Best Cell Phone

welcome, if you have your own cell phone, look into whats available for you in terms of roaming ratess and such. ive bought my 1st cell phone recently and i bougth it in london the last time i was there. its a Quad Band and unlocked for about 60 USD that included 10 Pounds of www/text/chat time and a memory card. Its a slider type since i wanted the buttons covered. There were less expensive phones too. im currently have issues adding time to my UK SIM. I also bought a SIM from Amsterdam since i was able to top it off via the www. also,its a PAYG type since i dont need to chat here. I chose T-Mobile since it appeared at the time it was going to cover where i was going and planning to go in the future. If you check, there are alot of providers overther. fwiw, i looked at "carphonewarehouse.co.uk" to do some research on cell phones, rates and such. it maynot be the best/cheapest ect., but you will get an idea. If you check out the individual provides, they should have maps of coverage, T-mobile did. you can also check out some reviews on the various providers. what i found was that every provider had +/-. in the end, i just chose the one that had the best rates and coverage where i was going or planned to go. IAC, ive been able to use my AMS SIM card overthere and here in the US. Its just cost me more to make calls when outside of the Neatherlands. Since i only plan on using the phone for emergencies and such, the cost for the SIM isnt that big a deal. just any fyi, if you havent discovered this already-it was new to me. When i used my Neatherlands SIM here in the US, it recoginized that i was here and i just dialed the local number as if it was a local phone. Happy Trails.

Thanks Ray I'll check into that.

@Ray, "it recoginized that i was here and i just dialed the local number as if it was a local phone" That's true for outgoing calls, but anyone wanting to call you on your Amsterdam number will have to dial international long distance, and you'll pay for the incoming call to be routed to the U.S. @Amy, As you're going to be visiting several countries, keep in mind that if you buy a SIM in (for example) the U.K., your minutes will be depleted faster once you leave the country since you'll then be "roaming". While the roaming rates have been "capped" by the E.U., it's still something to consider. It would help to know whether you currently have a cell phone, which network you're with and what type of uses you plan on for the travel phone (ie: voice, text, data)? You could also look at plans / phones offered by the "travel phone" firms such as Roam Simple, Cellular Abroad, Call In Europe, Telestial, Mobal, EuroBuzz, One Sim and Max Roam. Many of those use a U.K. number, provide somewhat consistent rates throughout western Europe and some use post-paid billing (calls charged to a credit card), so no need to top-up. Check their respective websites for details. One method that's very popular is to buy an unlocked quad-band GSM phone off E-Bay or other sites, and use that either with SIM cards purchased in Europe or with a SIM card supplied by one of the travel phone firms. That provides a bit more choice in the type of phone purchased, for those that prefer a particular style (ie: flip, slider, etc.). The "best cell phone" will depend to some extent on how you plan to use it. If you buy a phone here, you will of course need Plug Adaptors for the Charger to use it in Europe. Happy travels!

What about the Magic Jack?