Buying a phone in Europe

If you are on Verizon, the chances are your phone is unlocked. If so, just buy a SIM card at your first European destination. Here’s more info on this website.

A couple of options here.

First, you could try to use your Verizon phone only on WiFi with the "WiFi Calling" feature for free. Not every phone supports it, but if yours does, you can text and call people in the US for free while on WiFi. Just leave your Verizon phone in airplane mode then turn on WiFi. If you aren't sure if your phone supports WiFi calling, take it with you to a Verizon store and ask. Test it at home in the same way: put the phone in airplane mode, turn on WiFi and connect, then try making a WiFi call.

As a compromise, you could sign up for Verizon's $10/day plan but use it only on some days. They charge you the $10 only on days you use the phone. Keep your phone in airplane mode otherwise (but turn WiFi on) so you can use the phone for free on those other days.

If that doesn't work - or you want to be reachable even when you don't have WiFi - you could just buy a SIM card for your phone. Most Verizon phones are unlocked, so you should be able to do this. This should be cheaper than buying another phone, plus you'd have your normal phone that you are already used to, with contacts, etc. But like the "Europe phone" you wanted to buy, it will have a European phone number until you put the Verizon SIM back in the phone.

If you want to see how Ruth did this, for almost exactly the same reason you want to, check out this very long thread from a few months ago:

https://community.ricksteves.com/travel-forum/tech-tips/complicated-phone-needs-abroad

In that thread, we talked about how Ruth could use Google Voice and Google Hangouts (smart phone, not a flip phone) to make free calls home to the US and also receive free calls, even from landlines, in the Google Hangouts app. She also bought a Dutch Vodafone SIM on eBay, which I have used too, so she had the phone with Dutch SIM ready to go when she landed in Europe. (Otherwise, you could just buy a SIM when you get to Europe and use it in all the other countries.) A Dutch Vodafone SIM would cost you about $50 USD total for two months of service and the SIM, etc. She reported back that this all worked out great for her, despite some fear of the unknown.

As for actually buying a phone: I'm not sure that is really the best choice, unless you truly don't want to use or take your phone phone to Europe for some reason. Buying a SIM card is going to be cheaper and not require you to learn a new phone.

I bought very cheap phones with a local SIM card for a couple trips. The last four years or so, I've had an unlocked smart phone (bought it that way) and just get a SIM card when I get to Europe. There are multiple companies who sell at kiosks in the airport, shopping centers and department stores as well as having their own boutique stores. Have them install it and make sure it works rather than just buying a SIM and walking away.

How old and tech-phobic are your "aging" parents ? That is, would daily email contact be enough ? Or texting via WhatsApp at a pre-set time using Wi-Fi in hotels ?

If you definitely need immediate telephone access, I can confirm that the Netherlands Vodafone SIM that Andrew H. mentions worked great for us in France and Germany this May (although we didn't need to get calls from our kids.) Just make them a time chart so nobody calls you at 3 a.m. just to chat because it's dinnertime there.