Your past traveling experiences may have proved to be really expensive when it comes to calling home from abroad - and for sure you have realized how much more additional and high fees hotels charge for these precious phone calls sessions. You can now prevent yourself from such travel pitfalls by making most - if not all - your phone calls for free using an online calling service. From any Internet cafe, your hotel and/or your vacation rental (taking into account there provides Internet access), you will be able to phone home and friends without worrying about any scary and huge hotel phone bills. There are several online calling services with Skype being one of the most used and popular. Before your departure, you just need to register with the service provider of your choice. Afterwards you will need to download the software on your computer you'll be using during your holiday. Keep in mind that you can make such phone calls only with people who have and use the same software. So make sure your family members and friends do the same thing. Please note that phone calls are free of charge only when made from PC to PC and when the caller and callee use the same service. Once you are logged-in, you will have access to your buddies list. Just double click on the name of the person you want to talk to and there you go - you are on AIR! By the way, do not forget to have at hand one essentail tool: a headset. If you do not use a headset, you won't be able to get much of the talk.

Below you will find a list of some the major online calling services and check each of their respective website for more detailed information about their different products and packages:

Skype is one of the most well-known and used online calling service.
Yahoo! Voice
Google Talk
Jajah