When I was travelling during my university days, I used to send my parents an email using the slow hostel wifi to let them know I was okay. In fact, I actually started this blog so I could keep my parents updated and not have to send individual emails!
But these days, it’s so much easier to stay connected travelling abroad. You don’t have to wait for a wifi connection or use a calling card now that we have eSIMs and video calling.
And that’s especially important for us now that we’re on our Baby Trip – ten months we’re spending travelling internationally with our baby daughter during my husband’s parental leave from work.
This is one of the longest trips that we’ve been on and our first time travelling with a baby. It was essential that we could stay connected to loved ones back home who would want to keep up with our adventures and watch our little one grow.
My parents are first-time grandparents, so they definitely didn’t want to miss any of Baby C’s milestones. Getting her first teeth in Toronto, learning to crawl in France and meeting Santa in London – my parents were able to witness it all thanks to our online connections.
From in-person visits and video calls to shared family albums and social media, here are five ways we keep in touch with loved ones during our Baby Trip abroad!
Disclosure: This post is sponsored by Virgin Connect Roam; all opinions are my own. Thanks to Virgin Connect Roam and you for your support!
1. In-person visits
Of course, our favourite way to connect with friends and family from back home is to invite them to join us on the road!
We started our Baby Trip by spending 10 weeks in my old hometown of Toronto, living in my parents’ basement.
We got to see so many loved ones during our summer in Toronto, join in on family getaways and parties, and even had my mother-in-law come out from Vancouver to visit us for a Toronto and Niagara Falls trip.
Once we got to Europe, my mom came to visit us while we were living in Orleans, France. She joined us on visits to Loire Valley castles and was even there when Baby C started to crawl for the first time!
My mom came back out to join us for the winter holidays in the UK. And later in January, we’re meeting up with my mom, mother-in-law and more friends from back home in Spain to celebrate Baby C’s first birthday!
We’re also hoping to have my sister and some other friends from Toronto come visit us in Europe in the spring.
It’s so nice to see our loved ones and catch up, and even better getting to experience fun adventures abroad with them.
Some of my favourite travel memories have been spending weeks in Europe with my mom and mother-in-law and bringing my dad to Paris and Amsterdam for the first time.
I love getting to continue making these family memories, now with Baby C in tow!
2. Video calls
Of course, we like to take advantage of modern technology to do regular video calls with our friends and family in Canada. It’s a great way to catch up with everyone and for Baby C to see her relatives.
Since moving out to Vancouver at 18 for university, I’ve always done regular video calls with my parents and friends back in Toronto. In those days, it was over Skype, now it’s usually Zoom, Whatsapp or Facetime.
We do a monthly call with my dad, stepmom, sister and brother, allowing all of us to catch up no matter where in the world we are. And we regularly pick up the phone to video chat with my mom and mother-in-law too.
I’ve also scheduled calls with my best friend who has a young daughter. Both of our little ones love babbling at each other over the phone!
3. Real time updates with our Virgin Connect Roam Travel eSIM
Being so far away from home and for such a long stretch, it was essential that we could stay connected at all times. That’s why we’re big fans of eSIMs that allow us to get online wherever we travel.
Because we’re hopping around to a few different countries on this trip, it doesn’t make sense for us to constantly switch physical SIM cards. eSIMs are much easier, since you don’t have to manually buy and insert them.
I’m using a Virgin Connect Roam eSIM while we’re in the UK and it’s been such a smooth experience.
It was simple to download the app and quickly scroll through their transparent pricing plans. Packages for the UK start at just $3 USD for 1GB of data, all the way up to 100 GB of data for $71.50 USD – so there’s something for everyone.
Then it was onto installing and activating my eSIM. With some other eSIMs I’ve tried, this process has been difficult and I wasn’t sure if I was really connected or racking up international data fees from my home carrier.
But with Virgin Connect Roam, the process was painless and I was connected in minutes!
I’ve been able to reliably use my data and effortlessly pull up directions, book tickets and connect with loved ones on the other side of the world.
Because as nice as it is to have people visit us and connect on occasional video calls, we also want to be able to keep in touch on the day to day.
Being able to send a quick photo or update social media while we’re in front of Big Ben or on a beach in Normandy has made us feel much closer to loved ones far away.
Virgin Connect Roam offers coverage in 190+ countries, 24/7 live human support, plus you get 500 MB of free data just for installing the app (no purchase required).
Try them out with my discount code below:
Try out Virgin Connect Roam Travel eSIM on your next trip abroad, and use my code TOA10 for 10% off!*
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4. Shared online family photo album
Another one of my favourite ways to stay connected is with an online photo album that we share with our parents. The subject of the album? Baby C, of course!
Rather than having to email them all our photos or post every single photo we take of our daughter (because there are a lot!) on social media, this shared private album is the perfect way for us to keep everyone up to date.
We usually update the album each day with photos we took of Baby C, writing captions to explain what we did that day. Then our parents are able to view the album and leave comments.
Our parents can also add their own photos to the album, which is great when they’re travelling with us. That way, everyone gets access to these nice family memories.
5. Postcards
I know it’s old school, but I love sending real, handwritten letters in the mail. Back in Vancouver, I keep up a regular letter correspondence with one of my aunts in Toronto and always mail handwritten birthday cards.
Now that we’re on the road, I love sending postcards back home to loved ones. It’s such a fun way to share a bit of our travels with them and give them some good mail to open (not just bills and junk mail!).
I also really enjoy picking out the postcards; I usually buy one or two to send to loved ones and another to keep for myself. It’s a great way to souvenir shop on a budget, as postcards are cheap and lightweight.
I’m actually writing postcards to Baby C – one for each destination we visit – that she can read when she’s all grown up. It’ll be a nice memory of our Baby Trip abroad, since she’s too young to remember it.
Wrapping up: Staying connected anywhere in the world
As a lifelong traveller, I remember the days when I would head off for a few weeks or months and only have hostel wifi to connect with my friends and family back home.
Now with eSIMs, video calls and online photo albums, it’s so much easier to connect with loved ones all around the world.
This has become so much more important now that we have our daughter. I want to make sure that her grandparents, aunts, uncles and cousins can all be a part of her life, even when we’re spending time abroad.
I’m sure this Baby Trip won’t be our last long term international trip with our daughter. It makes me feel a lot better knowing we’ll be able to connect with loved ones and bring them along on our adventures, no matter where we go or how long we’re away.
Check out Virgin Connect Roam for a simple, reliable and ideal eSIM solution for your next trip. Don’t forget to use my discount code TOA10 for 10% off your purchase!*
*Offer valid until June 30, 2026. Limit of two uses per user.
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