With modern technology, I fill out a form on my bank’s website and the foreign currency arrives at my door via FedEx.
In 2003 I made a solo trip to the UK and a lot of my baggage was books to read, including books I bought there and brought home. I’m heading there next month and I’ll have maybe one book, with all other reading matter on my iPad.
Dave
@silbey Tee hee! I remember encountering all the problems you enumerate but after a while you learned how to avoid the gotchas. Why carry the whole guidebook? Just rip out the sections that describe where you’re going before you even leave. As for books, why bring any at all? There are places like Foyles you can visit. . . .
For Western Europe at least, I’d be willing to bet you I could still travel without a smartphone or laptop at all. (Are internet cafés still a thing?) It would just require more preparation. There are still lots of people who just have a voice/text phone. How do they travel? Because they do. . . .
That said, smartphones are so damn useful that now I would never do a big trip without one. I would buy one just for the trip if I didn’t have one in the first place.
So, if you have genuine security concerns sterilize your smartphone as described earlier or buy an inexpensive one just for the trip. They just make things sooo much easier.
Dave
P.S. Hm, hm! It’s April! Any cheap fares to Paris next week!? 
Which just reduces the gotcha – it doesn’t eliminate it. And going to Foyles (though I prefer Hatchards, personally) just adds to the load.
I bet you could too – but not with the same level of ease that you experienced in 1972, and that’s the point I was making.
Out of curiosity, how much extra are you charged for smartphone minutes if you’re overseas? The last time I was overseas was in 2011, and I remember searching the Net to find services that sold phone minutes cheap (in those days). Until a year or two ago we had to use them to call out from a cabin we rent in rural Maine where AT&T services was very spotty, so we had to call using credit cards from a landline in the cabin. The cabin now has DSL (Digital Subscriber Line) so my wife could call out on WiFi but I could not call out on my old flip phone because the WiFi password required special characters I could not get on it.
For Europe, if you’re willing to fiddle you can buy a cheap plan (with SIM / eSIM) when you get over there and essentially get everything you need for much less than it costs in the US.
For shorter trips, I just use Verizon’s travel pass, which charges $10/day for access to all your data/minutes from the home plan. It’s a bit pricey, but convenient.
A lot of the discussion seems to be missing the point. A phone is only one of more devices that can be searched, and if you are forced to acknowledge a social media account where you have not praised - you know who - you may be in deep shit. Not going into politics, I will not supply the links that have already been mentioned and more.
I would not worry at all going into the EU with any kind of gadget or computer, but going back into the US with the current administration seems to be a risk if you have a normal popular social media account where you have not stayed very much off politics. Forever.
Just writing this will make me an unwelcome guest for the next four years at least, so I will not visit the US. A lot of the respondents do not seem to know the extent to which this is scaring turists and business people away, so if you are afraid not to be let in again, my advise it not to rely on burner phones, but not to go.
I am an European that traveled only with a miniature map of Europe from Norway all over Europe back in the 70s with no plan. I can tell you that if you tried that today you would have a big problem because a lot of tickets can only be bought with a smartphone via apps.
$12/day currently. There is also still a $100/month plan if you travel more than 8 days.
Recently I learned that our current unlimited data plan with Verizon gives TravelPass as a perk, a pleasant surprise when we traveled in January.
The Guardian has an interesting take on this issue:
That’s useful information because I don’t use smartphone apps. My vision does not work well with tiny type on tiny screens, and I don’t want to rely on things I can’t see clearly. I guess it’s a good thing I don’t have any plans to fly anywhere.
It’s a sorry state of affairs that it has come to this. I am planning on a stripped down older iPhone as my US travel phone. So I can have my travel apps, maps and basic communications. I had friends who had something similar for their frequent trips to China, always prepared to see it taken.
Here is a recent discussion of this topic for people who are especially security conscious: Cell Phone OPSEC for Border Crossings - Schneier on Security
Can you expand on that? I ask because in 2019 I visited France and bought actual paper tickets (with barcodes as I remember) at Metro stations, and the Gare St. Lazare for longer trips.
I just checked and I can buy tickets online (not from a phone) from SNCF.
Here in Chicago you can purchase a ticket at subway stations, use a pre-purchased card, or use your phone. Is that no longer possible in Western Europe?
Dave
Likewise, I bought train tickets in Italy and in Belgium (but not since 2019). The kiosks required a chip-and-pin credit card, but I was always able to go to a manned ticket booth and buy tickets using my US credit card which, although chip-equipped, has no PIN (relying instead on a signature for authorization).
That’s what I did, I think. But I could have used real, actual, Euro bills if needed.
Dave
Just curious, what are those friends’ plan if the phone is taken? buy one locally and set up from a cloud backup or something?
I’m glad I don’t have to cross borders these days! and am not looking foreward to any future travel necessity.
I am travelling to Cancun, Mexico this summer with my son’s family. They vacation at an inclusive resort. I have an approved Global card and renewed my passport and have the new enhanced driver’s license. From reading this topic, I am a little frightened about this trip. (I LOVE this group and all the advice!) is there any advice or precautions I need to be aware about?
I got to this conclusion after seeing some episodes of a Norwegian competitive reality show.
From Norwegian Wikipedia translated by AI.
The first season of “Først til verdens ende” began in Marrakech, Morocco, and concluded at Verdens ende in Norway.
The show follows competing pairs in a race around the world to be the first team to reach the finish line. Before the start, each team was given a sum of money equivalent to the price of a one-way plane ticket to the final destination, which they could use to travel by land or sea. The teams were not allowed to use airplanes as a means of transportation. The money could be used to cover travel costs, as well as food and lodging, but the teams could also work or beg to earn more money during the race.
Participants were not permitted to use modern aids such as smartphones and bank cards but were provided with:
A world map,
A GPS device (for safety reasons) to locate checkpoints and track their progress,
A travel guide with local job listings,
Along with their allocated funds.
In each episode, the teams has to reach a designated checkpoint.
In the episodes I have watched the contestant traveling through Spain and into France. In several instances, they have had to beg help from people after being told at train or bus stations at information desks that they had to buy tickets online. I think that maybe some meticulous research before traveling would have unearthed other ways of buying the tickets, but my impulsive traveling where I did not know where I would go next back in the 70s would be hard for me today since I hate to bother people for help.
Sounds very much like the US show, The Amazing Race. A different set of rules, but a very similar concept.
I’m not surprised that rules of the show prohibited use of credit/debit cards - which may make for an interesting challenge, since a lot of locations seem to be going cash-free.
But it does surprise me that there was no possibility for purchase without a mobile app. Even Europe isn’t so well-connected that you can assume everybody always has a smart phone.
These shows are not a realistic depiction of everyday Joe travel reality. They are specifically set up to play out in a certain way for dramatic effect. I wouldn’t draw any conclusions for my own travel or shape my expectations based on such TV drama.
There are very few things I encounter during my international travels that would not be possible at all without a smartphone. Mostly, it’s just far more convenient to do it the smartphone way. But at times, usually for expensing/accounting reasons, actual paper can be required by certain agencies (here’s looking at you, DOE) and that’s usually when the hunt for the “old way” starts. Note also, finding/choosing the alternate often also requires talking to actual people on site and at times getting the run-around there. It’s not uncommon to find the ‘non-smartphone’ alternative not described anywhere on webpages or online information sources which makes preparing such travel options even more difficult.