Keeping in touch with family and friends on vacation

When gearing up for a long, arduous vacation, it's nice to know that you'll be able to keep in touch with friends and family from back home. Here's a few different ways of contacting your loved ones while abroad:

• Facebook and MySpace - By using online profile sharing, you can easily update your friends and family on what's going on via status updates, new photos and wall posts.
• Instant Messaging - IMing is a great way to keep in touch without running up the phone bill. This allows for quick conversations online, and you don't even need to download a new program. Many online profile sharing websites, such as Facebook, have incorporated their own IMing system. However, using AIM, MSN and Yahoo messengers allow you to video chat as well.
• Video Chatting - Video chatting is a great use of technology to help relatives and friends contact each other without having to type conversations back and forth. For video chatting, it is recommended to use either AIM, Yahoo messenger, or Skype.
• E-Mailing - Like sending a letter, e-mails are written documents that are sent over the internet. This is a great way to keep in touch with relatives and friends, and provides an easy way to receive important information without waiting for a letter or phone call.
• Buy a phone card - Phone cards come in handy when trying to make local and long distance calls while abroad. You can prepay for a phone card and get a certain number of minutes, so that you're never alone and left without a way to contact others.
• Turn on the global calling option of your cell phone - Most new cell phones nowadays, especially PDAs (iPhones, BlackBerrys, etc), come with the option to turn on global calling or not. This will run-up your cell phone bill very efficiently, but is a good tool to have for emergencies.
• Send a letter - By far the most obsolete and primitive form of contact, sending a letter is almost like sending an e-mail, except much slower. This outdated form of communication may take longer than your trip, so try e-mailing before sending a letter.

Source: Examiner.com