Frommer's Kauai - Jeanette Foster [57]
Excellent deals, like a rental car and 6 nights in a Kauai condo starting at $460 per person (based on double occupancy), can be found at More Hawaii For Less ( 80 0/967-6687;www.hawaii4less.com), a California-based company that specializes in air/condominium packages at unbelievable prices.
GREAT DEALS AT HAWAII’S TOP HOTEL CHAIN
The Outrigger Hotel and Resorts chain ( 86 6/956-4262;outrigger.com) has hotels and condos on Kauai. They range dramatically in price and style, from the elegant Outrigger Waipoli Beach Resort & Spa to the moderate Outrigger at Lae nani. There are plenty of package deals available, including family plans, discounted senior rates, and room and car package deals.
12 Staying Connected
TELEPHONES
Generally, hotel surcharges on long-distance and local calls are astronomical, so you’re better off using your cellphone or a public pay telephone. Many convenience groceries and packaging services 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 at airports now accept American Express, MasterCard, and Visa credit cards. Local calls made from pay phones in most locales cost 50¢ (no pennies, please).
Most long-distance and international calls can be dialed directly from any phone. For calls within the United States and to Canada, dial 1 followed by the area code and the seven-digit number. For other international calls, dial 011 followed by the country code, 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 sometimes 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 collect, person-to-person, or both. If your operator-assisted call is international, ask for the overseas operator.
For local directory assistance (“information”), dial 411; for long-distance information, dial 1, then the appropriate area code and 555-1212.
CELLPHONES
Just because your cellphone works at home doesn’t mean it’ll work in Kauai (thanks to our nation’s fragmented cellphone system). Take a look at your wireless company’s coverage map on its website before heading out—T-Mobile, Sprint, and Nextel are particularly weak in Kauai’s rural areas. If you need to stay in touch at a destination where you know your phone won’t work, rent a phone that does from InTouch USA ( 80 0/872-7626;www.intouchglobal.com) or a rental car location, but be aware that you’ll pay $1 a minute or more for airtime.
If you’re not from the U.S., you’ll be appalled at the poor reach of our GSM (Global System for Mobile Communications) wireless network, which is used by much of the rest of the world. Your phone will probably work in most major U.S. cities; it definitely won’t work in many rural areas. To see where GSM phones work in the U.S., check out www.t-mobile.com/coverage/national_popup.asp. And you may or may not be able to send SMS (text messaging) home.
VOICE-OVER INTERNET PROTOCOL (VOIP)
If you have Web access while traveling, you might consider a broadband-based telephone service (in technical terms, Voice-over Internet Protocol, or VoIP) such as Skype (www.skype.com) or Vonage