The U.S. State Department offers a free app on the Apple Store and Google Play for travelers. The app invites you to see the world with easy access to frequently updated official country information, travel alerts, travel warnings, maps, U.S. embassy locations, and more. This would be a great planning tool, but you should consider the pros and cons of taking your Smartphone with you.
Pros: Communication and photos are easy. If you go missing, it’ll be much easier to locate you since the network can “see” the location of the phone (assuming you turn on locational services).
Cons: If you lose the phone, someone will have access to all of your personal information (assuming you failed to turn on the security features). Also…the costs for data and text can be huge (check with your service provider for info before you travel or risk facing a bill after you get back)
Things like your smartphone are very useful to a thief for everything the phone contains about you and/or your business. If you must bring valuables, you can store them in other places such as the toilet tank (use a sealed plastic bag) or under the trashcan liner. Make sure you retrieve your things from these places before housekeeping arrives.
