But you’ve probably heard the horror stories of arriving home to a thousand-dollar cell phone bill littered with roaming charges. Fortunately, you have some options to make use of your iPhone’s capabilities outside of the United States.

While this topic has been covered before, most approaches are far too conservative. You don’t want to spend your entire vacation with your iPhone locked down in airplane mode, or constantly toggling Data Roaming on and off — nor do you need to. That defeats the entire purpose of a smartphone and prevents you from enhancing your trip with the iPhone’s many tools.

Note that this post is specific to American AT&T users, but the fundamental principles still apply to other smartphones on other carriers. It is also a bit Europe-centric — I’m just sticking to what I have experience with.

I also assume that you’re familiar with what a SIM card is, as well as the difference between voice and data where cellular networks are concerned.

An Offline Frame of Mind

When your iPhone is in its most helpful state, it’s probably consuming a lot of data, which unfortunately is your primary concern when it comes to roaming charges. So the first order of business is to concentrate on orienting yourself to being less network-reliant. This isn’t as daunting as it may seem.

An important note to consider is that native apps tend to consume far less data than web browsing. For example, it uses a trivial amount of data (tens of kilobytes) to complete a simple FourSquare check in, so have a ball boasting about all the exotic locations you’re visiting. (Just be safe and don’t overshare.) And while Google Translate‘s mobile interface is slim, consider an app such as iTranslate which will only transfer the actual text you’re translating.

If you must perform a simple Google search away from wifi, hit the mobile link for a stripped down (read: image-lite and less data gobbling) version of the site.

A Few ‘Offline’ Tips

• Wifi
  This seems a bit obvious, but try to book hotels with free wifi. Assuming your travel is for leisure, you’ll probably want to enjoy your day and save the web browsing, RSS feeds, and Facebook for when you’re unwinding in your room at the end of a long day.

  Save your cellular data for the situations that are truly helpful while on foot — finding out where you are, checking for nearby points of interest, and verifying other time sensitive information.You can also use a service such as JiWire and their Wi-Fi Finder app to find and download a map of wifi locations in your city.

• Maps
  Perhaps the killer app of the iPhone when it comes to travel is its mapping capabilities and location awareness. Maps, however, are extremely data-intensive, so you’ll want to have them preloaded on your device.
  • OffMaps (99 cents) is an excellent app which allows you to freely download maps. On the ground, it will utilize the phone’s (free, non-data-consuming) GPS abilities to display your position on the map. (It can, of course, stream maps on-the-fly if you have a generous data plan.) It typically locates you within a second or two; it’s much faster than the GPS devices of the past.Before you leave home, use the maps to download the maps at several zoom levels for the destinations you will be at. A typical city may take a couple hundred megabytes at the most detailed zoom level, so be sure to use Wifi. You might also consider their useful but less-than-polished city guides which highlight sights, hotels, restaurants, and other travel-related points of interest collated from WikiTravel.org and other free sources (in-app purchase; first one’s free, then 99 cents for three or $9 for unlimited).
  • Navigation apps (various products and prices, usually $40-$100) are available for many worldwide locations if you intend to do some driving. Just make sure you choose the right region, and that the maps are included in the download for offline access.
• Guides
  Search the App Store for the name of your destination city or country and you’ll find a range of guides, from basic “WikiTravel in a nice package” apps to sleek but more costly Lonely Planet guides. Also consider using a service like Instapaper to collect articles and download them to your phone using the Instapaper app. As a last resort, paste the text into an email or the Notes app.Or you could just lug around a dead-tree guidebook, which has its benefits.
• Toggle Cellular Data
  

  An easy way to ensure no data will be sent over your cellular connection, while still maintaining the ability to make and receive phone calls and use the phone’s location awareness, is to turn off cellular data in Settings.

  That’s it. There is no need to turn on airplane mode to avoid data usage. Note that you do not need to explicitly turn off data roaming when toggling this setting.

  If you’re confident that you’ve turned off all background processes (fetching mail, etc) then you can just leave cellular data flipped on to avoid the hassle of constantly toggling it. I recommend testing this at least once: make note of your current data usage (e.g., dial #3282* if you’re on AT&T’s plan described below), leave the phone idle for an hour or two, then check your data usage again and make sure it hasn’t gone up. If it has, you’ve still got something running in the background.

Getting Connected

You have three basic choices when it comes to connecting to a cellular network abroad. The first is the cheapest but requires a bit of research and a little leg work at your destination, while the other two are more expensive but just plain work with no hassle.

1. Foreign SIM Card
   This is the cheapest option which gives you the most flexibility, and depending on the country, even the possibility of having so much data at your disposal you won’t even need to monitor your usage. Unfortunately, it requires jailbreaking and unlocking your device. This has its own implications; I’ll leave it up to the reader to decide whether this is a path worth taking, and to figure out how to do it (the process and ability depends on your device and OS version, not to mention your tech savviness).If you do unlock your phone, you will be free to use any SIM you can find. You will quite likely want to use a contract-free prepaid SIM which will allow you to just pay for what you use and can usually be found all over, from airports to convenience stores to specialty phone shops. These options are country-specific, so if you’re traveling to three or more countries you’ll want to look into “global SIM” cards such as Telestial or GO-SIM.

   Start by perusing the Pay As You Go SIM Wiki and PrepaidGSM.net which includes a roundup of the options for each country, listing the data and voice rates. It may seem a little daunting at first, so concentrate on the data rate and assume you’ll use Skype for voice calls. Note that the main legacy carriers, such as Vodafone, O2, Orange, and T-Com — the rough European equivalents to AT&T, Verizon, et al — are ubiquitous and feel ‘safe’, but there also exists a culture of “virtual operators” who utilize the big companies’ networks but offer lower rates. Often these VOs (or sometimes MVNOs) will specialize in some ‘angle’ that may not work for everyone, such as cheap data subsidized by more expensive voice calls — which is actually just what you want. (Think of low cost airlines like RyanAir which offer cutthroat prices based on limited services and alternate airports — it’s not entirely mainstream-friendly but it may just suit your needs.)

   Take a moment to peruse the site’s forums for tips on your country and read about people’s experiences, taking into consideration how recent the posts are.Once you’ve narrowed your options down to three or four networks, head over to other travel forums such as FlyerTalk or Lonely Planet’s Thorn Tree and search for the network’s name to see what people have to say.

   Finally, write down three or four operators (on paper or digitally), as well as how/where to buy them, to bring with you on your trip. You can’t be sure exactly which SIMs you’ll actually be able to find, so it’s good to have a backup. You may get a different story from the shop clerk who says you can’t actually use the SIM as you’d expect, or they may be difficult to find in stock. A piece of paper also provides a convenient tool to hand to a non-English speaking clerk (unless you know the Dutch/Hungarian/Romanian/Turkish phrase for “I need a prepaid SIM card for my unlocked phone with a good data rate” and can interpret his or her possibly jargon-laden response).

   Note that the availability of SIMs can vary in both senses of that word. For example, in the UK, SIM cards are practically given away — you can throw a stone in any direction and, after bouncing off a kebab joint, it will land in front of a shop selling £10 SIMs that come with £10 of credit (meaning the SIM is free assuming you use all the credit). Often these can be bought anonymously with cash. In the middle are countries like Spain and Germany which may require a passport and/or in-country address (the standard practice is to use your hotel’s address) to purchase a card. Then there are countries like Turkey, where the security theatre had ascended to the point where the SIM card vendor must verify your national tax ID (similar to an American social security number in both function and sensitivity) and register it with your SIM before it’s activated, meaning a foreigner is basically out of luck unless they have a good friend or family member willing to buy one for them.

2. AT&T’s International Data Package
   This option is as simple as it gets — just log in to your account on AT&T’s website and add an international data package to your account. Once you’re overseas, you’ll just use your iPhone like you would at home and it will work seamlessly.The catch? It’s not exactly cheap. You can choose from a paltry 20MB for $25, 50MB for $60, or even 100MB for a whopping $120. That’s not much data for a pretty hefty chunk of change. Figure that you’ll use about 50MB a month, or 12-15MB per week, if you’re careful about your usage and stick with the tips discussed above. You don’t want to go over — overage fees are an almost comical $5 per megabyte (though mercifully charged by the kilobyte should you go just a hair over).

   There’s one other point to consider which may or may not work out in your favor. The international data package takes affect immediately and is prorated, which may or may not align with your billing cycle and trip. Consider how the 50MB plan would pan out over the following example:In this example, notice how inconveniently the amount of data aligns with the actual trip. The first fifteen days, representing a sizable bulk of the trip, only gets 25MB, while the last 5 days have 50MB at their disposal. (True, you will still end up paying for the amount of data you actually use, but remember the overage fees compared to the normal price per MB, not to mention the convenience of having a lot of data available should you unexpectedly encounter a day or two of unavoidable high usage.)

   Here’s how it works, and why part of the trip only has 25MB available. The billing date here is the 22nd of the month, and the data plan began on the same day as the trip, the 7th. Since that’s only half of the billing cycle, you only get half of the data. When your next billing cycle begins, you’ll be reset back to the full 50MB. In this case, you’d be better off signing up on the 22nd of the previous month (June, in the above example) so that you have the whole 50MB available during your two-week trip. I’ve read that you can have this adjusted (so that the data charge aligns with the date of your trip instead of your billing cycle) by calling AT&T; I recommend talking to them first if your dates aren’t aligning in your favor.

3. Legit iPhone SIM providers
   These aren’t any cheaper per megabyte than AT&T’s plan, and they’re not as dead simple, but they give you a few more options: Mobility Pass,

Conclusion

If you’re comfortable with jailbreaking and unlocking your phone, and the country to which you’re traveling has SIMs available, then a 3rd party SIM is easily the cheapest and most flexible option.

If you don’t want to (or can’t) jailbreak or your country is on SIM lockdown, AT&T provides an easy-as-pie option at a cost.

Either way, you’ll need to follow good data usage practices to keep your usage at more of a minimum than you’re used to. Also be sure you’ve got all the apps you need and prepare them before leaving home.

Above all else, don’t forget to leave the iPhone in your pocket most of the time and enjoy your vacation!

15 days
1 turban
74 GB of photos and video (RAW and HD)
30 calls to prayer
4 flavors of homemade jam at each breakfast
2 overnight buses
$0.65 price for 1.5L bottle of water
2 shirts worn
102 deg F highest temperature
4 boxes of Turkish Delight
11 hour flight each way
1 other American (aside from concert)
1 shot of rakı
2 Wonders of the World
(?) miles covered by GPS

Too many to count:

Cups of tea
Headscarves
Minarets
Carpet shops
Bottles of water
Kebaps

Most women were covered from neck to wrist to ankle. Younger, trendier women wore Western-style fashions but with a skin-tight covering underneath. Often the covering was black while the clothes, especially tank tops and skirts, were brightly colored. Oddly enough this contrast drew as much attention as a Westerner without the under- cover. These women did not mind showing off their figure.

A ludicrous but common sight was a black-burka’d woman accompanying a man wearing a polo shirt and capris. By contrast it made the men look half-naked at first glance. The heat must’ve been unbearable for the women but I never saw anyone fanning themself or showing any signs of discomfort (though of course the men did). Overall the burkas reflected not on the culture or the women, but on the men accompanying them. I would look at them and my mind would spit ‘Prick!’ in disgust.

Headscarves were a lot less common outside of Istanbul, and nearly non- existent in Çıralı. None of the many women working at Hotel Canada wore one.

The short version

1. Take either Amtrak or Megabus to Penn Station
2. Hop on the Long Island Railroad to the Jamaica stop
3. Transfer to AirTrain which loops around JFK

Reverse these directions to get back.

The long version

Getting to Penn Station

There are two major options. Amtrak is relatively reliable (not as much as, say, French or Japanese trains) and runs many times during the day. It’s easy to switch trains at no cost if you missed yours or want to take an earlier trip; just ask at the booth. You can book online and print your tickets at a kiosk at the station, and cancel a reservation without penalty a couple days in advance. Amtrak is my personal preference.

Megabus is famous for their $1 fares if you book in advance. The fares slowly rise as the departure looms closer, but it’s still cheaper than Amtrak. Since they only seem to run on some days of the week I haven’t taken them yet, but I’ve heard they’re comfy and offer free (but spotty) wifi along the way, a nice bonus. The downside is that, being buses, they’re subject to traffic and you should probably pad your travel time to 3:00 or 3:30 instead of the stated 2:30 or 2:45.

Both Amtrak and Megabus depart from the Albany-Rensselaer station (Megabus is in one of the parking lots north of the station). Amtrak drops you off right inside Penn Station on a lower level, which Megabus drops you off in the street alongside Penn, so you’ll have to walk inside the station to continue from here.

Update: for more options, plus a breakdown of the costs, see this excellent roundup from AllOverAlbany.

Getting to JFK International

Get off the Amtrak train and go up the stairs with everyone else into Penn Station. Follow the signs (or ask someone in uniform) to the Long Island Railroad (LIRR). Buy a LIRR ticket at a kiosk ($5 for off-peak times, $7 during rush hour) and get on the train to the Jamaica stop. A conductor will punch your ticket while the train is moving.

Get off at Jamaica and follow the signs to AirTrain. Buy another $5 ticket (a Metrocard) just before the turnstiles and hop on the train to do a loop around JFK, stopping at each terminal.

Reverse these directions to get back to Penn. In both directions there are plenty of signs to guide you in the proper direction.

Logistics and alternatives

I allocate one hour for this venture, but it’s never taken me more than 45 minutes. The LIRR is a commuter train, not a subway, so the seats all face forward/backward (not sideways, into the train) and have small luggage racks overhead. You wouldn’t have too much trouble with a large rolling suitcase, but then again why not pack light?

The alternatives are a cab (flat rate of ~$50, takes a bit longer, depends on traffic) or the subway ($2 but a couple hours long and I wouldn’t want to haul luggage on it). And of course there’s  the fastest way, by helicopter, but it’s $169 and takes off down near Wall Street.

Overview
We flew on United Airlines, coach class:

• Albany [ALB] > Washington (Dulles) [IAD] (322 miles, 1hr 35mn, seats assigned at booking)

• Washington > Paris (Charles de Gaulle/Roissy) [CDG] (3845 miles, 7hr 20mn, seats assigned at booking)

Arrived early on the morning of the 14th

• Paris > Chicago (O’Hare) [ORD] (4142 miles, 9hr 40mn, seats assigned upon check-in)

• Chicago > Albany (715, 2hr 6mn, seats assigned at booking)

Arrived around 9pm the evening of the 18th

€1 = $1.33, or $1.50 in tourist areas

Albany Airport
The check-in was done by an automated touchscreen. I had to insert a major credit card to verify who I was and it automatically brought up my itinerary. Despite this, I still had to enter all of my info, including passport number, name, address, birthdate, etc. The interface was slow and you could not go back; I misspelled my middle name and had to start the entire process over again. This took way too long and seemed unreasonable as the computer clearly had all the information for my entire trip before I arrived. We got our boarding passes (for both flights) printed on cheap flimsy receipt paper. We checked one bag and each had a carry-on. We immediately moved to the metal detector/x-ray area. I had to show my passport first. People wearing non-sneakers had to take them off, and all items (coats, etc) passed through the x-ray. After this short venture we were free to peruse all of the shops/restaurants of the airport (even a meditation room) while waiting for the plane.

Flight to Dulles
We boarded an Embraer RJ145. The jet was tiny; only three seats wide with a very narrow aisle. Leg and elbow room was almost non-existant. People with full-size carry-on bags (such as mine) had to have them checked into the cargo of the plane to be picked up on arrival in Dulles. The flight was outsourced to a small regional company called Chautauqua. There was only one captain and one flight attendant, and I found them to be both very unprofessional and unconfident. I didn’t feel like they had a control on the situation, which was a loaded plane of cramped people and not enough room for baggage. They were having trouble getting the plane weight properly, so some of the checked carry-ons had to be put inside the cabin. The flight attendant threatened to kick people off the plane if we didn’t make room in the overhead bins. My bag was one of the ones to come into the cabin, so upon arrival I had to wait for the plane to empty before I could go look for it. No galley and therefore no drinks or snacks. The flight was uneventful, though the seatbelt sign was only off for about five minutes. Never use Chautauqua again.

Dulles
No additional security was required. We just walked to our new gate to wait for the next flight; it was pretty close and didn’t require a shuttle. Our checked bag was automatically routed to Paris. We had access to a lot of shops/restaurants. Boarding time was 45 minutes prior to scheduled take off.

Flight to CDG
Boeing 777, 9 seats across (2-5-2). There were monitors on the back of each headrest showing movies controlled by the crew (they paused it to make announcements, but we had no control other than volume and channel). There were 5-6 movies, each in English and French, as well as a couple TV stations. There was also a map ‘channel’ that cycled through altitude/time and a map in English and French and English and metric units. Headphones, pillow, and blanket were given, though the headphones were collected at the end. Armrests could not be pushed all the way up. The crew was very confident and professional, which put me at ease. Acceptable leg room, tolerable elbow room. Dinner was beef and tomato sauce with potatoes and peas. Drink selection was excellent and unlimited, alcohol was $5/€4 each. Breakfast was decently sized.

Charles de Gaulle
We were immediately sent to the baggage claim area. I called the shuttle while Kim waited for her bag. We then passed quickly through customs, getting our passports stamped and handing in an immigration card that we filled out on the plane. No intimidating questions like in 2000. No xrays or metal detectors. It took us some time to find the right gate for our shuttle because of the various levels of the building. We shared the minivan with another group of 4. Our Senegalese driver spoke good English as he darted cooly from lane to lane in the dense traffic. We got to our hotel in about an hour, being the last to get dropped off.

Gare du Nord and Chantilly
The metro dumped us directly into the station. Exchange rates were high. We went to an English-speaking counter and she very helpfully gave us a train schedule and left the return time unspecified. Tickets were €10 round trip. Our train left within 10 minutes and took about 25 minutes to get to Chantilly. It was smooth and there were only a couple people on each car. At the station in Chantilly there was a free bus to take us to the Chateau. On the way back it didn’t go to the station, and the driver had a hard time expressing this to us (most people in town didn’t speak much English). We had to get out and walk the last half-mile or so.

Metro
The metro is safe even up until closing time (12:30-1am). The longest wait time was 5 minutes at 6:45am; otherwise it was always under one minute. Much cleaner trains and less-sketchy people than in 2000. People openly carried shopping bags and iPods at all times without much concern. The recent addition of line numbers helped immensely.

Charles de Gaulle
We had another fast and daring (but calm and smooth) shuttle driver who got us to the airport in under an hour despite picking up another person. The line was pretty short to have our bag checked and to obtain our boarding passes for both return flights (real cardboard tickets this time). We walked through the shopping areas and eateries. The xrays and metal detectors were specific to our flights, right next to the gate. Once we passed through there was no more access to food or shopping. Boarding time was 40 minutes before departure.

Flight to O’Hare
Boeing 767-300, seating 2-3-2. We were in “Economy Plus” or something, and the leg room was excellent. Same monitors, pillow/blanket, headphones, etc. as flight to CDG. Different movie selection, but still accessed and controlled in the same manner. Armrests could not be pushed all the way up. We got two snacks (beginning and end) and lunch. It was a surprisingly comfortable flight with a professional crew. Landed in about 8 hours.

O’Hare
The first thing we did was walk what seemed like a mile. We had to pick up our checked luggage and re-check it. The line for U.S. citizens/residents wasn’t long, but it was for non-citizens. We had our passports stamped and handed in a statement to customs that was given out during the flight. We had to take a shuttle to another building to get to our next flight. There we and our carry-ons were rescanned. We were then free to peruse a very large shopping and eatery area, all accessible from our gate.

Flight to Albany
Boeing 737-300, seated 3-3. Two flight attendants; drinks and small snack. Headphones were left in the pouch and each middle seat had an old-looking phone that required a credit card to use. One of the audio channels was the transmission between the captain and the ground, which was available from taxi to taxi. Armrests completely disappeared between the seats; tolerable leg and elbow room. Nice view of the Illinois/Lake Michigan line soon after takeoff. Uneventful flight; landed 20-30 minutes early.