Calling Home

If your current cell phone is GSM (the standard mobile phone network throughout Europe) and also a "quad-band" phone, you can often get an international plan through your current carrier. I suggest contacting your cell provider here in the U.S. to see if your current phone is compatible for use in Europe and asking about getting an International plan while you are on your trip.

Even with an international plan, calls, texts and especially data roaming will still be pretty expensive (with the exception of T-Mobile, which does offer free international roaming for many countries). If you have a smart phone, such as an iPhone, you can use your current phone, turning off data roaming and mainly using your phone as a wifi device. Wifi is widely available throughout Europe, and you can connect at your hotel and many restaurants and cafes.

If you will be making a lot of phone calls while in Croatia, then buying an inexpensive Croatian SIM card once you are in Croatia will be your best bet. Phone stores are plentiful in larger towns and cities, so you can go into one and purchase a SIM card for your current phone (as long as it's unlocked), or buy an inexpensive Croatian phone.

Read through the tips on this webpage for more information: www.ricksteves.com/travel-tips/phones-tech

A couple of slight corrections and additions:

T-Mobile international roaming is part of their Simple Choice plan that offers 20 cents/minute calling in many European countries; unfortunately, as of now, Croatia is not one of them. To use your T-Mobile phone in Croatia would cost $2.39 USD per minute. Obviously, in that case, I would not use it except for an emergency; buying a local SIM in Croatia would be a better option.

Even if you have a GSM phone, it must be a "quad band" (aka "world phone") GSM phone to work in Europe; many older GSM "flip-phones" are not quad band and so will probably not work in Europe at all, no matter what plan or carrier you have. It's a technological limitation, not a plan issue.

Your GSM phone must also be unlocked to work with some other SIM you'd buy in Croatia.

FYI, if you have a smart phone, you can buy a US phone number with Skype for $18 USD for three months, then receive calls on it in Croatia while on WiFi, for no extra cost; buy Skype credit to make outgoing calls. You could also forward your US phone number to the Skype phone number before leaving the US, so anyone calling your regular phone number would get forwarded seamlessly to the Skype number and you could either answer it if you were online or get voicemail through Skype.

Google Voice may also be an option; I have not tried to use it in Europe lately without a VPN, so I don't know how it works for without one.

Thanks for your help. I hadn't considered Skype or Google Voice.