Even a few years ago, it seemed implausibly expensive to bring your own mobile phone to Europe. Now that phone calls are getting (a little) cheaper and free hotspots make it easy to download data, do you travel with your mobile phone? If so, to what extent do you use it? If not, how do you make phone calls while you’re traveling?
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I’ve found that for less than $10 (for a month’s worth of unlimited calling), you can buy a package on Skype to call any landline or cellphone in the US. Bring your cellphone over to Europe, find a Wifi hotspot and call away all you like.
In the UK, I also find that a calling card from the Post Office (don’t buy them elsewhere) will give me more minutes than I need and allow me the flexibility of calling from my hotel which may or may not have Wifi capabilities.
We primarily use Google Talk to communicate with people back in the US on a netbook. If we use our cell phones which is rare then we have an international SIM card from GoSim. I believe incoming calls are free and outgoing are 50 cents a minute regardless of what country you are in.
I use the phone card from the local area, ie Italy, France, Germany, if going to be in that country for at least 2 wks. If shorter time in a country, use the laptop for either emails, or skype.
I believe a significant number of RS’s tour customers really appreciate their guide’s arrangements for communications back to the US and around Europe. On our tour we received a free phone card from our guide which we could use right from our hotel room for the first few days. Helen may never have realized how many of us felt that seemingly simple gesture was greatly appreciated.
While in the UK just go into any phone shop and buy a local cell phone for ~15GBP – it includes a basic phone for talk and text and ~2 hours of call time. Buy or ‘top off’ your minutes at any gas station, grocery store, tabac or post office for 5-10GBP for more talk/text time. The Orange Network is good, but there are others to use too. Plus no roaming fees.
I also take my netbook for wifi hotspots. We have 2 phones, that way my husband and I can be off doing things and coordinate meetups.
Save the phone for your next trip – you just need to buy a SIM card for it for the next time (~4GBP).
Easy peasy.
Because it so easy to send numerous emails with my iPhone using free WiFi, I no longer make any calls back home. Before that I bought a 5 euro international phone card in the first country and used it with the hotel phone (Asking first if the hotel would charge for the use. The answer has always been no charge.) I never used up the entire 5 euro worth of minutes. I have thought about buying a phone in Europe to use within Europe but have not done it yet.
I travel with my cellphone and rarely use it–occasionally for some travel emergency but mostly so my family in the US can reach me immediately if necessary. I travel with a netbook and really prefer using email to be exact and avoid language difficulties and ambiguities. You can get the answers to most questions on the internet and using the netbook mostly avoids the language problems you get on the phone.
I have an unlocked GSM phone, and I usually buy a SIM card when I get to Europe. This last time, though (October) I took the iPad and used the hotel or other WiFi to make calls on Skype. It was faster and easier than my phone. I was sitting in our London hotel room, and used Skype to call a restaurant for dinner reservations. I used it the same way in Belgium and France. It cost pennies even to call a land line, and the connection was fine. I had to call back home for some business, and the 30-minute call cost less than $1.
I’m sort of wondering if I’ll even bother with my phone in Europe unless we stay somewhere without WiFi. Mind you, you may need the phone if someone wants to contact you (like that restaurant that wanted a call-back number), but between my American accent and “I’m calling via the Web” we got it worked out (and dinner was great)!
We have embraced the tablet and do email communications, but I also have a cheap cellphone and SIM from Cellular Abroad for which I can buy minutes and “recharge” as needed. I like having a “local” number (in Italy) and I like knowing what it is before I travel so I can leave it as a contact number with my lodging hosts, family, etc. And of course I use it to make and confirm reservations. For about $25 per year, I can keep the number active by recharging. Maybe not practical for everyone, but it works for us. I don’t want to worry that my US smartphone will accrue billing so I leave it behind.
I have an unlocked quad-band phone I bought several years ago off the Motorola website solely for travel. For long trips I buy a “universal” SIM from ekit.com or telestial.com before leaving, otherwise I buy in-country. But I RARELY use the phone – I use Skype on my netbook (or iPad on the last trip) for the few calls I make instead (I use email and have a blog for keeping in touch). I was especially pleased to find that I can use Skype to call toll-free numbers in the US as Capital One will only let me record travel info for 60 days at a time and I need to call mid-trip.
In Sept I brought my G2 phone along on South Italy & Sicily RS tours. Set it for wifi calling, free and available at most of our tour hotels (thanks Rick). It takes a pretty strong signal to support phoning, but e-mailing & webbing usually worked great. In a few places the room signal was strong enough to support a call; if not, running down to the lobby would work. I noticed tour members are as anxious for wifi as their room keys, and RS delivers.
I’ve been travelling with a Cellphone since about 2004, and I “don’t leave home without it”. So far I’ve just packed along a “basic” Motorola “flip” style phone for voice calls or text / SMS, but no data functions. For the last two years, I’ve also travelled with a Netbook which is used for E-mail, Blogging and internet use, along with an older iPod Touch (no camera or speaker). I haven’t felt any need to use Skype so far (in my situation, the time difference would make that awkward).
Up until 2010 I used roaming with my home cell network rather than buying a SIM card in Europe. That method was reasonably cost effective as the majority of my use was for text rather than voice calls. However, roaming costs with my home cell network have increased quite substantially over the last few years (now $2 per minute for incoming or outgoing calls), so I decided to look at alternatives.
For my 2010 trip, I decided to try an “experiment” and use a SIM from one of the “travel phone” firms to see how that compared in cost. I assessed a number of travel SIM firms, and felt that Roam Simple was the best fit for my particular situation. The SIM uses a UK-based number with 02 Telefonica, and the rates are the same for most countries in western Europe. The billing is arranged in “zones” so travel in Croatia and other parts of eastern Europe will be more expensive than in western Europe. So far I’ve found this to be a very cost effective method and decided to use the same plan for my 2011 trip. They offer the option of yearly renewals of the SIM and calling plan for about $9 which seemed very reasonable. On my most recent trip, my total costs were about $60 for a six week trip, which included occasional voice calls (confirm Hotels, etc.) and texts to family at home.
The Cellphone situation for my trip in 2012 will be considerably different, as I’ve recently upgraded to an iPhone so will now have to be concerned with data roaming costs. I was sure to buy an unlocked iPhone, so won’t have to deal with unlocking or “jail breaking”. I’ve just learned that Roam Simple now offers iPhone / iPad SIM and data plans, so that’s something I’m considering.
It’s very likely that I’ll continue to use the same “travel SIM” service for my iPhone, and there are two ways this could be structured: (1.) Buy the Micro-SIM with a 0 MB data plan, and strictly use Wi-Fi for data and internet access, similar to an iPod Touch. The phone and text costs would remain the same as my current plan OR (2.) Buy the Micro-SIM with a 50 MB Global data plan at a cost of $99. I believe voice and text will be the same, but this would allow a limited amount of data use which could be quite useful when out touring. I’m not sure how much data I might use, so will be monitoring my typical use over the next few months. Adding the data charges to my voice and text costs will be a significant increase. I’ll have to decide whether I’m willing to pay for the convenience of having data available when away from Wi-Fi.
While there are MANY different options for communicating during travels, the “bottom line” is that there’s usually a cost associated with this. While Skype and similar services offer very low cost, these are not as convenient for those who need communications to be readily available. The convenience of a Cellphone (with or without data) comes with a cost, and there are few ways to avoid that.
Great ideas already listed here, and I’ve tried many of them, depending on where I am going and for how long. When in the UK, I travel with a phone I bought there several years ago and for which I still have a pay-by-the-minute account that can be loaded electronically. Sometimes, depending on where I’m going, I take that phone and buy a SIM card for it in the country I’m visiting. I most often travel with my Blackberry, but turn off the data packets to avoid the high charges for that. I also travel with an iPad and use skype as well as email. Clearly I’m over prepared, but I also need to be in touch with my office regularly.
Skype!
I gave up on using public booths for phone calls in Europe in 2005 because there were so few of them and they were almost always in noisy areas making conversations difficult. I had made phone calls up until then to book rooms as I traveled but, beginning with my 4-week trip to Italy in 2006, I booked all of my rooms by email before I left home. The process was flawless and I have been doing it ever since in my annual trips to Europe. I hadn’t made a phone call since 2005 until this past summer in Western France, where I needed to make a few for special arrangements. I bought a cell phone in Paris, which worked well enough and, when I go to Ireland and England this summer, I’ll see if I can get it to work again. The phone calls I’ll make will still be few in number.
Prepaid sim card in cheap,unlocked, quad band, cell phone. If I loose it, it is no big deal.
I have an iPhone and can get 50 international texts for $10. I use this mostly to send a quick message home or to communicate with my spouse when we get separated. I do get the international rate plan added before trip and use it to make reservations, etc and use free wi-fi on it when internet is an option.
I don’t make calls from my cell phone when I’m abroad. I guess I just assume it’s going to be expensive and too confusing to try and get a new SIM card. Is that even how it works??
I use skype and buy some credit to call phones. Otherwise I have my contacts set up an account so we can videochat for free.