Mobile phone vs Vacation = Work phone

Others will have to address the phone-service issue since I'm a pay-as-you-go T-Mobile customer. However, I spent last summer in Europe, much of it in Italy and eastern Germany. I traveled with an android tablet and an android cell phone rather than Apple products. Wi-Fi was very, very widely available in restaurants and cafes as well as in hotels. You can check on its availability in your specific hotels ahead of time, though you must allow for occasional wrinkles, the most frequent being that your room might be a bit too far from the router. There were occasions when I needed to sit I the hotel lobby to access the internet.

I think you'll be able to take care of a lot of your data-intensive activities while you have access to free Wi-Fi, which will limit your AT&T costs. That assumes, however, that you're not worried about reviewing your business documents (as email attachments) on a public network; I realize I'm making a big assumption there.

I am also a small business owner and I always work as I travel. I used to spend a ton of time working out communication plans for travel...skype number, forward my cell to the skype number so clients can call me, FreeText for texting. Tmobile is awesome. I fly somewhere, turn on my phone and I'm set! You should look into tmobile.

I can download documents thru my email as I travel, no problem. I don't charge client credit cards, though....someone back home does that.

crystal,

I'm not thoroughly familiar with the travel roaming plans offered by AT&T, but that would probably be a good place to start. I'd suggest purchasing a travel pack that includes voice & text, along with some data (you'll have to decide how much data you want to pay for).

You can minimize costs by leaving data roaming switched "off" unless you absolutely need it. Use Wi-Fi as much as possible for the more data-intensive functions. Depending on which hotels you're using along the way, Wi-Fi should be provided with the cost of the room in most cases. Ironically, if you're staying in large, posh chain hotels, there will likely be a charge for that (I've found that the small mom & pop places usually provide Wi-Fi with the room while the posh places charge for it - go figure!).

I have used the TMobile international plan with 20cent phone calls and free data/text without issues in:

Austria
Hungary
Italy
Germany

As well as Israel and the UK with about two dozen points in-between.

I think its the deal of the century

Here is the list

http://www.t-mobile.com/cell-phone-plans/simple-choice-international-plan-countries.html

AT&T has three levels of "passport" travel plans. They include unlimited texting (including pictures), a set amount of data (depends on the plan), and calls at various rates (depending on plan). The plans are an add on to your main AT&T plan and run for a minimum of 30 days, so that should cover your vacation. I'm planning to use the lowest plan for my upcoming trip - will use WiFi for email and other high data needs.

So thankful for all your helpful suggestions. Have been checking them out. Really grateful for everyone's collective insight. The trip will be all the better now. Mille Grazie!

You can just turn off mobile data - leave phone & SMS(texting) on. Turn on wifi when you are somewhere with wifi & update emails & other data that way. The charges for text are relatively cheap and you do not have to answer any incoming calls.