Taking Cell Phones Abroad

When it comes to taking electronic devices like your cell phone, MP3 player, or laptop abroad, we suggest leaving the gadgets at home in order to truly experience Europe. By using call centers and internet cafés located in all major cities, you can contact home cheaply and as often as you feel is necessary. We only suggest taking a cell phone if you are traveling for a long period of time and want to have it with you in case of an emergency, or if you are traveling in a group that plans on splitting up sometimes and want a way to contact each other. However, you will often find that cell phones add unnecessary costs to your trip and eat up money that could be used to pay for hostels or food.

Lisa from Denver, CO, shares her experience about taking a cell phone to Europe:

I really wanted to have a cell phone since I was just going with my one friend and it was both of our first times in Europe. I wasn’t sure what exactly to expect over there, so I wanted to be able to contact my friend. In case we got separated and only had one key to our room (which did happen once), I didn’t want to be stranded (which also happened once). I also wanted a phone in case I ran out of money (which I did) and needed to call my mom to send more (which she did, thankfully).

I ended up meeting a guy in Kilkenny, Ireland, and my friend went home early from the pub. She ended up not answering her phone to let me in. She shut it off - so it ended up not even helping when I actually needed it. I also wasted a ton of money by calling her 10 times trying to wake up her since it charged you a buck every single time you connect to voicemail.

My cell phone company gave me a big rundown on what things will cost, especially with my data plan (internet). I had to turn the data services off manually, and I had to keep my phone off as well because roaming charges were unreal. My phone company also told me I could get a new chip/phone in a European phone store when I got there that could work as a pay-as-you-go phone and plan. I opted not to do that though, mostly because I didn’t want to do all that extra work. I ended up just paying about $100 in extra charges which my mom paid most of as a gift to me because she wanted me to call her a few times to tell her about stuff.

Hunt for Holiday Sales On Backpacking Gear

If you are planning on backpacking in 2010, Christmas is the perfect time to ask for travel gear like your backpack, travel towel, and toiletry case. If you don’t want to crowd your list to Santa with backpacking gear, you should still try to take advantage of the holiday sales both online and in stores. When it comes to outerwear, we decided to do the work for you. Listed below are some of the best online prices available when it comes to packable jackets and fleece that are ready for you to take advantage of.

How To Protect Your Backpack On Trains

A great way to save some money is by sleeping on trains overnight, but it's hard to sleep when you're constantly thinking someone might walk off with your bag. Keeping your bag in the seat next to you so you can monitor it may seem like the best way to keep your backpack safe, but trains are often crowded to the point where every seat is taken.

Securing your bag to the overhead rack is the next best option, but some are too small so the racks near the doors must be used. This makes it convenient for someone to grab your backpack and run just before the train leaves a station unless your backpack is hard to move from the rack. Therefore, the best method to ward off thieves is to lock your backpack to the luggage rack with a simple bike chain.

The best place to sleep is in the six-person cabs that some trains offer which provides slightly more privacy and safety. However, these are not always available or can seem cramped if you are sitting inside one next to a family of four with a screaming baby. See our video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yJ3mLwQ-1DU.

These cabs have a sliding door and luggage racks above booth-style seats where backpacks can be secured. Just be aware of your surroundings and never leave valuables in your backpack! You will always be able to finish your trip as long as your money, passport, and camera are in your pockets... you may be slightly smelly, but you will finish nonetheless.

Find A Place To Crash.... For FREE!

Become a Couch Surfer!!! And we don’t mean by taking your mother’s sofa into the ocean and seeing if it floats; we mean by visiting www.couchsurfing.org to become a member of one of the coolest ways to sleep around the world.

We’ve heard about couch surfing numerous times from travelers across the world, but never been in one place for long enough to try it myself yet. The idea is to become a member of the site and open your home to strangers who want to crash on your couch while taking advantage of this same arrangement all around the world. There are members in over 230 countries so a couch is never far away. For instance, there are 21,574 couches to choose from in Italy and 96 to crash on in Fiji.

We know the concept of inviting strangers into your home or crashing on the couch of someone you have never met might sound a bit weird and even a little creepy, but the Coach Surfer organization works diligently to check every single member out and monitor all surfers to ensure it is all safe and legit. Becoming a member is free, but you can upgrade to a “verified” member for a small donation to the organization ($25), which means couchsurfing.org keeps closer tabs on members since credit card info must be given. You’ll be able to see which members are verified for perhaps a “safer” meeting although it might be hard to find since only 6% of members are verified.

Members are just like every other poor traveler across the globe looking for a free place to stay for the night while getting from one place to the next. The couch surfing philosophy is more about people making friendships and learning local customs than simply sleeping somewhere for free. If you’re still skeptical, check out the web site and read more than 1,600 comments about this worldwide group that introduces about 150 members every hour.

How To Ride The UK Rails

If you plan on spending some time in Great Britain (England, Scotland, and Wales) during your travels, you may want to consider purchasing a young person’s rail card for £26 (currently around $40). This card is valid for anyone who is under 25 or can prove that they are a full-time student. The card is valid for one year and allows you to receive major discounts on all train tickets.

To show how you can save in the UK with a young person’s rail card, I randomly priced two journeys for a week in advance:

London to Liverpool:
Without young person’s rail card – £55.50
With young person’s rail card – £36.65
Total savings: £18.85

London to Edinburgh:
Without young person’s rail card - £42.70
With young person’s rail card - £28.20
Total savings: £14.50

As you can see, if you are taking frequent train trips around the UK, you can save some pounds by purchasing the young person’s rail card after the cost of the card is factored in.

When you purchase train tickets online, you do not have to have purchased your young person’s rail card yet. You just need to show the rail card to the conductor who checks your ticket. When you purchase train tickets online, simply make sure you are buying reduced tickets with the ‘RAIL CARD’ option selected.

While you can purchase your young person’s rail card online or at the train station during your first travel, remember that train tickets are cheaper when purchased in advance. When purchasing your card from the station, make sure you have your passport and a passport-style photo.

To check out all young person’s rail card information, visit:
http://www.16-25railcard.co.uk/

To view train times and prices and to buy tickets, visit: www.nationalexpress.com

How To Rent Bikes In Europe

Bikes are a fun, fast, and affordable way to get around towns. After making this video, we looked up prices from other bike rental companies from many cities and the average price per day is close to about $8-$12. A great add-on to the bike is a saddle bag (if the shop offers it) which will likely be about and extra dollar or two. These bags are great for storing plenty of water which you will need when traveling long distances.

Paris Hostels

Since Paris is one of the most expensive places to visit, you can save some Euros by staying outside the main part of the city. We recently stayed at St. Christopher’s Hostel, which was located near a Metro (subway) station and took around 45 minutes to one hour to walk to the city center. To save money and time when staying at hostels located on the outskirts in cities like Paris and London that have subway systems, we recommend doing one of two things. You can either take the subway to the furthest point in the city you want to see that day and sightsee your way back to the hostel, or walk into the city and take the subway back to your hostel once you have reached the furthest point you want to see.












There is a hostel in Paris that we’d like to recommend to anyone going to the City of Love. St. Christopher’s is a new and fun hostel in the northeastern side of Paris within easy walking distance of two main train stations and two metro (subway) stops. This is one of the safest and cleanest hostels with the largest rooms we’ve ever seen.

In most other dorm-style rooms, you’re bumping elbows with a dozen others and pushing their drying towels off your bunk just to get in bed. The rooms at St. Christopher’s have beds with curtains that close across the front for a darkened afternoon nap or a night of uninterrupted slumber. Each bed also comes equipped with two plugs for battery charging (this is unheard of as most hostels usually have one per room while others require you to use plugs behind the reception desk) and a light for late-night reading or journaling when you don’t want to annoy others.

The bunks also have massive lockers that slide out underneath the beds; while each person gets one, they are large enough to fit three backpacks. Just remember to bring a lock and try not to disturb others when you open and close your locker in extremely early or late hours, as the loud creaking noise they make isn’t going to win you any fans from sleeping roommates.

The hostel also boasts plenty of features outside the room, including an all-you-can-eat (or carry away with you) breakfast consisting of bread, cereal, coffee, tea, and juice. You can also take advantage of a bar with drink specials, internet café, “chill out room”, sauna, and plenty of flat-screens featuring ESPN playing the latest NFL and MLB games.

There are, of course, some downsides to these new, hotel-like hostels. The main downfall is a huge lack of character. We enjoy staying at “mom and pop”-style hostels where you’re basically renting a spare room and you get to see how locals live and become surrounded by the culture, language, smells, and food of the region. We didn’t come in contact with one French person during our three-night stay at St. Christopher’s, which made it hard for the non-native employees to recommend places off the beaten tourist path.

This hostel is a chain with a few others in London, Paris, Edinburgh, Amsterdam, Berlin, Bruges, Brighton, Bath and Newquay. If you stay at one of these hostels, you will receive a 10% discount if you book your next hostel through the reception desk. We’ve never visited any of the St. Christopher’s other than the one in Paris so we can’t really recommend them although we assume the setup would be similar.

St. Christopher’s in Paris is an hour walk to the central area of town near Notre Dame and the Louvre, which isn’t a bad free walk if you want to save 1.60 Euro on the metro that gives you a glimpse of Parisian life outside the tourist areas. We recommend walking around all day and taking the metro home in the evening once your legs have packed it in. Enjoy Paris and remember… red wine helps you sleep on trains… and in hostels.

Our Latest Backpacking Adventure

Our visit to the Lake District and Nottinghamshire in England followed by Tours and Paris in France was a great adventure with 16 straight days of sun. The journey included getting a Robin Hood-style bullseye in the Sherwood Forest, driving along crazy, windy roads, accidentally buying sausage made of stomach but making up for it by making delicious crepes, walking for miles to save money on subway fares, running into pushy Japanese tourists at Versailles, and drinking plenty of cheap red wine. While away, we recorded a video about renting bikes and camping and hiking in the Lake District as well as more shots of hostels and miscellaneous tips along the way. We'll do my best to get these together as soon as possible for everyone.

The photos below are of the Louvre and Eiffel Tower in Paris followed a view of a valley and our campsite in the Lake District.