[Thoughtcrime]

I'm thinking of traveling later this summer, most likely to South America and I was wondering if anyone here would have tips on what stupid things not to do? For example, I think that bringing along my high end smart phone is not a good idea. I would hate to lose it and all the apps I have set up on it. I could instead buy a cheap chinese phone, with a massive battery. But I would not be able to take nice pics with it, naturally, because it's a cheap (<$250) phone. But maybe that's a reasonable compromise?

Let me know your thoughts!

[crispytaco]

Dude, go to the travel section. There are lot of tips depending on the city you are visiting.

[BrandonCodi]

Have you ever lost a phone before? It would suck to lose true but yeah there is a travel forum more suited for this type of post.

Cheers, brother

[BrewDog]

Walmart has 5" smartphones for less than 80 bucks. I bought a $10 Alcatel a few years back as my throwaway phone for South America, but it was just a basic phone and I couldn't use the internet. Last year I bought a smartphone from Walmart for $75 bucks and it worked just fine down there. I had to get a computer store to unlock it to use in Colombia and they charged me $3. It even takes nice photos even though I rarely take pictures.

Then when I got robbed in Bogota, losing the phone wasn't a big deal.

[Travel Museums]

If you get T-Mobile youll have unlimited 2g in 100 countries. Good enough for texting, maps, and browsing here.

Then you should have a second unlocked phone you can use if you're in a country without an agreement or you want to buy local faster coverage. That second old phone can be used when you go out at night and get drunk. That's when you tend to lose shit.

If you're losing phones daytime you need to get more organized and be more aware of surroundings. I guess crime could be a legit concern in SA though. Can't imagine a young buck gringo getting robbed in broad daylight though unless you're flashing shit and walking down side alleys in dodgy neighborhoods with gangs.

[Thoughtcrime]

(05-15-2017 04:09 PM)BrewDog Wrote:  

Walmart has 5" smartphones for less than 80 bucks. I bought a $10 Alcatel a few years back as my throwaway phone for South America, but it was just a basic phone and I couldn't use the internet. Last year I bought a smartphone from Walmart for $75 bucks and it worked just fine down there. I had to get a computer store to unlock it to use in Colombia and they charged me $3. It even takes nice photos even though I rarely take pictures.

I bought a $200 phone, actually. It has the perfect combination of decent battery life, decent camera, great support of cellular networks. It will be my backup/travel phone for years.

(05-15-2017 04:09 PM)BrewDog Wrote:  

Then when I got robbed in Bogota, losing the phone wasn't a big deal.

This is my exact motivation. Although my current main phone was a steal of a deal (under $400 for not even a year old flagship phone), it has too much data and customization on it. I would be furious if I lost it.

(05-15-2017 05:03 PM)Travel Museums Wrote:  

If you get T-Mobile youll have unlimited 2g in 100 countries. Good enough for texting, maps, and browsing here.

I have T-mobile and I have that fancy plan which enables unlimited slow world-wide data. Btw, it's usually faster than 2G, because 2G is being phased out everywhere. Last summer, I was in europe in August and it so happened that T-Mobile gave unlimited 4G.. for the month of August.. in Europe. It was incredible.

(05-15-2017 05:03 PM)Travel Museums Wrote:  

Then you should have a second unlocked phone you can use if you're in a country without an agreement or you want to buy local faster coverage. That second old phone can be used when you go out at night and get drunk. That's when you tend to lose shit.

Not sure what's the point of having a local number? Just use whatsapp?? And yes, getting drunk and losing it the phone is why i want a backup phone hehe..

[Travel Museums]

As I said: T-Mobile doesn't have an agreement with every country. Say you go to Vietnam. Calls are $6/minute and data is insane.

You will want to get a local sim for affordable use. You can't put a sim in a locked phone. So unless you bought your shiny new phone for $1000 cash it's not eligible to be unlocked until it's payed off or nearly paid off.

That's why you have a second phone. For me it's my older model iPhone. The mophie power jackets are expensive so being able to reuse them and swap them between the same sized but different model phones (iPhone 6/6s) is a huge savings.

I never run out of juice while traveling. Those jackets are $75 each times four. That's $300 I invest in protecting and powering my phone and my secondary phone.

Also I download Galileo, maps me, etc on my backup phone and use it to record my GPS tracks and make icons which I copy paste the lonely planet guidebook info onto. I use that map phone while I'm making a video on my primary phone. So I need two phones so one can show the map in the video as I'm recording on the other.

Also if you want to watch Netflix or whatever with a girl. You want a backup phone for that. Otherwise you get texts from girls interrupting your movie and she sees chicks writing "I love you" "I miss you" "how was your day" etc. the backup phone has no text apps or all set to no notifications or stickers. Then she can think you're single. Hell even showing chicksat the bar my days photos on the main phone I often risk getting pop up notifications from tinder or the like unless I push airplane mode.

[Thoughtcrime]

(05-16-2017 01:10 AM)Travel Museums Wrote:  

As I said: T-Mobile doesn't have an agreement with every country. Say you go to Vietnam. Calls are $6/minute and data is insane.

Fair point. I didn't think of that. But I checked and where I'm going, I'll have unlimited texting & data and 20c/min calls.

(05-16-2017 01:10 AM)Travel Museums Wrote:  

You will want to get a local sim for affordable use. You can't put a sim in a locked phone. So unless you bought your shiny new phone for $1000 cash it's not eligible to be unlocked until it's payed off or nearly paid off.

I bought an unlocked, slightly smart phone off ebay. I'll be golden.

(05-16-2017 01:10 AM)Travel Museums Wrote:  

I never run out of juice while traveling. Those jackets are $75 each times four. That's $300 I invest in protecting and powering my phone and my secondary phone.

Why do you need 4? Wouldn't 1 be enough?

(05-16-2017 01:10 AM)Travel Museums Wrote:  

Also if you want to watch Netflix or whatever with a girl. You want a backup phone for that. Otherwise you get texts from girls interrupting your movie and she sees chicks writing "I love you" "I miss you" "how was your day" etc. the backup phone has no text apps or all set to no notifications or stickers. Then she can think you're single. Hell even showing chicksat the bar my days photos on the main phone I often risk getting pop up notifications from tinder or the like unless I push airplane mode.

That's pretty brilliant. In my case, this is one of my first such trips so I just don't think I'll be at such huge risk of this. But I might silence notifications from certain apps, if need be. Thanks for all the awesome tips.

[crispytaco]

Ok, if one of your countries is Colombia, the problem is that you have 3 months to report your cell phone. you can do that in the website of the carrier you are using.

[Thoughtcrime]

It's not one of countries, unfortunately. But what is the 3 month requirement? Is that a law in Colombia?

[samsamsam]

Buy a used iphone 5 or 5s for $100 bucks.

https://swappa.com/buy/iphones

Having a throw away phone is a good idea, if you are dealing with some people you are not sure about.