What about the family?

You may be concerned about leaving your elderly relatives or your children but it is worth remembering that nowhere is further away than a 24-hour flight. It is now easier to travel than ever before and with accessible flights and comprehensive travel insurance, should you need to travel home urgently, you can.

Communications have also significantly improved and gone are the days when people go off travelling only to be heard of once in a blue moon when a dog-eared postcard lands on the doorstep. Internet cafes are plentiful and most provide international calling facilities. If this is a big concern for you then simply mention it to our travel advisors and they will let you know what the facilities are like on the programmes that you are interested in.

These are some of the ways to keep in touch on your career break:

Phoning

When you are away, there's nothing quite like hearing a familiar voice. Most of the time, you will be too busy enjoying the scenery or getting involved in a project to think about home. However, when you do want to catch up with your friends and family, phoning is often the most direct and satisfying way of doing that. International phone cards make calling from a landline relatively cheap - you can buy them in the UK or abroad, and we also have our own competitively priced card. Your Gap Year for Grown Ups travel adviser can give you more information about rates for specific countries.

Arranging for people to call you

If people at home want to be able to contact you, suggest they look into deals for calling mobiles and landlines abroad - there are plenty available.

Taking your mobile phone

Although more expensive, a mobile phone is good to have in case of emergencies. It also means you can send text messages - a quick, relatively cheap way to say hello, congratulations or just share your sense of wonder at seeing your first tiger! Our own SIM card, which you simply put into your current mobile phone, offers good rates - again, speak to your Gap Year for Grown Ups travel adviser for advice about your destination.
If you do take a mobile phone, check with your service provider that you can make and receive calls abroad. It might be that the phone needs ‘unlocking' - a simple process that can be done at high street shops.

Emailing

This is a sort of compromise between phoning and writing a letter - although it doesn't allow you to speak to anyone directly, you can get a message to someone more quickly than if you posted something. The other advantage is that you don't need to calculate the time difference, and avoid the risk of waking someone up in the middle of the night and making them think there's an emergency! There are internet cafés all over the world, most of which will charge by the hour or half hour, so this is a simple, hassle-free way of keeping in touch.

Instant messenger services

Instant messaging is another computer-based form of communication. Basically, you exchange short emails (sometimes just a few words) with someone. It's an interactive service, so the other person has to be logged on at the same time. The software is free to download - if you're unsure, try asking a younger relative. Some of them seem to conduct most of their conservations through it!

Blogging

A relatively new concept, a blog is your own website, which you use as a travel diary. The idea is that you update it as much or as little as you want, and send the website address to your friends. It's not as personal as an email but it's a useful way of telling lots of people what you're doing without having to repeat it. It can be quite fun, too, if you're feeling creative!

Posting

Sending things by post takes longer than the other methods of communication we've listed, but it probably brings the most pleasure, too. If you have elderly relatives, they may be more comfortable with this, too. Postcards do not have to be long - people would probably rather have a couple of lines every so often than a detailed account once every six months. Don't forget to take people's addresses with you.

Skype

If you're on top of internet technology (and that's by no means everyone!), you might want to look out for Skype in internet cafés. Basically, it's a free phone system that requires you to speak into a microphone attached to the computer, and listen to the speaker via headphones. The only disadvantage is that it's not as private as a phone call, and the other person will have to have Skype software, too.

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