Traveling to 7 countries in 10 weeks - recommendations for our cell phones

When I travel and clients might need to reach me, I'm not worried about the most economical way of staying in touch. I simply use the international plan of my carrier – Verizon. It may cost a little more, but I keep my own phone number, my own voicemail system, and I'm always available---which makes it easy for clients to reach me. In my mind, that translates into happier clients, and it's worth it. Saving a few dollars on phone service could end up costing me tens of thousands of dollars in a lost client.

If you need to be available for emergencies then multiple SIM cards is a bad idea as you will have a different phone number for each. Plus each card may include xnumber of minutes which may go unused. I would do as Sherry suggested above----use your own phones on a plan with your carrier.

In your case, since people need to reach you to your US based phone, it is probably better to go with an International plan with your US carrier.
My carrier (AT&T) offers a Passport plan with a varying amount of Mb of data, plus discounted international roaming rates for calls/texts for an additional $30/$60/$120. The lowest level ($30) I think comes with only 120Mb but it might be enough if you keep the Cellular data off most of the time so you don't deplete your 120Mb (Settings/Cellular Data off).

T-Mobile has an even better international plan (I think only $50/mo for 1Gb).

Now, even the passport plan is kind of expensive if you make a lot of local calls in Europe (they are still $1.00/min with the $30 plan), so use it judiciously when you call locally. SMS texts are included and unlimited.

Or you could also buy a cheap flip phone for use with a local SIM card. That way you would have your iphone for internet and calls from your client and the cheap flip phone to use locally to make calls. See what is your use. If you have to change SIM in each country, you might save by going to the higher level Passport package (which has more Mb of data and costs less per minute of voice).

Check with your carrier. I've used the ATT passport plan and really enjoyed it. I could text all I wanted with no problems and I knew elderly parents could get ahold of me in an emergency just by using the regular phone number they were used to dialing.

I think people have the mobile phone thing covered. We have Verizon and use what they offer. If that's your carrier, be sure that you talk to someone in the Global part of customer service. The front line customer service people will try to help you and fail to get it right every single time. Trust me on this.

About the money, start with what Rick has to say: https://www.ricksteves.com/travel-tips/money/cash-tips. The basic answer about money is to have a huge pile of it in whatever account(s) your ATM/Debit cards draw from and get money at cash machines, preferably ones in banks. Cash is king everywhere you are going.

Keep in mind that Turkey, Czech Republic and Morocco do not use Euros, so you will be getting cash in Turkish Lira, Czech koruna and Morocco dirham. All the countries you list should take the standard Visa and MasterCard credit cards. Any other brand is not very well accepted.

Of course you must inform your card providers where you will be and don't be surprised if they aren't too positive about some of the places you are going. And you need to find out how much money you can take out with your ATM/Debit card and how often, then translate that into the currency of the country where you are using the money so that your cash request isn't rejected. And you will probably want to know how much they will charge you for making either cash withdrawals or credit card charges in foreign currencies overseas. There are some cards out there that do not have any extra charges. There are also some that have significant ones.

Follow the standard advice to never use an ATM/Debit card for purchases (because of the lack of acceptance or the higher probability of fraud) and only use it to get cash. I use my Visa credit card only for purchases of a larger size, like hotel bills. Do not fall for the Dynamic Currency Conversion offers. They will cost you extra money.

Many people hate them, but I think all of you should have money belts and you should wear them. There are some here on the RS website (https://store.ricksteves.com/shop/travel-accessories#moneybelts-security), but you can find them in many other places online and in stores like REI. By the way, even if you have cards with RFID chips, you do probably do not need RFID protection. A Google search will produce lots of results on this topic. This is just one example: http://www.slate.com/articles/life/travelexplainer/2015/08/creditcardspassportsandrfidfraudarespecialblockingwallets_necessary.html.

Finally, sometime in the dim dark past, I read that RS said the typical cost for a mid-range trip to Europe is about $180 per person per day -- not counting airfare to and from the US. On our trips, we have gone as low as $150 per person per day, but we are usually closer to $180. And that is not having lots of pricey meals or staying in expensive lodgings. That may be because I count everything and probably a lot of things others don't count, like the cost of boarding the dog while we are gone. I definitely count all transportation, lodging, entertainment, food and miscellaneous costs. In our experience, lodging has been the most costly of those with transportation, food, entertainment and miscellaneous following in descending order.

ss,

Given the fact that you need to be readily available to clients, using a roaming plan with your home cell network is likely the best solution. However, as you're travelling for 10 weeks that may be a problem for data access as many data roaming plans are limited to 30 days at a time (but can be renewed). If you're primarily interested in calls, simply leave the data roaming switched off unless you need it.

This will be the easiest solution for your clients, as they just have to dial your regular number and the network will find you where ever you are. The disadvantage of that is receiving calls in the wee hours from the morning from people who couldn't be bothered to check the time difference.

Using local SIM cards in each location you visit will be the most difficult solution for your clients, as your number will change with each new SIM card, and your clients will also have to dial an international long distance call each time which could be expensive (some people may have trouble figuring out the international dialing sequence). In your situation, I don't believe using Wi-Fi and Skype is the best solution either, for the following reasons....

• I've found that the quality of Wi-Fi varies somewhat in different parts of Europe and in different hotels. In some cases, it works well, in some cases it may only work in the lobby but not in the room and in other cases there is poor coverage and passwords are required each time you want to access it.
• Your clients will only be able to reach you when you have Wi-Fi available. In some places, coverage may not be that good which means you'll only be available to your clients on an intermittent basis. While you may also be out of cellular range a few times during your trip, you will be much more available than just relying on Wi-Fi.

One final option to mention is that you could also use a SIM with one of the travel phone firms such as Roam Simple, Cellular Abroad, Telestial, Mobal or EuroBuzz. This may be a good option if you need only voice & text but not data, as data plans are usually expensive with these firms. Travel SIM's tend to provide consistent rates across different countries, many use post-paid billing (calls charged to a credit card), and some provide a local number in your area that you can forward your regular phone to.

Good luck!

Check T-Mobile. I've used their simple choice plan in the past. Texts are free, data plans vary from 2 gigs on up, voice is $.20 per minute. People in the US Call the same US local number no matter where you are. I believe they also offer discounts for more than 1 line. I used this on a 4 country trip and it worked seamlessly switching from network to network as you crossed borders. I've tried the local sim card route and that's ok if you're in one country. Also found it very difficult locating nano-sim cards in France last winter.

Since you need to be accessible by phone to clients from the US, I'd keep one phone on your current US plan and buy their international plan as others have suggested. But for your other phone, consider buy local SIM cards. This will give you cheap data and, most likely, cheap calls back to the US. So, if your clients call you and the call will be long, you can call them back on the local SIM for (most likely) €0.10-0.25 per minute.

However, if you US carrier is T-Mobile and you have one of their Simple Choice Plans, just keep that. Texts are free, slow data (3G or slower) is free, calls over the voice network are $0.20 per minute, and calls over WiFi are free. Note that T-Mobile plans that are not Simple Choice have much higher rates. The only country you are visiting that does not seem to be included in this plan is Turkey, where it's $0.50 per text, $2.99 per minute to talk and $15 per MB for data.

I too used T Mobile's $.20 Simple Choice plan. Only problem was that our 2 1/2 year old granddaughter kept using her mother's cellphone and speed dial to call us--at 3:30 a.m. She didn't care we were 7 hours away.
Upon returning from the trip, you can cancel the T Mobile plan without penalties if you own the phone.