As the summer months approached not too long ago, people board planes to get away from it all. We take our family and friends with us on all sorts of trips. Following that logic, we have to bring along the iPhone, of course.

As we will see, a high-technological device like the iPhone can turn out to be quite a handy tool on the road.

First we’ll look at special settings that any reasonable traveler should activate while being abroad. Then we’ll extend our iPhone’s functionality with several apps off the App Store. 

Let’s Agree That Roaming Is Expensive

“How to avoid ‘Substantial Roaming Charges’”, you ask?  In order to avoid big surprises on your next wireless carrier invoice, we want to disable the Internet. So that we don’t accidentally download stuff off the internet getting charged three or four times the amount we would pay at home. If in- and outgoing roaming on calls is expensive, then data roaming is unaffordable. Exorbitant would be the word of it I guess: A 3,000 USD data roaming horror story.

• Go to Settings > Network > Disable Data Roaming. It is turned off by default, but make sure this is unchecked.
• Close off Settings > Mail, Contacts, Calendar >Fetch New Data by setting it to Manually. If you have Push accounts, turn Push off as well.

As Apple agrees with me: “to avoid substantial roaming charges”… Your carrier may offer data plans for roaming abroad, so check with your network first. While you’re at it, consider disabling your voicemail during your visit. If someone leaves a message, you will have to pay for it. It adds up on your monthly bill, just like that.

Here’s a tip for the super careful: Get all the apps that require some sort of internet connection onto the second page or slide of your home screen. No accidental tapping.

You see, your carrier, as nice as they are, will charge an arm and a leg for all sorts of  activities during your trip.

Before Take Off, Check WiFi Availability

Check your hotel, the airport or where you have the nearest Starbucks (Just checked online and saw it was 4 bucks for 2 hrs in the US) . What we’re looking out for is free WiFi throughout your trip. Just so you can send home some emails with stunning pictures that will have everyone go green of envy. Throughout the post, we’ll see that a free Wifi Spot, will help save money.

• There’s even an App for that: Wi-Fi Finder. Please note that it needs to download data from somewhere. So roaming charges will apply.

Keep Track Of Your Usage (Setting)

Reset your Usage meters on your iPhone, so you can control how much data you’ve loaded, minutes of calls you made and texts you wrote. Gives you an overview of what kind of bill awaits you at home.

• Go to Settings > General > Usage. Tap Reset.

Running Low On Batteries (Setting)

That’s the last thing we want. It may seem obvious, but bring your iPhone charger and an adequate adapter. That way you can at least assure that an empty battery can actually get recharged. To save precious battery life on your trip, I suggest disabling everything you don’t need immediately. Plan on using your iPhone as iPod and the offline functions only without any kind of service? Go for the most radical setting:

• Turn on Airplane mode, to switch off all signals.

Making Calls From Abroad (Setting, US only)

I personally store all telephone numbers with the international prefix “+ Countrycode”. There’s an international call assistant that can come in handy if you didn’t store your contacts’ details the way I did. Please mind this is available for US telephone numbers only.

Tap Settings > Phone > International Assist and turn it on.

Below you will find cheaper alternatives than – say my example – EUR 1.99 calls home from the States to an Austrian landline.

Digital Travel Guides (App)

While I prefer a travel guide printed on paper sold as a book, there are various offline Travel guides for cities around the world varying in quality. Lonely Planet has covered some cities so far. Tripwolf uses the power of the Web 2.0. and allows to download travel guides avoiding nasty roaming charges.

I’m considering getting the New York City Lonely Planet version, since I only got the smaller, thinner New York Encounter. The offline guide books cost about EUR 13. I read online that there were minor troubles with getting the right location off the GPS signal with the Data Roaming set to off, but this issue is to be resolved quickly.

Also this is a work around this nasty fact: The Maps app that comes with the iPhone cannot download street maps and store them for later offline viewing. Lonely Planet has street maps, as far as I know.

Update: “OffMaps let’s you take your maps offline. [...] access maps when travelling abroad (and avoid data roaming charges) [...] fast access to maps at all times.” Currently on sale in the App Store for USD 1.99 or EUR 1.59. For that you get quite a powerful tool: Download at home, set bookmarks, GPS location spotting and more. See this demo video.

Pack Up & To Dos Before Take Off

I love drafting up to do lists for things to pack up before going on a trip. Use this little app called To Do Lists 2. It feels very Applesque and is quite a nice To Do list app. USD 0.99 or EUR 0.79.

Get Tips Done Properly (App)

Spare yourself the time and fuss created by calculating the right amount of tip for your waiter. Set the amount of money spent on food, add a certain percentage and – if necessary – split the bill. This is a real time saver. And it’s pretty. Feels really smooth and does its job very satisfactory. See my entry for Tips in the US.

Get my favorite app for this simple task called Tipulator. USD 1.99 or EUR 1.59.

Convert Into Your Currency (App)

Can you afford the heaps of money your spending? Convert the amount into a currency you are familiar with. Doing the maths in a foreign currency can be tricky. Don’t know about you, but I don’t like rough calculations on my credit card balances. Find Currency app in the App Store. For free. With advertisements on the bottom.

Update (August 09): Instead of upgrading the Currency app, I opted for the Measures app. A much nicer and more comprehensive app that lets you convert you all kinds of things (length, speed, currency, weight etc.) – USD 0.99 or EUR 0.79.

Know Your Balance (App)

Every time you spend some money on that Golden Visa or Mastercard of yours, add the amount spent on a list in the Notes app that comes with the iPhone. Or go for the fancy Balance app (free) where you can set an opening deposit and it automatically corrects the balance once you spend money. Password protected, of course. Simple cash budget app.

Free Calls Home With Skype (App)

With Skype on your iPhone and a free Wifi spots – remember, I promised some reward for Wifi spot research in advance – you can make free calls to any other Skype user. Before you leave, set up Skype on your (grand) parents computer, so you can easily stay in tough. With Skype Credit you can place cheaper international calls.

• Find the Skype App for your iPhone in the App Store.
• Download it on your computer and install it. The Skype pages are really helpful, even if you have never heard of Skype. Unlikely, I know.
• Plan on making international calls to landline or cellphones? Get Skype Credit.

Send Your Own Postcard (App, US service only)

If you want to send your own postcard with your individual text, image and note, get the GoPostal app. On their website you will find more information on how this works.

As of now, you can submit cards from anywhere in the world. However, mailing the cards is only available within the United States.

Document Your Trip

With a free and very sleek service like Tumblr, documenting your trip is really easy. Via Wifi (we sure like it to be free) we can upload all sorts of content like pictures, OHs (overheards – they seem to be very funny in foreign countries), videos. Everybody loves a travel blog.

For you this archive is material for later spacing out in the office, for your friends at home a way to check up on your latest travel activities.

• Before downloading the app from the App Store (free), sign up for a free account on tumblr.com

Other App Candy

I don’t necessarily believe it’s essential to bring along these little apps on your iPhone, but maybe you can think of a use that will be able to enrich your days away:

While I don’t believe I will ever seriously use my iPhone camera for panoramas, I’ll still have a look at the Pano App. For USD 2.99.

Remember your Room number. Most hotels use those magnetic swipe cards. I always remember room numbers and that kind of stuff. Our hotel room during our stay in Rome back in 2006? 702. See? Won’t need that one, even though it’s free.

Get around the city with public transport. Get the AllSubway App (for USD 1.99 or EUR 1.59) to check subway maps on the go. No internet required.

For security reasons you might want to lock your iPhone. To do that set up a Passcode Lock in the General settings.

What kind of technology do you bring along on trips? What app do you love most in terms of traveling functionality? Any other recommendations?

Other resources

• iPhone Travel Apps Guide by the New York Times
• Travel Apps recommendations by Apple