Phones on the road

Using public phones, payphones, cellphones, and hotel phones while traveling: renting cellphones and using calling cards, how to call abroad and how to phone home

Payphones are becoming an endangered species around the world thanks to the meteoric rise of cellphone usage. In fact, it's been years since I even used a payphone in a foreign country.

Still, public phones can come in handy—especially if you don't want to bother with renting or buying a cheap Italian cellphone or getting your own mobile phone to work over there.

After all, vacations should be about getting away from it all, not being reachable 24/7, so perhaps all you want is the info necessary to make a quick call or two to check in and make the folks back home jealous of your adventures (though sending an e-mail from an internet cafe works, too):

• How to phone home from the road
  
  
  • Using payphones and calling cards (or calling collect)
  • Using a cellphone
  • Using Skype
• How to phone a foreign country from home