Technology has changed our lives in both positive and negative ways. In particular, it has revolutionized many aspects of traveling. Travelers can go online to get great deals on flights and hotels without a travel agent. In fact, 60% of leisure travelers make their own travel arrangements – generally online.
Electronic gadgets that many of us carry on a daily basis make booking an Uber or train, getting money on the road, and keeping in touch so much easier as we travel.
Are You Old Enough to Remember the Old Days?
It wasn’t so very long ago that –
• Calling home while traveling internationally meant a trip to the local central telephone office to make an expensive international call.
• Post restante was the way to pick up mail from home at the local post office in the cities you were visiting. If you changed your itinerary, your letters might still be sitting at a post office in a city that you spontaneously decided not to visit.
• Finding a bank or money changer to cash travelers checks wasn’t always easy. And you couldn’t use those travelers checks in stores like Americans were accustomed to doing.
But today’s travelers have it much easier. Just consider the following benefits.
6 Ways Electronics Change How We Travel
ATM Machines
These machines that spit out cash are just about everywhere. Even countries that may seem less sophisticated than home in other ways have ATM machines all over the place.
And how lucky that both debit and credit cards can be used all over the world. Just be sure to let your bank know where you’ll be traveling on your trip so your cards are accepted.
Cell Phones
With cell phones, you are always just a phone call away from family and friends for any emergency. International rates on cell phones can be high, but hearing a familiar voice can be well worth the cost. Using your phone while traveling abroad can be affordable by purchasing a SIM card as you go or pay your phone provider for international rates and access.
Plus the apps that are available make booking hotels, hostels, flights, currency exchange rates, maps and directions, plus o much more available at your finger tips. You simply cannot travel without one anymore.
Skype
Isn’t it unbelievable that you can call any other Skype member for free – all over the world? If you want to call someone who isn’t a Skype member, the fees for calling landlines are far cheaper than those long ago international phone calls from the telephone office or from today’s cell phones.
Yes, Skype has changed the world of phone conversations. And the connection often sounds as though friends half a world away are in the next room.
Facebook Messenger
A must for traveling abroad when you need to call home. It is always free with an internet connection! My kid traveled for 9 months and we talked to him all over the Europe for free either via text or voice! Amazing technology!
Laptops and Tablets
How great it is to carry around all your data and programs in a light portable laptop or tablet! And with a portable external hard drive not much bigger than a pack of playing cards, you can have more than enough storage space for data, photos, videos, and whatever else you want to have with you.
eBooks
No more wasting valuable luggage space for books. In the past, if you traveled internationally and wanted books in English, you needed to take enough for the whole trip because it wasn’t always easy to find books in English overseas.
Technology has solved that. Readers can now have hundreds of ebooks on their smartphones, tablets, or Kindles. And if you need to download more, you can do that wherever you have an internet connection – which is just about everywhere.
Traveling Life Is Good
Yes, technology has made it possible for travelers to be actual modern nomads. Many of you reading this are probably not even old enough to realize just how lucky you are to have this technology. But as a midlife traveler, I am using electronic technology as much as I can to make travel easy and fun again!
How has technology changed your travel?
Hi! I’m Chris! Just a Midlife Wife sharing about life’s journey; screaming and kicking through it while supposedly aging gracefully…
Focusing on healthy living, low carb & keto, things I am loving right now, and life in general.