All You Need...

All you need to travel the world is a smart phone, a passport and a debit card. Could this be true?  I think that the passport is a given.  After all I can't imagine trying to enter a country without one. But why a smart phone?  I rarely need to talk to anyone in a foreign country, besides I probably wouldn't understand the language. Most phones will work in a foreign country if the proper card is installed. But it you're like me, talking is what I use my phone the least for. Now is the age of cell phone applications or what we once called programs. We have found many uses for our smartphones while traveling.  Once we used an audio guided tour of London we had down loaded from Rick Steves' website. Translate apps also work well to help you with the local language. At times you can use a number of apps together for a desired result. For example, while in a museum in Venice I found the descriptive labels on artifacts in Italian. I lack knowledge of the Italian except for "grazie".  But I used the scan to text application to get the Italian copy into my phone and the translate application to translate it into English. It's  a great way to translate restaurant menus too. Obviously, a currency converter application is always useful. You should be sure that you apps are downloaded to your phone and not on the cloud accessible only via WiFi.  Since most hotels in foreign countries now had WIFI it's easy to send email and catch up on social media. However, sometimes they can be unreliable and frequently require a user fee. I use my cellphone as a camera, currency converter, Google maps and a measure app.  With WiFi  I use it for editing photos for blog posts and social media. Needless to say we keep our friends at home updated via email.

Thirdly, a debit card or credit card is indispensable. Major cities around the world now have ATMs. As a general rule the exchange rates are better than airport rates and most banks.  Also most restaurants in major cities accept credit cards. We rarely carry much cash but have a debit card readily available.  However, there is one caveat. Be sure to notify your credit/debit card company that you will be traveling in a foreign country. If they notice that someone is making large withdrawals or charges in a foreign country they may freeze the account and not allow withdrawals or charges. This happened to us once with our debit card and we were forced to use a credit card instead. An interesting aside on credit cards. If you rent an automobile with a Visa card the credit card company insures the automobile. We had a minor fender bender is Nazare, Portugal, and the credit card company paid the claim.

As an afterthought, good old American greenbacks are recognized almost anywhere in the world.  Don't leave home without a few. And carry your smartphone, passport and debit card.