t be a statistic, don’t be a statistic, my psyche suddenly shifted. I gotta get out of here. But not before I video tape it. I'm having some difficulty connecting my camera to my laptop but I will upload a link to the video once I have it up.

It was starting to get dark and I needed a beer ASAP, so I headed back to the American bar and spent an amazing night with some really awesome people: a mix of locals, people working on the island and tourists like myself just in for the night. We stayed up late playing pool, drinking and talking about how we never want to leave this place. It truly is as magical as everyone warns you.

Speaking Irish on Inishmore (Aran Islands)

The post to follow is part of a series of posts of my honest opinion of my time on Inishmore, however it should be noted that some of the expenses of this trip were waived or paid for by the Aran Island Hotel and the tourism board for the Aran Islands.  Don’t hate me for taking free stuff and I promise, if I didn’t love the island, I wouldn’t write nice things about it.

For St. Patrick’s Day this year, I was asked to write an article for BootsnAll on how the Irish language is still alive and flourishing.  I begin by mentioning that when I first came to Ireland over 2 years ago, I did not know that there was such a thing as the “Irish” language.  Rather, upon initial descent into Ireland, I thought that Irish was just a sort of thick accent with its own lingo and dialect (like Ebonics or Jamaican).  After spending a couple of months in Galway (in Irish Galliamh pronounced GAHL-yiev), I’ve been able to spend some time really diving into the culture and history of the language as well as learn a bit myself. 

If you want the full history and lesson of Irish, read my article here on BootsnAll.  For those with limited attention spans, Irish (in Irish Gaeilge pronounced GAYLE-guh), has been spoken on the Emerald Isle since 1200 BC. During British rule in Ireland, most spoken Irish was banned or pushed to the far west of the island (hence why the highest concentration of Irish speakers is in the West).  After the Republic of Ireland gained its independence in 1922, the language was slowly reintegrated into the everyday life of those living in the country.  Most street signs and road signs are in both English and Gaeilge; sometimes only Gaeilge in areas known as the Gaeltacht (Gahl-TAHCHT) which are those areas where Gaeilge is still the primary language.  Children are now required to learn Irish in school and some schools are taught exclusively in Irish. Needless to say, the Irish language is beginning to become a larger part of everyday life for those living there.  One of the best places in the world to hear spoken Irish is on the Aran Islands.

The Aran islands are a string of three islands located at the mouth of Galway Bay in County Galway in western Ireland.  The three islands have gone through an extensive history of renaming and ownership and so some people call them different things (I’ve seen Inishmore spelled Árainn, Inis Mór and Inishmore), but the accepted names for these islands are Inishmore (pronounced in-nish-MORE), Inishmaan (pronounced in-nish-MAHN) and Inisheer (pronounced in-nish-SHEER).  The islands are all VERY small (the largest being just 12 square miles) and the in total only claims 400 permanent residents. 

To get to the islands requires planning.  There are a limited number of beds on the island (only 200, last I heard) with one hotel, one hostel and only a handful of bed and breakfasts.  There are only two ways to get there; either fly (via Aer Arann Islands from Connemara Regional Airport west of Galway City to the airport on Inishmore) or take one of the daily ferries that leave from Ros a’ Mhíl or Doolin and go to the islands (you can buy a shuttle through the same company to Ros a’ Mhíl from Galway City). 

Once there, it is not difficult to hear by Keith Williamson Irish being spoken.  For the easy route, turn on the television in your room.  The main television station broadcast on the islands is in Irish, and trust me, you’ll know it when you hear it. When I arrived on Inishmore, it was lunch time and as such, I headed straight for the pub.  I casually listened as the dozen or so old men around me chatted gleefully in what I will call Engrish (a mix of English and Irish) but most of what they said was in Irish.  The men sat and talked about man things, I presume as an Irish football (and no, that is NOT the same thing as soccer) game played (in Irish) on the television behind them.  The bar I was at was called the American Bar so the walls were littered with posters of JFK, Joe DiMaggio, Mickey Mantle, Marilyn and a wall collaged with police patches from various US cities (which I’ve found is quite a common decoration for “American” bars in Ireland).  But this place was far from American. 

As I sat there listening to the men chat, I couldn’t help but wonder why I never knew that this language exists.  As Americans, we’re pretty obsessed with all things Irish; whether it be the men, the accent, the heavy drinking culture.  We love to associate ourselves with Ireland and most of us find any excuse to say we’re Irish (my sister has reddish hair, so that MUST mean there’s Irish in my blood somewhere, right?). So how does it slip through the cracks that Irish is still a big part of the culture in Ireland?

A bit of Irish to help you feel important around your friends:

Hello – Dia duit (pronounced DI-ah GWIT)
Goodbye - Slán (pronounced SLAHN)
Cheers – Sláinte (pronounced SLAYNT-chee)
Thank You – Go Raibh Maith Agat (pronounced GUH REV MAH ah-GUT)
Fun (used a lot by Engrish speakers, like “what’s up” and may or not be actual Irish, but it’s still good to know) – What’s the craic? (Pronounced CRACK)

For more on the Irish language, check these sites:
Irish Language on Wikipedia
A good beginner's guide to the Irish Language
Beginner's Irish Phrases and Pronounciation

For more on the Aran Islands, check these sites:
The Aran Island Hotel
Aran Islands on Wikipedia
Aran Islands Travel Guide
Aran Islands on Wikitravel
Aran Islands on Google Maps

Dear Gabbey: How do you score SWEET flight deals?

Dear Gabbey, I’m going to New Zealand to snowboard sometime this summer (their winter). I have no idea where to start with finding a flight and would like some help.  Do you have any tips? – Jenny

Jenny, dear - I am Gabbey… of course I have tips. Finding cheap flights can be a daunting task, especially when you’re travelling to locations you are unfamiliar with. I have a certain set of steps I take to find cheap flights and I’ll go ahead and outline them for you now.  There are plenty of other ways to find cheap flights, but this is my method – take it or leave it.

Situation #1: You know where you want to go and (roughly) when

If you don’t know about Kayak, it’s fantastic.  It works whether you are traveling domestically in the US, from US abroad or even between international destinations.  Although the premise of Kayak is simple, finding the cheapest flights on it is not necessarily straight forward. If you already know where you want to go and when, the search process is easy.  Enter in your beginning and ending locations and dates.  I ALWAYS select flexible date search with +-3 days but my travel dates are usually flexible. I do highly recommend this option though. Also check the checkboxes next to “include nearby airports” and if you want, you can customize WHICH nearby airports are shown by clicking the “custom” link on top of each location.I think the “Compare sites” option is annoying, so I uncheck all of those boxes.

At this point, it is a good idea to look at the calendar shown to the right of the search boxes. 

In this case, I had asked for flights leaving the 1st and returning the 8th.  Notice that the flights at the end of this month are much cheaper (by over $200) and since I am flexible, I would rather go later in the month and save a few bucks.  I will change my dates to 7/25 outbound and 8/5 return.

Kayak then chugs and plugs and scours the internet for all things flight goodness. The cheapest flight will pop back up at the top of the list.  Make sure the selected dates hold the cheapest fares for the week.

Feel free to change the filters along the left hand side, but notice that these will usually eliminate the #1 cheapo flight. If the flight you want on is a non-stop, this is likely the cheapest flight out there.  Your journey has ended, congrats.  If your selected flight has connections, there still may be a cheaper option for you yet, or if not, at least you can make the most out of it.

Consider alternate transportation from your layover, or at least stay a couple days!

In the above example, the cheapest flight I found showed one stop on the outbound leg.  If you click the “details” link below the flight information, the details of the flight will be expanded to show where and for how long your layover is.

In this example, the layover is in Brisbane, Australia for 3 hours.  Turns out, I’ve never been to Australia, and the thought of popping into the Brisbane airport for 3 hours when I’ve come all this way, just really sucks. I wanna see a kangaroo.

Extend your layover, Option 1: Ground transportation
Sometimes booking flights to a certain airport are just pricey either because it’s a small airport or only serviced by budget airlines.  Kayak searches SOME budget airlines, but not all.  For example, you will find flights on cheap European airlines like Easyjet, but not Ryanair (though Ryanair is rumored to be joining Kayak in the near future).  You will find budget Jet Blue, but not Southwest. So let’s say you want to travel from Tokyo to Malaga, Spain.  Your cheapest option will be to book on Kayak from Tokyo to London and then to catch a budget European flight from London to Malaga. You should also look into ground transportation like trains and busses or even ferries (which can be great for traveling between locations like England and Ireland, or Spain and Morocco).

So how do you find those cheap budget airline flights when they’re not listed on Kayak? Well it takes a bit of work, but it can be done relatively easy.  I start with wikitravel.org. Wikitravel is a great online encyclopedia of location specific travel knowledge.  What I use wikitravel for more than anything else though, is to find out what airports are near a city and who flies there. Once you find a city on wikitravel, go down to the “Getting In” section and note the airports nearby (usually will be noted which are major hubs vs. budget hubs).  Visit the airport’s sites directly and find a list of airlines flying into that airport.  From there, you can visit the airlines directly and look on their “Where We Fly” or similar to figure out the best ways to get into a city.  Ya, it’s a bit of a hunt, but you said you wanted cheap, not easy.

Extend your layover, Option 2: Stay a couple days
For this example, ground transportation between Brisbane and Auckland is not really feasible (definitely not for cheaper than a flight) but I want to see the town. I redo the search, but this time I set it up as a multi-city with a stop in Brisbane and Auckland.  Los Angeles to Brisbane on 7/25, Brisbane to Auckland on 7/29 and Auckland to Los Angeles on 8/5. This search returns a flight that is $90 more expensive, but $90 and I get to add another country to my vaca? DUH! Now I am satisfied with my flight choices and move on. 

Situation #2: You have no clue where or when you want to go, you just want out

If your travel plans are a bit more vague, a good idea is to start with a couple of different sites.  First (if you’re based in the US), you should check out Airefare Watchdog. This site allows you to put in your home airport and it will send you weekly (or daily, if you’re into that sort of thing) digests of the best destinations based on years of trending data. This site is PERFECT for travelers who are based in a city but like to take spontaneous weekend getaways or don’t necessarily have a specific destination in mind.
Another great site to get used to is LastMinuteTravel.com. Last Minute Travel allows you to search for flights (or even better, packages) to certain locations at the last minute.  Ok, well not LITERALLY at the last minute, but let’s say my travel plans change, and I want to book a ticket to New Zealand tomorrow. 

Yes, that is correct; $1000 for a flight that leaves tomorrow.  Not a bad deal at all.

Finally, we head back to Kayak for their “deals” section which allows you to search for deals from a city to a continent.  I use this feature A LOT. Try searching from LAX to Europe and see what happens.  You’ll often find great packages and deals you wouldn’t find elsewhere.  If nothing else, it gives a place to find inspiration on where you actually want to go.

If you’re not sure what’s a good deal and what’s not, a good site to check out is farecompare.com which allows you to enter in a starting and ending location and will give you a range of typical airline prices grouped by travel month. 

Rookie Mistake – Hidden fees on budget airlines

Don’t look like a n00b. Budget airlines advertise discount fares often times because the LOAD on the hidden fees.  Ryanair is a prime example and the punch line of many-a-joke about hidden airline fees (from fees to use the restroom to seatbelt fees).  But you really need to take that into consideration.  Once when traveling from London to Galway, I found that I could save a day of traveling and pay only slightly more (advertised) to fly rather than boat/train/drive/bus. However, after beginning the booking process (and already having decided on flying rather than the alternative) I paid an extra €5 for them to print my boarding pass out for me (no printer), an extra €15 for a checked bag, then €30 in airport surcharges, an €8 fee to use a Visa credit card and Finally when I arrived at the airport, I found that my oversized bag was liable for an additional £56 in fees! I ended up paying double of ground transport because I was lured in by the cheap adverts.

How to keep blogging once you're #rtwnow

This entry is mostly geared towards a group of people known to me as “those #rtwsoon people.”  #rtwsoon is a “tag” used by twatters on twitter who are preparing for their ‘round the world (RTW) trip and are looking to share and absorb advice from their peers and those already on the road.  Unfortunately, I was already RTW when this hashtag was created, so in an attempt to rebel, I created #rtwnow which hasn’t taken off nearly as much, but hopefully will gain some street cred once more of those #rtwsoon people go on their trips already!

Anyway, being nosey, I listen in on the #rtwsoon conversations even though I’m not in the club, and one of the most recently voiced concerns has been over the frequency and ability to continue blogging and tweeting once you people are on the road. 

I started this whole travel blog thing after I started traveling almost 3 years ago (wow!).  And the transition for me was quite easy.  I didn’t do much preparation, a couple pre-trip posts, a new blog host (moved from LiveJournal.com to Off Exploring – which I mentioned in my post on travel blog platforms a couple days ago) and a promise to my mother that I would post EVERY day while I was gone.  That didn’t seem like a huge promise at the time, as I had been blogging almost daily on my LiveJournal and saw no reason why I couldn’t keep it up.

Enters the Eiffel Tower, Colloseum and crappy internet café bandwidth. Suddenly, I realized how daunting the task was going to be.  But I did it.  For 2.5 months, I backpacked around Europe and I published a blog entry every single day I was there. 

So how did I do it?

Set realistic goals
What are you trying to get out of your blog?  Are you trying to make an income? Are you trying to keep your family informed? Are you trying to keep a good travelogue to scrapbook when you get home? If you are trying to blog, or write, as an income, either solely or in part, you need to take into consideration the expectation of your readers and the devastating blow (ok, maybe a bit dramatic) your site ranking can take with a drop off in content.  Don’t believe me? Take a look at your site visits on average on days when you don’t post a new blog entry. If you’re keeping a blog to keep your friends and family informed, blogging frequently may still be at the top of your list.  My mom generally freaked her pants off if I didn’t write every 26 hours. But some people may be more comfortable posting weekly or even less frequently.  And if your blogging solely for your own personal nostalgia, then this is more of a question of how much detail you want to retain in your posts and how insanely long you prefer your posts to be.

Set aside time every [insert time period] to blog
Once you decide how often you want to post, getting it done is as simple as setting aside time and sticking to it.  I found that it was easiest to blog between 5 and 8 PM.  By that point, you’ve gotten most of your daily sightseeing completed and it’s around dinner time, which means the hostels are not bustling with the “let’s go out!” crowd just yet.  Keep in mind that from the time you start looking for an internet, get paid and signed on, check your e-mail and pump out a blog post, you’re talking at least an hour.  The less frequently you post, the more this time block increases.  For me, if I stuck to my 1 blog post a day, I could crank out the details of the previous night and the day in about 45 minutes.  This didn’t include time to upload pictures (which to me, was a secondary activity).  At this point in my life, blogging was not an priority, purely a travelogue and a way to keep in touch with my family and I had no interest in talking about anything besides what I had experienced in the past day or so.  

Don’t be afraid to change your mind
I do not blog on a daily basis anymore.  Mostly because my travel plans are not nearly as aggressive as they once were.  I used to travel for a couple of days in each city and so I had plenty of content to crank out a blog entry every day.  Now, if I were to do the same, my blog would be plagued with entries that started out “Well, I slept in until noon, walked to the coffee shop, read the newspaper and then worked on my [blog/website/tan/beer gut].” Not so interesting. So my blogging style has changed as my travel style has.  Now I focus more on finding specific things about a city and diving into them.  That takes a bit more planning and a bit more time to write. So I’m lucky if I get a blog entry out every 3 days – and I’m ok with that.

Be prepared
Ok, here comes the Girl Scout in me, but it’s a pretty obvious afterthought that I must throw out there.  Will you spend time out of your day hunting for an internet café or will you only post if you have a laptop? Do you forget people’s names 30 seconds after introduction? I cannot blog without a notebook.  My Moleskin is my best friend and it knows more secrets about me than I even remember.  But it also helps me remember what the hell I did last night after my brain is overloaded from 100 paintings at the Louvre.  I can, however, blog perfectly fine without a computer, and have done it well for years.  I only brought my laptop on this most recent journey so I could work on some graphic design and back home IT consulting while I travel – not for blogging – and I’m finding that it doesn’t impact me much to have it. I’ve actually blogged less in the past 3 months than I have, well, in history.

Basically, know yourself, and know what you’re actually capable of and more importantly, what you actually want to do.  Arm yourself with the correct tools (I prefer to hunt with a shotgun, but you may be a crossbow kinda gal).  Don’t be afraid to change your mind. And don’t push yourself.  A quote I saw once in an article about writing said "Don't ride a bike with the brakes on." If blogging is keeping you from doing what you came to do (i.e. travel) then it’s not worth it.  You must maintain equilibrium in your nomadic lifestyle and your tendency to hole up in front of a computer for several hours a day.

So don’t give me that “it can’t be done” crap. Just set your priorities and get 'er done.

Dear Gabbey: What about cell phones abroad?

"Dear Gabbey, I am about to embark on a multi-country journey and I am confused what I should do about communicating with my friends and family back home.  I want to be able to call home for cheap (or free if possible) but am not sure what the best options are out there for me."

This week’s question comes to us from Bill.  Bill is not a real person. The reason Bill is asking this week’s question as a fictional character is because NO one submitted a question for Dear Gabbey this week (so sad).  So how about you help me out, and submit a question for next week by filling out this form.

So Bill, finding a cheap cell phone plan while you are traveling abroad can be a pain in the you know what.  We get so used to our own country’s dialing system that it is difficult to adjust to not only new country and dialing codes, but also how cell phone plans work in other countries.  This is also a different question to answer considering you are not from the US (Bill is from Iceland) and the answer to this question is somewhat dependent on how cell phone plans work back home.  However, the following is my general advice for anyone traveling in a country not their own.

Option 1: Buy an international plan on your existing phone

Option 1 is not a good option, in my opinion, but I put it out there because some people are rich.  I know, it’s not fair, but it’s true.  So for those of you who are rich, this is your option.  International plans are expensive and can be unreliable as you are assuming the contracts your cell company has worked out with it’s international affiliates will work how it should, which isn’t always the case. As an example, my current iPhone plan in the US would break down like this:

	iPhone (US) through AT&T	iPhone (US + International) through AT&T
450 Anytime Minutes (w/ Rollover)	$31.99	$31.99 plus $1.29/minute (for a one minute call from Ireland to the US) or add $5.99/month and get discounted call rates ($0.99/minute for the same one minute call from Ireland to the US – a good deal if you plan on making more than $20 minutes of phone calls)
iPhone 3GS Data Add-on	$32.00	$32.00 plus $0.0195/KB or approx $0.30/e-mail, $19.50/website visited, $2.93/foursquare check-in. Or $199.99/month for 200 MB of data with standard rates to apply after 200 MB.
Text messages	Included	Incoming included, $0.75/message for outgoing or $9.99 for 100 Intl Outgoing messages

According to a study done by Validas on www.macrumors.com, the average iPhone user uses 273 MB data/month, Blackberry 54 MB/month and 150 MB/month for all other smart phones. That equates to data add ons of $5,323.50 extra for an iPhone, $1053 for BB and $2,925 for all other Smart Phones.  That’s a slippery slope and not something I want to fall into accidentally.  If you are a short term traveler, or are not going to be in one specific area of the world for more than a month, this may be a viable option, but in my opinion, it’s not that great.  When I traveled with my Treo 650 about 2 years ago, I came home from a 2 month stint in Europe with a $350 cell phone bill. Contrastly, I’ve been in Ireland for 2 months and have spent $0 in addition to my normal iPhone plan and have shelled out about $50 for a local Irish cell phone #.

Option 2: Bring a cheapo SIM unlocked phone and use on any GSM network abroad

This, in my opinion is the best option for most users.  Basically how this works is you bring along a cheap SIM enabled (ask your carrier if your phone is SIM – I believe only Sprint and T-Mobile in the US still do not use SIM cards) phone and when you arrive in a specific country, you buy a prepaid SIM card for that country.  For example.  I have a Samsung SGH-J700i slider that I bought for $25.  When I arrive in a country, I walk into the first mobile Carphone warehouse store (one that sells plans on multiple carriers) and I ask for the cheapest pre-paid SIM card.  They will usually let you start out with about $10-20 credit which will get you about  200 text messages or cell phone minutes.  Most of my minutes actually count mobile to mobile (as I’m calling people on my network, O2) and so most of the time you end up getting a lot more than that.

With a SIM unlocked phone, you can switch out your SIM card every time you go to a new country and, although you have to get a new number each time, you can remain relatively free of the traditional contractual charges from your home-based cell plans.  It’s also pre-pay, so there’s no real chance of you going way OVER your allotted usage.  Save all of your phone calls to back home for Skype (a free internet based service that allows you to call other computers for free, or unlimited calls to landlines and cell phones in a certain country for $5/month.

If you have an iPhone, your ability to make even more cheap phone calls increases with a combination of Google Voice and Skype for iPhone.  If you’re interested in learning more about that, take a look at the post I wrote on setting up an iPhone for international usage. HOWEVER, the iPhone (although SIM enabled) is NOT unlocked and can only be unlocked by Jailbreaking it (a process I do not necessarily recommend) so do NOT think you can switch out your iPhone SIM card for a local version.

In Summary

Buy an unlocked SIM enabled cell phone at home (if you don’t already have one) and when you arrive in your first destination, pop into the first Carphone Warehouse you see (or equivalent) and buy a prepaid SIM card. Use this phone for making travel arrangements and contacting any friends you meet locally. Save the long boring phone calls to Aunt Milly back home for Skype.

5 Steps to Use your iPhone Abroad for Less than $7/Month

THIS POST HAS BEEN UPDATED. CLICK HERE TO READ THE UPDATED ARTICLE ON USING YOUR IPHONE ABROAD DATED FEBRUARY 22, 2011.

Like what you see? Click here to subscribe to my blog with all of my travel tips and stories from the road.

by CarbonNYCFor those of us lucky enough to have an iPhone, the thought of leaving our comfy local service contracts and venturing off into the distance can leave us somewhat, confused. Unlike most sim card carrying cell phones, the iPhone makes it downright difficult to switch service providers without signing on to a new contract, breaking existing contracts or jailbreaking our precious pieces of metal.  For me, the thought of jailbreaking my $500 iPhones 3GS left me shuddering in fear, even with my decently techy brain. 

So as I embarked on my first RTW trip accompanied by my new fangled travel companion, I reckoned I should do a bit of research on how and what I would be charged abroad and if there is a way to make the iPhone work for me while I’m abroad, and not the other way around.  I have it set up so that my friends and family can call a LOCAL US number, and reach my iPhone as long as I’m in wifi range.  I also have it set up so that I can call ANY US number for free as long as I am in wifi range. 

The following are my findings.  Please feel free to contribute your opinions or personal findings as I am constantly changing how I use my iPhone and hope that I can learn as much by writing this post as I did from the hours of research I did on Google before I left.  This information applies mostly to American iPhones going abroad, but is not exclusive.  Most of the prices are about American iPhones, but most of the advice can be used no matter what country you call home.

How to make sure you do not get charged the big bucks

If you decide to cancel your iPhone service, your iPhone essentially becomes a glorified iPod Touch.  I, however, am lucky enough to have a fully reimbursed iPhone plan in the states, so I get to keep my number and my “emergency” service.  The first thing you should do is turn off Data Roaming BEFORE you leave your home country.  I make the mistake of not doing this until my plane landed in Tokyo and I paid about $10 for the blunder. This option can be found under Settings -> General -> Network.  On this same page, you should turn the “Enable 3G” to Off.  Also, if you're into saving battery, only enable Wifi and Bluetooth when you are actually using them.  Being off network will save you heeps of battery life as well.

Location Services may be left on, as it uses GPS signal (no data charge) and only loads map data when you are within wifi range. All incoming text messages are free.  Outgoing text messages are either an additional $9.99/month for 100 messages or $0.75 a piece once you’re international.  If you choose to leave your phone option enabled, all calls are charged based on local rates.  If you choose to pay a $5.99/month fee, you can get discounted rates, and these are generally good enough to pay back the $5.99 fee after the first 20 minutes of usage. 

How to pay $0 extra on your regular iPhone bill but make unlimited calls back home

So here is where my plethora of research can practice can actually do you good.  Having an iPhone is all well and good, but with the thousands of applications out there, it can be difficult to figure out how to make the iPhone work the best for you. In addition to turning off the services mentioned above, here are 5 steps to use your iPhone to the best of it's ability while abroad.

Step 1: Setup a Skype account

If you’re not already using Skype, you’re stupid.  Skype is free, it’s painless, and most people are on it these days.  The only real problem with Skype is that you have to be in front of a computer to use it.  Fortunately, our little iPhone friends act as computers and with the Skype application for the iPhone, you can talk on your phone like normal, access your contacts and check your Skype voicemail all from within the Skype application.  Call quality is based on wifi connectivity but is generally pretty good.  And did I mention, free? You can stop here, or you can go on.

Step 2: Subscribe to a Skype Unlimited Country Plan

So maybe you’re family and friends aren’t all on Skype or don’t have awesome Skype applications on their stupid crackberries.  The next step is to buy an unlimited Country Plan on Skype.  This plan is about $5/month for the US and allows you to call ANY US landline or cell phone (and toll-free) for unlimited minutes.  Basically, what that means is that I can use my iPhone through the Skype app to call ANY person I want as long as I’m hooked up to wifi.  Awesome.  Here is another great place to stop, but you can take it even further.

Step 3: Buy a Skype Online Number

Buy a (now discounted because you just bought an Unlimited Country Plan) Online Number for $20/year which gives your friends and family an actual local number they can call and free voicemail on Skype’s service.  For instance.  I pay a once a year $20 for a local Oklahoma number that my mom can call anytime she wants and it goes to my voicemail if I’m not within wifi range or it rings right to my iPhone Skype application if I am.  If I miss her call, I pick up my iPhone and dial right back to her cell phone.  This is a GREAT place to stop if you choose to disconnect your service from AT&T and don’t mind telling all of your friends and family about your NEW number (as it will be the one that shows up when you call them). 

Step 4: Forward existing service to Skype Online #

At this point, if you have your AT&T service still active, just enable Call Forwarding by going to Settings -> Phone -> Call Forwarding and have your iPhone number forward to your Skype Online Number.  I wanted my friends and family to still be able to reach me on my regular AT&T phone number (which is still active because I’m still on a US plan) but I didn’t want to pay international rates.

Step 5: Activate Google Voice

But of course, I took it a step further.  This is where Google Voice comes in (and the trip stops for those of you not from countries where Google Voice is active yet).  I got a Google Voice number (for free) and have my Skype Online Number set up as my forwarding number.  I set up my iPhone AT&T service to forward to my Google Voice number so all phone traffic goes through my Google Voice.  I have been using Google Voice as my work number for a while, so all of my clients and co-workers also call through this number.  All people calling my Google Voice # direct are referred immediately to my work voicemail (they are the only people with this number).  All people calling via forwarded service from my AT&T number are either sent to Google Voicemail, or forwarded to my Skype Online Number if I am on Skype.  The reason I use this is because I like Google’s voicemail system 1000 times better than Skype’s, but it’s not really necessary.  If you're not on Google Voice, but want to me, e-mail me as I have about 10 invites left.

Here is a table of how my iPhone service is setup.  For simplicity sake, I refer to my 10 year old AT&T cell number as my Oklahoma #, my work Google Voice number as my Long Beach # and my Skype Online Number as my Skype #.

	Behavior when I have Skype running on my iPhone within wifi range	Behavior when I am not in wifi range or when Skype is not running
Someone Calls my Oklahoma #	Call is first forwarded to Google Voice, then Skype where I pick it up on my iPhone	Call is forwarded to Google Voice which sends it to my personal voicemail greeting
Someone Calls my Long Beach #	Call is immediately answered by my work voicemail greeting	Nothing
Someone Calls my Skype #	Call rings directly on my iPhone	Call is answered by my Skype personal Voicemai

In Summary

Set up Skype.  Buy an online number with Unlimited One Country Calling for $20/year plus $5/month.

Setup your iPhone to forward calls to your Skype # (or Google Voice #).

As long as you are within wifi range, make unlimited calls back home to anyone you like for as long as you like for less than $7/month.

Thank Jesus for Steve Jobs and for the iPhone - if you're into that sort of thing.

Post a comment below and let me know if you have any tips or tricks!

Dear Gabbey: How do I get a [cool/awesome] site like yours?

This week's question comes to us from Cassie but is a question I get QUITE frequently from other short-term and long-term travelers out there.  It also coincides with the launch of this new website as by launching this site, I got rid of all of the "over-the-counter" blogging tools I was previously using. 

Blogging is a great tool to let people know where you are and by nesthostelsvalenciwhat you're up to when you're traveling.  When I first started blogging, while backpacking Europe in 2007, my blog was the MAIN way that I kept in touch with my family and friends back home.  At one point, I went an entire month without talking to anyone back home except for my blog and e-mail. 

"But I'm not a blogger, and I'm DEFINITELY not as tech savvy (nor as irresistibly good-looking) as you, Abbey"

Well that's alright, humble readers.  Because fortunately for you, there are a plethora of blogging tools out there just BEGGING for you to use them.  Although I have custom built this site using my brain (90%) and a company called SquareSpace (10%), it was not an easy task and I do not recommend it for anyone who is not completely comfortable coding and building their own custom graphics. However, there is still a way to get a cool blog and not fork over $1000's of G's for a pimped out site (like my own).  In addition to paying me to make a site for you, here is a breakdown of my three favorite FREE "over-the-counter" blogging tools for travel blogging.

WordPress.com

WordPress is one of the most popular blogging platforms out there, and it's easy to see why.  WordPress is VERY easy to set up and very easy to work (I'll insert here, as long as you don't want TOO much out of it).  WordPress also allows you to have instant access to a decent amount of built-in "themes" that can then be tweaked to fit your blog's own feel.  The biggest two strengths I see with WordPress are the extensive "widget" or add-on library and the user community.  WordPress is not going anywhere anytime soon.  The content management part of this site will only get better with time and the extensive user community help to answer almost any question out there.  In addition, because it's an open (and free) the user-developed add-on tools are fantastic, and really unrivaled.  You can add maps, polls, graphs, quizzes, about me pages, and much more with just a bit of techy knowledge (like... how to drag something and drop it somewhere else).  I realize not all of us were gifted with such technical ability (like my mother - Hi Mom), but fortunately, most of us were.  Stephanie, over at Twenty-Something Travel has a good example of a simple WordPress blog.  Also here's an article from Matador's Traveler's Notebook on the 20 Great WordPress Themes for Travel Bloggers.

Blogger.com

Blogger is, in my opinion, a more versatile platform than WordPress, but we all know that with more freedom, comes more ability to... well... eff things up.  I ran my blog http://blog.abbeygail.com/ on the Blogger platform for almost 3 years and it suited me very well.  Like WordPress, Blogger is free, easy to set up and easy to use (again... as long as you're not trying to do too much).  Blogger also has an extensive library of free "themes" which can be customized using their built in content management tools.  Blogger also gives you more flexibility if you do know how to tweak a bit of CSS stylesheets and backend html code.  Like WordPress, Blogger also gives you the ability to add custom widgets and has a very large network of users to help with support and idea swapping.  Because Blogger is a Google product, there is the potential for even more networking and development tools than WordPress and the Google Blogger dev team has a blog and a beta version of Blogger (that any one can use) that experiments with even more amounts of techy-ness. One of my favorite travel blogs using blogger can be found at A Travel Around the World.  You can also check out my old travel blog which I hosted on Blogger.

Offexploring.com

I save Off Exploring for last because they are my hands-down favorite pick for blogging platform for most people.  Off Exploring is SPECIFICALLY tailored to travelers.  It allows you to organize your posts by where you are, add photos, a map and videos. It also allows you to create a "Travel Plan" and display that to your readers so they know where you're headed and where you've been.  It's an easy platform, allows unlimited (small size) photo storage and as many blog posts as you like.  I used this as the blogging platform for my 2007 European Backpacking Trip and it NEVER let me down.  It's a simple enough site, so it uploads quickly (even when you're in those crappy hostel internet cafes on dialup) and it's just plain easy.  PLUS (yes, there's a "plus"), at the end of your trip, when you return home, they will even print up your ENTIRE journey, including pictures, posts and maps into a hardback book that you can then keep in print on your lovely coffee table into eternity. Amazing. Go ahead and check out my Travel Blog from 2007/08 - The Adventure Called & I Followed on Off Exploring. They've quoted my approx 140 page book published at about US$60. Not too bad, if you ask me.

The most important thing is to blog frequently and to try and capture what it is about your trip that interests you the most.  Do you want to know exactly what you ate for breakfast every day? Do you want to remember how you felt about that Italian boy you met down the street? Or would you rather just list out all the things you did see and show your pictures for you family to have proof that you're still alive?

What do you think; do you have any other great easy and free blogging platforms that you use?  Feel free to link to your own blogs in the comments section so we can see what your site looks like.