Rent an International phone

welcome Lew,

If you have a cell phone, id ask your provider what charges/fees are for international calls and such and if you have a phone that will work overthere.

worse case, i would buy one once you touch down at whatever place that is. they are inexpensive overthere compared to here and the rates are usually less expensive too.

Another option is to look for a used cellphone store in your neck of the woods. Ebay or craigslist will have them,but you have to deal with the flakes.

i think renting will be more expensive than buying. also, once youre done, if you buy, its yours to use and you can use it back in that states too.

happy trails.

If you already have an unlocked 4-band phone, just get an International SIM card. You can get one specifically for France and one for Poland, or get an international card like Go-SIM. Cost per minute is more ($0.50/min) but it will work anywhere there is service. If you don't have a phone, just get a used one on e-bay or craigslist. I'd say that would be less costly than a rental.

Verizon has a global service plan for short-term international trips. If you have a global ready phone (such as an iPhone 5) and are a Verizon customer, you could sign up for a global voice plan and/or a global data plan and can keep your U.S. phone number. Global voice has a $4.99 one-time payment that buys discounted call prices ($.99 per minute in France; $2.29 per minute in Poland - just checked their website); for global data you pay $25 for 100 MB. If you reach 100 MB, they will ask if you wish to purchase more (so no risk of accumulating exorbitant data charges). If you don't have a global phone, Verizon will loan you one for free. I used this service (have an iPhone 5) this past May in Austria and Germany and found it to be excellent and not very costly, since I made very few calls. Sure, one can definitely find a cheaper alternative, such as buying an unlocked phone on eBay and purchasing a SIM card, but I liked having my U.S. number and not having to do anything other than turn my phone off and on to activate the global service. I used wifi in hotels to avoid data charges but liked having the option to use cellular data to check weather, look up addresses, etc. when out and about. All together, I paid much less than renting a phone (which I used to do) for short-term trips from Cell Hire.

Why do you need to rent a phone? If you are going to be in a rural area or are there for business and anticipate needing to use the phone a lot, I get it. But if you are going to be in the big cities and need to communicate home a few times, free wifi is everywhere in Poland-hotels, restaurants, main streets. You can communicate through IM/facetime/email for free.