Phones and SIM cards while traveling

I generally don’t like to use my personal phone when traveling to foreign countries.  Although I am very careful (and have never lost a phone), if I somehow lost it or it was stolen or severely damaged somehow, I would be extremely unhappy and feel a deep sense of loss without it.  So I have a dedicated travel phone, which I highly recommend.  If it’s stolen or lost, its no big deal because I only pay around $100 for them.  I’m on my second of this one on the left.

It’s a basic phone but fine for when I’m traveling. It’s small and light, has pretty good battery length, and can hold all my travel apps as well as the daily-use apps I’d use when traveling (Google, Amazon, Facebook, Netflix, etc).    It also can use 2 SIM cards, so, for example, when I was in Thailand and went to Cambodia for 3 days I could just leave both sims in there so I  didn’t have to set anything up when I went back. This is very convenient for multi-country trips.

By utilizing this travel phone, I don’t run the risk of messing up anything on my phone with a foreign country’s SIM.  Nor do I have to have all the maps and translation apps for travel taking up space on my daily-use phone.

The first thing I do in most countries is set up my phone as it is my link to my hotel/hostel, and my touring options.  At nearly all airports there are now SIM card vendors inside or directly outside, so you can quickly get connected.  In many countries, short term plans are very much cheaper than they are in the US (or even work in multiple countries, which can be a very helpful upgrade).

One big note I always want to point out: If you are going to China, you’ll need a VPN.  More on that here.