Global Phone

Some folks have asked me for phone advice for international travel. You need to do careful research with your phone company, but here are some little bits of info and advice. Generally, Europe and Australia use the GSM frequency towers, which means that if you have T-Mobile or AT&T, you do not need a different phone. You just need to take the phone in to have it activated for international use (sometimes this is not even necessary, but it is always wise to check). If you have Verizon, US Cellular, or other CDMA phones, they generally work in Asia, but NOT Europe.

There are many ways to get a global phone if you do not have one. We have found the best way is to work with your current mobile carrier. They will generally rent you a phone for a nominal fee. There are other companies all over the world that will also rent or sell you a phone. Just be careful and do your research - the prices vary widely, and a colleague of mine recently had an unacceptable experience with his purchased "global" phone - didn't work in the USA nor in the UK. Basically useless, but too late to work out any other option.

If you already have a global phone through a GSM carrier (it will have a SIM card), you can simply purchase a prepaid SIM card for the country you are visiting. Again, do your research because prices vary, but this is an excellent option.

If you have had really great service with any of these prepaid companies, please let us know! While you're at it, go to our facebook page and hit "like" - the blog automatically posts there, as well!

Scandic Anglais Hotel in Stockholm

This is where we'll be staying in Stockholm. Stockholm is a very expensive city, so we tried to find a hotel that we could afford that is still comfortable. It has good reviews, so we'll let you know what we think!

Testing mobile blogging and Facebook integration.

Preparing for next cruise

So, we are starting to prepare for our Baltic Sea cruise on Crystal Cruise's Serenity ship. The first hurdle was to determine if we need a Russian Visa. We found out through much research that if you are taking a scheduled shore excursion or tour with your cruise company, you do not need a Russian Visa. Those of you who know us know that we usually like to avoid the ship's tours and explore on our own.

Our first stop for anything like this is the US Department of State travel page, which gives a lot of helpful advice for travelers like us who like to do things on their own. Begin by registering with the Smart Traveler Enrollment Program (STEP) Registering with this program will inform the embassy of your intended visit, and will enroll you for security and other updates.

After researching this site, we found out that trying to obtain a Russian Visa would be complicated and expensive. We looked at the shore excursions and tours offered by the cruise company, and determined that we would spend less by going through with obtaining the visa.

Our cruise company has a travel agency that they referred us to for help. We filled out the appropriate documents, including much background information, and sent off our applications along with our passports. Three weeks later we had our passports returned with the successful Russian Visas included.

We are now looking at booking hotels for our stays before and after the cruise. We will arrive in Stockholm on June 1. We are retired airline employees, so we always fly stand-by, knowing that in itself is an adventure. We are attempting to fly on SAS Airlines nonstop from Chicago to Stockholm, but have a back-up plan of a change of planes in Frankfurt, Germany.

I will update more as we progress. We are getting very excited for this adventure!