Best way to do "where r u ?" texts ??

Depending on how long your trip is and how many of these texts/calls you make, it may be cheaper to buy local SIM cards and use them in unlocked phones (you may have to purchase them if you don't currently own any) than use AT&T.

I'd see if your kindly carrier would unlock your phones and use local SIM.
US carriers rates are at best pretty poor,at worse robbery.
And in your case having two US registered phones you likely are getting charged the expensive rate both ends of the call. A local SIM might be 4c a min from the calling phone only, the US route might be 89c a min both ends, couple of days of that and be cheaper to buy another phone

Laura B,

Look at T Mobile 50 UDS/month international plan. Depending on how long youre going to be there, it maybe worth it.

As Richard has suggested, depending on how long youre going to be there you may want to get a local SIM. If you do go with a local SIM, make sure you can buy/add minutes when you need to especially when youre out of the country of SIM origin.

another thing, you may look at buying an inexpensive PAYG phone overthere.

happy trails.

Ray, I need to check my bill but I don't think I am paying T-Mobile $50 for the plan. I think its a lot cheaper. AT&T apparently has a good plan too. Before I purchase an unlocked phone and one of those hit and miss European SIM cards I would check out AT&T's European plan and add up the cost of a few texts a day. Probably really cheap compared to the overall cost of the trip.

Not sure if it is only available with iphones, but I have AT&T and do not use any data roaming or cellular data while in Europe, but I will do the plan that is $10 for 50 OUTGOING international texts. INCOMING are free, so I always make sure my texts are all that I want to say before hitting send, but this is a great way to keep in touch. I will do an occasional phone call and just keep it short, etc, but that way I still have my same phone, know how to use it, don't have any problems.... I need to keep it simple when I travel. There is a time frame that you use the texts and if I remember you need to cancel it when you get home. Maybe it is a monthly thing... but I have done this on my past 6 or 7 trips and it works perfectly.

@ James

" Ray, I need to check my bill but I don't think I am paying T-Mobile $50 for the plan. I think its a lot cheaper. AT&T apparently has a good plan too. Before I purchase an unlocked phone and one of those hit and miss European SIM cards I would check out AT&T's European plan and add up the cost of a few texts a day. Probably really cheap compared to the overall cost of the trip."

I just got a new smart phone for my trip to Europe this fall and thats what i bought in terms of the monthly international plan. I didnt know it at the time, but it was something new several months ago and decided to try it for my trip. Even though i would be spending the 50 UDS/month between then and Sept, i would still need something to get the garbage load of app updates every day/week/month before i leave. Also, i wanted to learn how to use my new toy now instead of there after the fact.

Just so you know T upped the data to 1 GB/month if you get the 50 UDS/month plan. I think the upped the data on all of their plans too.

A comment about the "hit and miss" SIM cards. I have one from the UK and the Neatherlands and they both work great on my inexpensive cell phone i bought if the UK. both cards are thru T also and the only drawback is that the UK SIM i need to buy vouchers before i leave in order to add minutes. The NL SIM i can add minutes over the www and paypal.

Once i get over to Germany, i will be buying a PAYG SIM for my new toy to try out and see if the regional locks kicks in or not and to see if there are any differences. I will compare rates and such and may dump the USA SIM but i will have to do some +/- to see what happens.

happy trails

Thanks to all for the suggestions. To clarify, we will NOT be making calls or texts to the U.S. -- emails from the hotel WiFi are enough -- but want the ability to be in contact with each other within the same city (most likely, within the same museum.) Looking into the AT&T text plan while keeping data turned off.

If you are texting back and forth with US based cell phones, you are, in reality, texting to a US phone that happens to be in Europe... but it makes no difference if you do the AT&T plan as the charges are the same. I went directly to the AT&T office as the phone help did not seem to be clear about what I needed.... no calling, no data, just international texts.

Ray, I need to call TMobile cause I just checked my bill and its not that high. The SIM card I was complaining about was the ones that they sell in the US for use all over Europe. The ones that I am familiar with are UK numbers tied to VOIP and they don't work very well. I would imagine SIMS from that country's provider would work real fine.

I was going to ask if your carrier is AT&T but it sounds like it is. AT&T offers good deals on international calling and text. The last time I went to Europe I didn't have a smartphone so I used their text and voice international "plan."