Essential Pre-Travel Smartphone Prep Guide
Is your phone ready for your next trip? After a decade of nomad travel in dozens of countries, we’ve narrowed down the essential steps to prepare our smartphones for a trip.
These essential pre-travel smartphone tips help us:
– arrive in new places with more confidence
– handle unexpected issues with more ease
– navigate and communicate in unfamiliar destinations
– avoid costly international phone fees
Get your free copy of our Pre-Travel Phone Prep Checklist
My Essential Pre-Travel Phone Prep Checklist [VIDEO]
In the following video, I share the essential steps to make sure your smartphone is prepped and ready for a smooth arrival in a new country.
6 Steps to Prepare Your Smartphone for International Travel
This article will cover our most essential phone prep tips, but there’s more!
To learn all 12 and save them in a handy checklist format for easy access later, you can copy our checklist for free:
1. Set up Your SIM Card and Data Plan
First things first, make sure you have a data plan that suits your needs. In most cases, it’s a good idea to set up your SIM card or eSIM before you leave home for hassle-free connectivity.
If you have our Toolkit or WorldWide Connectivity course, you’ll find a detailed guide to choosing an international phone plan as well as a module on best practices for traveling with eSIMs.
2. Download Offline Maps
Before you depart, download offline maps for your destination. This is a lifesaver when you’re exploring areas with limited connectivity.
If you have our Toolkit, look for the lessons on how to download offline map data in both WorldWide Connectivity and Google Maps Travel Hacks.
3. Google Translate Language Packs
If you’re going somewhere where they speak a different language, download the necessary Google Translate language packs.
This way you can translate things even offline or with poor service.
Jedd showing a Google Translate message to our Vietnamese homestay family at dinner
If you have our Smartphone Savvy Travel course, you can refer to our step-by-step guide to help you set up languages offline. I also recommend reviewing the video tutorials on how to translate real world text with your phone camera as well as audio from live conversations in the Google Translate app.
4. Screenshot or Save Important Confirmations
Create an album on your phone with screenshots or photos of your tickets, reservations, and important confirmations.
This reduces frantic searching en route and is more reliable than trying to pull up email confirmations if there isn’t data or Wi-Fi. You can also keep a photo of your ID and of the contents of your checked luggage photo, in case anything gets lost.
5. Adjust Data Usage Settings
Avoid unnecessary and costly background data consumption by adjusting the data usage settings on your phone before you travel.
If you have our Toolkit, you’ll find further instruction on which settings to adjust in both the WorldWide Connectivity and Smartphone Savvy Travel courses.
6. Pin Your Accommodation Locations
Make sure you don’t get lost by pinning your accommodation and other important locations in your maps app for quick access.
Paired with the offline map step, you’ll be able to navigate to your hotel even if your sim card isn’t working.
If you have our Toolkit or Google Maps Travel Hacks course, you can see my exact system for saving points in the online map. Don’t miss the other tutorials on lesser-known features of Google Maps to facilitate your trip planning.
These first six steps have become important habits of my trip prep whenever we travel internationally. For the most part, they can quickly be done the day before departure.
In the full video and checklist, I share six more phone-related tips you might want to add to your To Do List, depending on your situation.
Access the Smartphone Pre-Travel Checklist here
About my Tech for Travel courses
My goal is to help you unlock the secrets to crafting unforgettable itineraries, discovering hidden gems, and enjoying seamless travels—all while saving time and avoiding costly pitfalls.
To do this, I’m creating a series of online tutorials to help you harness the internet and your smartphone as a traveler, even if you’re not tech savvy.
You can check out all of the courses on our shop page or join the waitlist for our Toolkit membership, which opens for registration twice per year. Sign up below:
WorldWide Connectivity tutorials
When it comes to traveling abroad in this day and age, staying connected is crucial.
But here’s something I noticed: many of us are paying way more than we need to for mobile data, without even realizing it.
We’re talking about potentially wasting hundreds of dollars, depending on how much you travel.
When you know how much data you actually need and how to manage it effectively, you can save a ton of money. In our WorldWide Connectivity course, we dive deep into exactly how to choose the best data plans and manage them efficiently, so you never have to overpay again.
Here are other benefits you’ll get out of WorldWide Connectivity:
– No more surprise bills or expensive roaming charges. My course teaches you how to select the best data and phone options for your situation.
– Reduce your risk of getting disconnected from your loved ones or important travel services.
– Practice how to use maps and other apps offline so you can safely navigate home even when things go wrong.
– Understand if you need an international phone number and alternative ways to make calls.
– Ensure that you always have the best and most cost-effective connectivity option at your fingertips, regardless of where your travels take you.
– Learn tricks to secure the most reliable Wi-Fi, including tools to improve signal strength and backup alternatives, so you can work remotely when needed.
Smartphone Savvy Travel tutorials
Even if you use a smartphone every day at home, it’s not enough to prepare you for international travel situations. You need the right skills and knowledge to prevent major headaches, overspending, and safety risks while abroad.
For folks who want only the essential skills and strategies necessary to enjoy smoother international trips, take our Smartphone Savvy Travel challenge!
These bite-size lessons help you master the four most essential apps and smartphone best practices so you can travel with confidence and ease, especially in unfamiliar countries.
In the Smartphone Savvy Travel tutorials, you’ll learn:
– My phone tricks for hitting the ground running in a new destination with less stress
– How to harness 4 essential smartphone apps for smoother, safer travel
– How to manage phone battery and storage to avoid issues
– Essential tips to navigate unfamiliar places with ease, even offline
Even if you’re not ready to dive deeper into these travel tutorials, don’t forget to grab your copy of our Pre-Trip Smartphone Checklist to ensure your phone is ready for international travel.
Sign up for your free copy via the form below.
