Free International Phone Calls When Traveling By Bike

I’m in Aruba at the moment, but you would never know it. Even though I’m spending my days riding around the island on my bike, I’m able to respond to my emails, update my blog, call my friends and family back home, and generally stay in touch with the outside world.

The Internet has really changed the way the traveling cyclist looks at keeping in touch while out on the road.

When I took my first tour in 2001, I didn’t even have a cell phone to call my own parents in the same state. Now I’m in a foreign country and not only able to call home, but I’m also able to speak with people in Germany, Russia, Australia, Malaysia… and more!

Today I want to talk about Skype and how you can use this free software to make free (or super cheap) international calls using your computer and an Internet connection.

All you need to start using Skype today is a computer, an Internet connection, and a microphone of some sort. I also like to use headphones when talking on Skype, but this isn’t 100% necessary – as long as you have speakers hooked up to your computer to hear the person on the other line.

If you’ve got all that, just go to www.skype.com and sign up for a free account. You’ll be asked to download and install some software. Follow the onscreen instructions and complete the software installation as directed.

Now that you’ve got the software installed, there are two different ways to talk.

The first and cheapest way is to call another Skype user. When you use this method, you are calling from your computer to another person’s computer – and thus, the call is free! But this can only work if the person you are trying to contact is also a Skype user and is logged into his or her account.

But what if the person you want to call isn’t a Skype user? And what if you want to call someone on their home or cell phone?

Well, you can do that too… but it’s going to cost you (but not very much!).

To make a call to a landline phone or cell phone, you are going to have to purchase some Skype credits. I would recommend you start off with about $10.00 worth.

Most calls to landlines cost about $0.02 per minute, so $10.00 worth of talk time is going to last you quite a long time. Cell phone calls are more expensive and vary from country to country.

Once you’ve purchased those Skype credits, you simply select the country you want to call, type in the phone number, and press the green call button. It’s that easy!

There are a lot of advanced Skype features and a number of different ways to make a call and stay connected while you’re traveling, but I’ll save that for a future post. This is enough to get you started… so if you haven’t done so already, go to

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