What to do if you lose your phone while traveling

"Oh, no, I left my phone in Finland!"
Kent German/CNET.

During a recent trip to New York, I found myself walking through midtown, lost in thought. Glancing down at my phone, I tripped; the phone went flying and came to rest right at the edge of a sewer grate. Had it fallen through, I'd have been seriously screwed.

At that moment, I realized just how vital that phone was to my entire trip. It had the name and address of my hotel (neither of which I could remember). It had my flight info. It was my sole means of contacting the people I was in town to see. And, of course, it was my map; how else was I to navigate the streets of a foreign (to me) city?

Indeed, we've become so reliant on our phones for travel, we don't often stop to think about how to survive without them. But things happen. Phones get stolen all the time. They get left behind in buses and Ubers (and good luck contacting your Uber driver without your phone!). They get dropped into toilets and, if the universe is feeling playful, sewers.

Those are the perils; these are the tools and solutions you need to overcome them.

If your phone gets lost or stolen, you should be able to track it down -- provided you act quickly.
Both iPhones and Android phones have location-tracking features, in the form of Find My iPhone and Find My Device, respectively. (You've enabled it, right? Right?!) But how can you track your phone without, er, your phone? Simple: Borrow any internet-connected device you can find -- a tablet, someone else's phone, a PC in a hotel's business center, etc. -- and open a browser.
If it's an iPhone, head to icloud.com, sign into your account, then click Find My iPhone. Choose your phone from the drop-down device menu (if you have more than one), then check the map to see where it's located. Assuming it's not off or in airplane mode, you should get an exact position. You'll also have the option of forcing it to play a sound (maybe it's just lost in the hotel bedsheets?), enabling Lost Mode and erasing the phone entirely (in case it contains sensitive data).
Android users: Open Google in the browser, sign into your account, then type "find my phone" in the search bar. As with the iPhone option, you should be able to see the phone on a map, ring it, lock it out or erase it.

Presto! You're on the road to phone recovery. If you suspect theft, however, be sure to share the location with the police; don't try to confront the thief yourself.

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