Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
50
Society as wildlife sanctuaries. See the Golf
& The Environment website www.golfand
environment.org. If you're heading to
Grand Canyon National Park, take the
train and then use the park's free, environ-
mentally friendly compressed-natural-gas
buses to get around.
For more ideas on how to green your
Southwest vacation, visit the Arizona Office
of Tourism's website (www.arizonaguide.
com) and click on “What to Know,” and
then “Special Interests.” This will take you
to pages focusing on agritourism, ecotour-
ism, and volunteer tourism.
9
STAYING CONNECTED
Generally, hotel surcharges on long-dis-
tance and local calls are astronomical, so
you're better off using your
cellphone
or a
public pay telephone.
Many convenience
and grocery stores sell
prepaid calling
cards
in denominations up to $50; for
international visitors these can be the least
expensive way to call home. Many public
pay phones now accept American Express,
MasterCard, and Visa credit cards.
Local
calls
made from pay phones in most
locales cost roughly 50¢ (pennies not
accepted).
The majority of long-distance and
international calls can be dialed directly
from any phone.
For calls within the U.S.
and to Canada,
dial 1 followed by the area
code and the seven-digit number.
For
other international calls,
dial 011 fol-
lowed by the country code, the city code,
and the number you are calling.
Calls to area codes
800, 888, 877,
and
866
are toll-free. However, calls to area
codes
700
and
900
(chat lines, bulletin
boards, “dating” services, and so on) can
be very expensive—usually a charge of 95¢
to $3 or more per minute, and they some-
times have minimum charges that can run
as high as $15 or more.
For
reversed-charge
or
collect calls,
and for
person-to-person calls,
dial the
number 0, then the area code and number;
an operator will come on the line, and you
should specify whether you are calling col-
lect, person-to-person, or both. If your
operator-assisted call is international, ask
for the overseas operator.
For
local directory assistance
(“infor-
mation”), dial 411; for long-distance
information, dial 1, then the appropriate
area code and 555-1212.
CELLPHONES
It's a good bet that your phone will work
in the Southwest's major cities, but take a
look at your wireless company's coverage
map on its website before heading out. If
you need to stay in touch in a destination
where you know your phone won't work,
rent
a phone that does from
InTouch
USA
(
&
800/872-7626;
www.intouch
usa.us) or from a rental-car location, but
beware that you'll pay $1 a minute or
more for airtime. And you may or may not
be able to send SMS (text messaging)
home.
You can rent a cellphone from
Roberts
rent-a-phone
(
&
800/964-2468;
www.
roberts-rent-a-phone.com). If you're head-
ing down into the Grand Canyon and
want to rent a satellite phone, contact
Professional River Outfitters
(
&
800/
648-3236
or 928/779-1512; www.pro
river.com).
3
INTERNET & E
MAIL
More and more hotels, resorts, airports,
cafes, and retailers throughout the South-
west are offering
Wi-Fi
(wireless fidelity).
Wi-Fi is even found in some of the region's
campgrounds, RV parks, and even entire
towns. To find public Wi-Fi hot spots at
your destination, go to
www.jiwire.com
;
