Best way to keep in touch w/family in the states?

[dcsam]

Ship's e-mail, cell phone? calling card? off-ship phones or computers? I take my computer to Mexico and call home using Skype. Wonder how that would work.
Thank you

[Globaliser]

My preferred combination: Internet cafes and SMS.

In a country that I spend a lot of time in, I will buy a local SIM. See this thread for more re Australia, which is one of those countries for me. (The other is South Africa.)

[kenish]

dcsam- It all depends on your calling patterns and usage. If you are with Verizon in the US and don't expect to use a lot of minutes in Oz then check into their "infrequent traveler" package. For $20 they will rent a GSM phone for 30 days. Shipping both ways is included. Your US phone number travels with you and caller ID and voicemail work fine. Roaming is $1.29/min or for $5/month more it's 99 cents. That's rather expensive *if* you will consume a lot of minutes...but the lowest all-in cost for a light user.