Droid Maxx Cell Phone for Verizon and Telestial service in Europe

John, where are you going to travel to? What countries?

How often do you travel and what will you need to do with your phone? Are you anticipating you will need to make a lot of calls?

Call Verizon and clarify that the Droid Maxx will work overseas (pricing aside). Most new phones now are able to work internationally. Nothing needs to be unlocked or turned on. Then I would clarify with Verizon how much texts and calls will cost if you do not specifically purchase an international plan.

I have ATT and an iphone. With ATT, without an international plan, it is 1.39 a minute for calls and 25-50 cents to send/receive texts depending on who I am texting with. So I have never purchased a special sim card or international plan. I get everything done using carefully planned texts and taking advantage of free wifi (using Skype, email, instant messenger, facetime, etc). And free wifi has become very common. If your hotel doesn't have it, it is usually easy to find another hotel/restaurant/coffee shop/McDonalds that does.

In my opinion, special Sim cards aren't necessary now.

Using your local provider abroad would be an expensive mistake, so getting either a local SIM or an international roaming SIM like Telestial is definitely a wise move. I've used them before, and while nano SIMs aren't quite standard across the board for all providers yet, Telestial do offer nano SIMs. They've also got a free app that allows you to see what you've spent and top up your account, which I found very useful. Sounds to me like you're on the right track.

Thank you all for your assistance. We do not travel as frequently as some do here but we have been to Europe 9 times in the last 11 years, also China. My wife has needed to participate in meetings of the International Continence Society so we get some of our expenses paid.

We will be going to Switzerland and France for 11 days. We will be in a hurry to get to our Murren destination after arriving mid-afternoon in Zurich so the idea of having the cell phone ready to go appeals to me a lot. I know it would be somewhat cheaper to wait but I doubt whether I could get a nano SIM card in Murren where we will be for 4 days. So, I am definitely planning to get a Telestial nano SIM first. I am getting pretty confident that the Droid Maxx will work in Europe with a nano SIM from Telestial.

I intend to keep my costs down by using SKYPE on wi-fi whenever I can. I have a Galaxy tablet for that.

In October we will be in Rio de Janeiro for about 10 days and I think a Telestian nano SIM will work there too.

If you are planning to use Telestial, double check Verizon's international roaming rates. It may just be easiest to use Verizon's international service until you can buy a local SIM. When you factor in the cost of buying a Telestial SIM, it may not even be more expensive overall, particularly if you are only making a few calls or using a little data before you are buying a local SIM.

What I just found in Italy is that nano-SIMs were available, but not in every store (just ask when you go in; if that particular store doesn't have them, they will direct you to another one from that carrier that does).

At $.35 per MB, the data rate on the link you gave looks a bit expensive.

Which rate do you mean is better? The voice rate (local or roaming?), the text rate, the data rate (local or roaming?).
If you get my drift, European SIMs are complicated to evaluate and compare when you really begin drilling into the details. And there are about 12 variables to getting a SIM, plus the variables of your own usage needs.
Sorry to not give a "quick fix" answer but anyone who makes it look really simple probably hasn't dealt with the subject very deeply.

Some companies offering SIMs lean more toward voice/texting and the data seems an expensive addition to their service.
Define what countries you will be traveling in, for how long, how many devices you will use, whether you expect to use mostly voice, voice and text, voice and text and data. If you really want data at good rates then in my experience, that changes the attractiveness of various companies offering SIMs for Europe.

Nano SIMs are more common, but some of the European discount phone services don't offer them yet. Another factor that limits your options.

Anyway, after puzzling it over for days, looking at numerous companies, I just settled for lefrenchmobile because it was easy to understand and use their web site and services and their rates weren't bad, not the cheapest, but not bad either. Plus they support roaming into other countries at reduced rates. English telephone support, no expiration of plans, etc. I was mostly based in France, though. It's not always about the rates, but also flexibility and ease of use.

I agree with Dick. You can save money (if that is your primary goal) by getting more specific country-oriented SIMs. For France, for instance, people often mention lebarra or free, to name a few. It gets more involved when you also want data - internet service for web browsing or apps that use the internet (forget streaming). On our last trip, we wanted it all - voice, texting, MMS, and internet access - all at decent prices, in multiple countries, with easy to manage and monitor plans and with decent support. That's a more involved set of requirements to fill.

Anyway, like Dick said, here's an idea:
After landing, go to a kiosk where they sell phones and SIMs - in good English. Hand them your phones, tablets, whatever and tell them your exact needs and make sure what they sell you does all you expect. Right there, have them install the SIMs they sell you and TEST that everything is working to your heart's content. Ask them to show you how to monitor your usage and top-up your account and select appropriate plans. Assuming the seller is trustworthy and willing to do all this, you should be able to walk away with a working solution. This may not always be the cheapest solution, but should be the quickest and easiest.