Phone advice for traveling abroad

7/8/2022

Phone advice for traveling abroad

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OK, traveling friends, I just got a letter from one of our August guests who will be heading to Croatia with us and I need your help answering his letter. I'll post his letter and my reply and hope you'll jump in with advice based on your travel experience regarding phones in Europe.

12:41 PM Friday, July 7
Hello Elizabeth,
What are your recommendations for using our cell phones while on the trip? Carol and I both have unlocked I-phones with Verizon as our current carrier. They have an international plan we can add. But, there should be a better way to go. Cellular Abroad looks like a good option. Does a SIM card that works in Italy also work in Croatia? What do you usually do? Thanks,

my response:
We recently changed from Verizon to T-Mobile so we could have better coverage. We can text for no extra charge, but calls are still pricey for us at .25 per minute.

Our partner, Boris Leostrin will be purchasing a sim card when he arrives in Croatia, but he said it won't work in Montenegro and therefore, probably not in Italy. We may have to purchase separate sim cards for each country if we want to make calls.

We'll do some more research. In fact, lets start a discussion with our travel group and see what advice everyone has to share with each other. I'll post it on the blog and invite everyone to make comments.

Thanks for asking!
Elizabeth

So, I'm asking you, our traveling friends, what do you do for phone service in Europe? Please tell us in the comments below.

4 Comments

Marla ward

7/8/2022 06:43:28 pm

I’ve done a bit of checking on this very issue. From multiple people I’ve been told to use the internet when possible and also the app ‘ what’s app’. It is very secure to make phone calls to others who have the same app. I’ve had the app for 6 months or more and am pleased with it.

Arlene Butler

7/8/2022 07:03:20 pm

We also have T-Mobile because of the free texts. Calls are expensive so we use Face Time with our iPhones. T-Mobile also makes it so we don't have to buy SIM cards anymore. We call them and upgrade our international service for higher speed downloads during the time we are traveling.

Steve Kittelson

7/8/2022 08:38:49 pm

We just returned from two weeks in Italy. We have T-Mobile and have free text and could use WhatsApp if we wanted to but never felt the need. We also use the Internet to send emails to our kids along with photos of our trip. And of course we can always make an international call if there was an emergency.

Lowell Steele

7/8/2022 09:53:17 pm

Our carrier is AT&T. We use their International Day Pass, which gives us the exact same calling, data, and text services we have at home for $10/day for your first line, and $5/day for additional lines on the same day.. There is no charge on days we don't use the phone, and no extra charge after 10 days per line, per bill.

We have used it in Europe, the Middle East, and in South America, and have been very happy with the service. The main advantages have been a) we don't have the security concerns associated with using public/hotel Wi-Fi services for logins to secure websites, b) We've been able to do video calls with our grandkids from significant historical sites using the same unlimited data we have at home, and c) if we are separated, we can reach each other on our cell phones.

I don't know for sure if T-Mobile or Verizon have a similar service, but I seem to recall that they do.

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Phone advice for traveling abroad

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