My friends' son/my colleague has just embarked on his first travel experience outside the UK. He has just arrived in Sydney. Does anyone know the cheapest way for him to communicate with relatives/friends in England?

Regards
Wendy J

When I visited NZ, the easiest way to stay in contact was to use the Internet by going to the local public library. It was usually free. Of course, that assumes that his friends and families are online.

Or is he looking for an phone option? If I was going to Australia today and needed to keep in contact via phone, I would look at some of the cheap international phone cards. Here in the US, I would use a phone card from Costco. I'm not certain what is the best options from the UK.

Hmm... I just realized he is already in Australia. For phone, I would check the cheap phone cards. I'm not familiar enough with mobile phone options. If he is used to having a mobile, maybe he could get a cheap phone and plan.

When I was there, I bought international phone cards - cost was pretty reasonable. Cards are available in Australia from quite a few vendors as I recall.

Internet points were also available.

Thank you for your help. I have passed the information on and checked out the Library option Marta which is a brilliant idea.The internet service is free and email is $3 Australian for an hour. According to my calculations that's about £1.15p. Michael has been using the internet cafes to email home but he said they were expensive? The lads will be watching their pennies until they settle down so I hope this option is cheaper. They are enjoying Sydney so much and have fell in love with it overnight! I think he is very brave-this is his first trip ever abroad. Talk about not doing things by halves?

Thanks once again.
WendyJ.

I found a good site where you can buy phone cards from called www.telephonecards.com.au

Some of the rates are ridiculously cheap 1c/minute

I even managed to get a free mp3 player after I bought a few cards from the site.

Hope this helps