Safety when traveling with kids is always a hot topic. We, as parents, always want to keep our kids safe and taking a trip abroad can feel scary. Mostly it is that fear of the unknown, right? I remember when we were taking off for our 6 month adventure, I was super nervous. Did I do enough research? Was something bad going to happen? These questions can cause a lot of people to stop planning their trip and stay where it is familiar. Even though I had some anxiety, I knew there were strategies to use in order to minimize our risk.  I completely understand the safety fear, though. To combat that fear so that you don’t get stuck, I’m writing a 6-part series on how to stay safe when traveling. Starting with the first article, how to stay connected when traveling abroad. 

Did you miss the other 5 articles? Check out the links below:

7 Ways To Keep Money Safe When Traveling Abroad

Staying Healthy When Traveling

Accommodation and Hotel Safety

Safety Tips For Using Public Transportation 

Crowd Safety When Traveling: How To Keep Your Family Safe

How Is Staying Connected When Traveling Going to Keep You Safe?

There are a few reasons why staying connected when traveling keeps you safe. One reason is that if your family and friends know where you are, and if something did happen, it would be easier and quicker for them to get information to someone there to help you. Another reason is that if you have a working cell phone, you can easily call for help if an emergency happens.

Staying connected is also great for peace of mind, yours and your loved ones. If they know you are safe, they will worry less. Also, sharing your travel experiences is a great way to connect. 

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Tips To Stay Connected When Traveling Abroad

When I think of ways to stay connected when traveling, I think about keeping contact with your loved ones back home and also being connected through technology wherever you are. Below are tips that I recommend for any trip abroad. 

Tell Your Family Where You Will Be

Give someone in your family or one of your friends your itinerary with hotel information on it. Be sure to keep in contact with this person while you travel so they know that you are safe. This doesn’t work if you never take the time to check in with them, or let them know if your plans change!

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Register With Your Embassy Or Consulate Before Leaving

Registering your trip with these free programs will give you updated information or alerts for each destination. Most of the alerts that we have seen are if the embassy or consulate is notified of protests or other similar activity. They will let you know when and where it will happen so you know how to avoid these situations. 

Below are some of the programs that I found for the USA, New Zealand, Canada and Australia. 

1. STEP Program for Americans
2. Travel Safe for New Zealanders 
3. Registration of Canadians Abroad (ROCA) for Canadians
4. Smartraveller for Austrailians

Download Some Helpful Apps To Stay Connected When Traveling

Some apps I recommend to stay connected when traveling abroad are below. These 3 helpful apps have different uses and work great for when we travel. I actually use 2 out of 3 in my normal everyday life. 

Whatsapp

Whatsapp is used almost everywhere in the world. Many Americans don’t have Whatsapp which is too bad because it is so helpful when you travel. It’s like Skype but better. The first reason we love it when we travel is that many businesses, especially in South America we have noticed, use Whatsapp for reservations and regular business communication. It is also great to use for talking to anyone because you can voice call, video call or text anyone no matter where you are located. No international charges here! It is all wifi/data based, so if you have a data plan or have wifi you can make the call. 

Airlo

Speaking of having data when you are traveling, download Airlo and find an e-sim that will work in your vacation destination. Airlo connects you to data instantly when you arrive to your destination. No need to search for a local sim. They have super reasonably priced plans for specific countries, regions, or global e-sims. 

For example, for our upcoming trip to London, I will get 1 GB of data for $5 and it is valid for 7 days. We are only going to be there for a few days, so this should work great for us for when we are out and about sightseeing and aren’t connected to wifi. This is also much cheaper than getting an international plan through our own phone carrier. 

Life360

Life360 is a handy way to have your friends or family track your current location. I like to use it to track my kids’ bike rides home from school, but you could also use it while traveling. After you download the app, you create a circle of people that you trust. These are the only people that can see where you are. Also you could track your phone if it was ever stolen! It is similar to Find My Phone, but if you have a family or group of people that have both Apple and Android phones, this is a great app to use that will work with all phone types. 

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Pack A Portable Charger

Because so much of staying connected deals with using our phones, it is important that it stays charged and doesn’t die when we need it most. Portable chargers are great for this. They are small and very effective. You can buy them anywhere!

Add Emergency Numbers To Your Phone

Making sure you have the emergency numbers for the locations you are traveling to is very important. Not all countries use 911 or 999. Be sure to find out what the emergency numbers are and store them in your phone for ease. You won’t want to be looking up the emergency number in the moment you need it. Thankfully we haven’t ever had to call an emergency number while traveling, but it is better to be prepared than not. 

Communicate Through Social Apps Or Email To Stay Connected When Traveling

Using Instagram DMs or Facebook Messenger is also a very handy way to stay connected when traveling. You are already going to be friends with the people you love in these apps, so there’s no extra step or download for this one. All you need is wifi or data to send them a quick note. I’m sure they would all love to see a picture of you sipping a margarita on the beach too! 😀 

Same with email. If you like to use email more than social apps, this is an easy way to send a quick note without downloading anything new. 

Download Offline Maps And Guides

Lastly, if you are traveling somewhere where the data may be spotty or there is no wifi around, it is a good idea to download some offline maps. This way you can find your way anywhere without a connection. You can do this on Google Maps or Apple Maps.