Staying Connected

Staying connected with the folks back home is easier than ever thanks to innovations in telecommunications. No matter what kind of hardware you use, you'll need to know (initially) which numbers to punch in and their proper sequence.

1. Dial the international access code: 011 from the U.S.; 00 from the U.K., Ireland, or New Zealand; or 0011 from Australia

2. Dial Croatia's country code, 385.

3. Dial the city code. For Zagreb, for example, that is 1.

4. Dial the phone number.

To make international calls from Croatia:

1. Dial the access code 00.

2. Dial the country code (U.S. or Canada 1, U.K. 44, Ireland 353, Australia 61, New Zealand 64).

3. Dial the area code.

4. Dial the number.

For example, if you wanted to call the British Embassy in Washington, D.C., from Croatia you would dial 00-1-202-588-7800.

To call from one city code to another within Croatia: Dial the Croatian city code, including the zero, followed by the phone number.

To make a local call within a Croatian city: Dial the phone number. No codes necessary. Local calls cost about 5kn per minute.

For directory assistance: Dial 988 if you're looking for a number inside Croatia, and dial 902 for numbers to all other countries.

For operator assistance: If you need operator assistance in making a call, dial 901 if you're trying to make either an international call or if you want to call a number in Croatia.

Toll-free numbers: Toll-free numbers in Croatia start with 0800. Warning: Calling a 1-800 number in the United States from Croatia is not toll-free. In fact, it costs the same as an overseas call.

Prepaid Phone Cards: To use a prepaid phone card, call the service, key in the code on the back of the card, and call the number. It's a good idea to have a prepaid phone card for emergencies because Croatian pay phones don't take coins and you'll need a card to use them. You can buy prepaid cards in denominations of 50, 100, 200, and 500 units at most newspaper kiosks, at post offices, and at some tobacconists. Calls are based on unit-per-minute rates, and the farther away you call, the more each unit costs and the faster you use units.

In Zagreb, you can buy prepaid cards at Nexcom, Zavrtnica 17 (tel. 01/606-03-33); or at Voicecom, Ilica 109 (tel. 01/376-01-23; www.voicecom.hr). There is free 0800 access.

Smart Phones

Advances in smart phone technology, affordable devices and service plans, and a dizzying array of applications have fueled a boom in the use and ownership of these one-stop communication-media wonders. Smart phones blend cellphone, Internet, GPS, still and movie camera, and more in one device. You can download news, read messages, take and send photos, play video games, and amuse yourself with countless other applications, but these services come at a price. Whether your phone of choice is a BlackBerry, an iPhone, or some other brand, knowing what these phones can and cannot do, how they work with European carriers, and how much their functionality will cost you abroad can help avoid nasty surprises when the bill comes in. Follow the steps below to avoid phone bill shock.

• Before you go, contact your carrier to purchase the biggest international data package you think you'll need during your trip. If you don't know how much that is, note that downloading a 3-minute YouTube video or sending one e-mail with a photo attached can use 2MB for each function. That will cost you $2 per 2MB action with a prearranged plan versus $40 per 2MB without one. Buying a plan that allows unlimited data transfer is safest, but it's also the most expensive as most carriers require you to sign a 1-year service contract.
• Turn your smart phone's international data roaming off when abroad. Leaving it on risks charges that can amount to $100 a day and more even if you don't make a single phone call. Limits on roaming charges now apply to European carriers serving European clients, but there are no limits on what they can charge foreign users.
• Whenever possible, use Wi-Fi instead of your phone network to access e-mail and the Web. Data downloads are free with Wi-Fi, but not through the network.
• Download e-mail manually instead of setting your phone to automatically fetch it from the Internet. That way you control the data flow. Remember that with a smart phone you pay for every megabyte of data that comes in or goes out.
• Keep track of your megabyte usage with the phone's tracker feature and turn off the phone when you get close to your limit.
• When you do use the phone to send or receive data, be aware of what's coming in and going out.
• Finally, keep your service provider's number handy.

That's a lot to remember and following the protocol takes some of the euphoria out of having a smart phone that can do so many things, but it's a routine you should master. I learned about my iPhone the hard way. Even though I had purchased a data plan before leaving for Croatia, it wasn't big enough. In 6 weeks, I had accrued a $6,000 cellphone bill without making a single phone call.