Cell Phone / iPad for Europe

There are relatively cheap pay-as-you-go cell phones you can buy in Europe. There are also "sim" cards you can buy in each country in Europe that allows you to buy into their cell system with your own phone. People who have navigated this web of tech issued probably consider them easy.

However, I just use wifi-based Skype on my iPod or iPad. I find it easy and almost free and I don't have to worry about crossing borders. All you need is wifi, which is common enough in many places in Europe. The only thing it doesn't give you is the ability to call if you were stranded by the side of the road in the country somewhere.

I once had trouble meeting up with our apartment owner in Venice. We knocked on the door to the building & no answer. I didn't have a cell phone with me, but I did have the access code to the apartment's wifi and I knew the apartment was about 10 feet above my head. So I pulled out my computer, connected to the wifi, opened Skype, and called the owner (who was in the apartment cleaning) telling them we were at the front door. 30 seconds into the conversation she opened the door to see me sitting there on the stoop talking to her on my computer. The call traveled 12,000 miles to go 12 feet...

Even with Skype, we only find the need to make calls like this on very rare occasion. Email messages are how we usually communicate within Europe, and a combination of email and Facebook is all the communication we need with folks at home.

I have been to Europe a few times in the last couple of years. I took an iPhone and an iPad with me both times. I turned "data" off on both devices and turned "Airplane Mode" on for both when I boarded the plane. Once I arrived in Europe, I would use WiFi on both devices but would never turn "Airplane Mode" off. This prevents the device from accessing European cell providers and racking up very high roaming charges. I didn't have a need to call anyone, so it wasn't an issue for me not to have phone service. I was able to send iMessages back home using WiFi so that's how I communicated with family back in the States. If you think you will need/want to make phone calls, you should ask your cell phone provider about European plans and also about getting a loaner phone to use since most US based phones do not work in Europe.

Here's the way we handle it:

Both of our phones stay on international voice/text since we travel so much. That's about forty bucks per month per device and keeps the phone calls down to a buck a minute vice two bucks. Texts have a limit, but we've never hit it. Both of these are the minimal plans.

The tablets stay off of cellular data since we use wifi. The infrequent times we've needed data for them it didn't amount to a hill of beans, but it didn't involve photos or videos.

If you find you've misjudged, it's a two-minute call to put yourself on a different plan.

We keep our mechanics simple:

Cellular data goes off at the departure date for all devices. This kills data roaming as well. They stay that way for the duration with the odd exception noted above.

Messing with multiple toggles (cell data, airplane, wifi) increases the chance for a screw up by leaving something on. (Ex: airplane kills wifi, so if you want to use wifi, it's another step.) Airplane mode also kills the gps (which will work fine without cell data, it just won't give you turn-by-turns and you'd have to have download a map of some kind (easy). Keep it simple - - one switch does it all.

Now, the biggie. If you ever turn cell data on, for pete's sake remember to turn it back off immediately. Smart ass, knowledgeable guy that I am, I once flipped it on to check a departure gate, started running without turning it off, and by the time we were high enough that data was no longer flowing I'd burned through eighty bucks.

Jim,

I'll try to provide a few suggestions for each of the issues you mentioned.....

• Transferring contacts to the iPad - are you using a PC or Mac with iTunes? It may be a simple matter of just clicking a button on the iTunes preferences. You might try this - with your iPad sync'd to the computer and iTunes "open", click once on the "Jim's iPad" text (or whatever you've called it), which will take you to iTunes, probably the "Summary" page - click on the "Info" button and that will bring up a menu to choose which contacts you want to sync (in my case, I just click the "All Contacts" button). These instructions are for a Mac, so not sure if the PC version is the same?
• Prepaid phone / phone in Europe - it's not likely that your prepaid phone will operate in Europe, either because it doesn't use GSM technology, or doesn't have the necessary frequency bands. Therefore you'll probably have to buy another phone for travel. An iPhone is certainly one option, but that comes with the issue of data roaming which can be ENORMOUSLY expensive. If you'd prefer that option, you could obtain the phone from any of the U.S. cellular networks. The best deal right now appears to be T-Mobile, as they offer really cheap rates for international roaming. The other networks also offer roaming in Europe, but costs are higher. If you only plan on using the phone for occasional voice calls or text, using your regular network is certainly an option (but BLOCK the cellular data as the others have mentioned).
• Other phone options - you could also obtain an inexpensive, unlocked quad-band GSM phone off E-Bay or Amazon, and use that either with a SIM card purchased locally when you arrive in Europe OR a SIM card from one of the travel phone firms such as Roam Simple, Cellular Abroad, Telestial, Mobal, One SIM, Max Roam or others. I used a basic Motorola V-551 flip for many years and it worked well for voice and text. If you buy a SIM in Europe, it will be on a prepaid plan, so will require topping-up when the minutes are depleted, which may be difficult once you leave the country of purchase. Also, the rates will increase slightly when you leave the country of purchase, as you'll then be "roaming". If you buy a SIM from one of the travel phone firms, it will likely be on a post-paid basis (calls charged to a credit card), so no issues with topping up. These also have consistent rates throughout western Europe, so there won't be a change as you move between countries (there are some exceptions to that however, especially when travelling in eastern Europe).
• Using iPad with cellular in Europe - you'll also want to be careful with cellular data roaming when using the iPad in Europe. I'd highly recommend contacting Verizon to get some idea what those costs might be, and other details about travelling with the iPad in Europe. It would probably be a good idea to BLOCK cellular data on that as well, and just access E-mail and other internet activities when you have Wi-Fi available.

As this is your first trip to Europe, I'd also recommend reading Europe Through The Back Door prior to your trip, as that includes a LOT of good information on "how" to travel well in Europe. You should be able to find a copy at your local Library. Then use the country or city-specific Guidebooks to plan hotels, transportation, sightseeing, etc. When is this trip taking place?

Happy travels!

TMobile is the only US company that has it figured out. We pay $98/mo including tax and fees for two iPhone sims which includes all the data, text and calling we need in the States, and in Europe free data and text and 20¢/min calls. Turn on the phone when you land in Europe with no worries about roaming charges, overages, no fussing with getting local SIM cards. Right now TMobile pays cancellation fees for ATT and others. For the iPad, TM has a free plan with 250mb/mo which works great on my iPad II but I'm not sure whether it includes Europe.

@ Tex,

T mobile has a 30/50 USD monthly plan that included unlimited international, but it drops you to 2G overthere. Dont know about the 2 for deal.

happy trails.

Thank you all VERY much. I am a well educated and recently retired business professional and after reading all of your comments I feel like a third grader when I try to understand what you have shared with me (actually they would understand it better than I do). I realize that I need to talk with Verizon and probably T-Mobile about my problem and find the right solution. Simply put, I believe most of my communication with my wife will be by email, but I don't want to be gone for 3-4 weeks without her being able to reach me in an emergency. The Skype idea sounds good and it is something that will work on my iPad. I guess as I read your responses I also just realized that I am more concerned than I thought about being a 68 year old guy on his first solo trip anywhere outside the US without a way to get help if I need it. Still have lots to learn.

jim,

you will find that people are people no matter where you go. goverments are a different story.

being polite gets you along way i found so remember that.

also, if you need to, there are still those old fashion land lines in alot of places and if that doesnt work you can ask for any local internet cafes, or anyplace with internet access.

you will have alot of fun overthere.

happy trails.

Thank you all for the help and ideas. I will use them all. FYI, in case you haven't noticed with the revamping of this web site the TH has taken away the email notice to members when they get a response to a posting they put up. I wrote to [email protected] and asked about it and they confirmed it, saying that it sort of fell through the cracks, probably because no one there saw the value of it. With the volume of postings it can get lost in the shuffle if we don't check daily.

Jim: I have an iPhone 5 through Verizon and took it with me to France and Germany last year. Before departing the US, I added the cheapest Verizon international phone and data plan to my cell phone plan--I think around $25 per monthly cycle. When I landed in CDG and turned on my phone, I had a text message welcoming me to the French network and giving me dialing instructions. And, the same thing occurred when I landed in Berlin. I don't use my iPhone for a lot of data downloads and the basic amount of data covered in the plan was sufficient--I downloaded emails about once a day and conducted several searches each day for nearby restaurants or directions, etc. I had no problems with excessive data usage. Good luck on your upcoming solo trip--you will be fine.

For the record, I have an iPhone5 with Verizon and had the same experience as Darrel while in Germany and Austria this past May, in that I opted for $25/100 MB data plan and used hotel wifi whenever possible (with cellular data turned off). I occasionally turned on the cellular data for brief periods when out of the hotel to check weather info, look up a phone number, etc., and also did not end up using anywhere near the 100MB data allotment during the entire 2-week trip. I also liked being able to keep my US phone number, which made it easier for someone from the US to get in touch (vs. having a U.K. phone number as was the case when I used to rent phones). With the iPhone, don't forget to turn off the "enable LTE" setting in "cellular" when you arrive in Europe and change your email setting to "fetch" (manual; otherwise the phone will automatically download your email and eat up data).

If you have your iPad just use FaceTime. I have used it in Germany , Italy , France, Spain, Portugal and Netherlands to call back to the US to my family using the wifi from my hotels the past 2 summers. Simple, zero cost and I already had my iPad.

The thing with FaceTime is you can only do it with other Apple devices. You can't use FaceTime from your iPhone or iPad to call a landline or phones/pads other than Apples.

As to video calls from Europe via WiFi, sometimes the transmission speed is not adequate. I use Skype (pennies a minute) for telephone calls within each country and internationally. T-Mobile offers tantalizing rates.