If you're an occasional international traveler, you want to be able to keep in touch with friends and family at home. Ideally, you want to be able to reach them wherever you are and for them to be able to reach you. You also want to make local calls to restaurants, hotels, theaters, airlines, and such. Twenty years ago, you'd pick up the phone in your hotel room, enter the number, and call. Connections were generally good—and costs were generally outrageous, even for local calls. And you'd be connected only when you were in your hotel.

These days you have lots of options. There is no one "best" option; what's best for you depends on a bunch of factors. But you can generally keep in touch, at little or even no cost to you or to those who want to call you. Here's how.