what is the best phone plan to use in Europe?

how about a bit more info... What does "stay in touch" mean? A 1 minute call to say "we arrived safely" or a 30-minute talk each day about what you're doing?

kathy,

Phone Cards are certainly one option, although this wouldn't allow your children to call you, should something urgent occur at home.

A Cellphone would be the best solution, but renting a phone in Europe will be difficult and probably expensive. It would help to know whether you have a Cellphone at the present time, and which network you're with?

One option would be to rent or purchase a Cellphone from one of the "travel phone" firms such as Roam Simple, Call In Europe, Cellular Abroad, Mobal or Telestial (there are others, but these are the ones that I'm aware of). As you have two weeks, there should be no difficulty in getting a phone to you quickly via Courier. These firms also offer SIM cards, if you have a quad-band, unlocked GSM Phone. Be sure to check their rates carefully so that you have some idea on what your costs might be!

One advantage of the firms mentioned above is that their calling plans usually have consistent rates across much of western Europe including France & Italy. If you were to buy or rent a phone in France (for example), when you moved to Italy you'd be "roaming" and would pay higher rates.

If your children also have Cellphones, keeping in touch via texting (with perhaps the occasional and short voice call) is the easiest and least expensive method (I use that frequently when I'm travelling).

Happy travels!

Be aware that if you purchase a SIM card in France, you will use minutes much faster once you get to Italy because you will be roaming. You could change to an Italian SIM card once you get there, but then your phone number will change.

I carry a Mobal phone, purely for emergencies. With the Mobal phone, the number is permanent and covers over 140 countries. It's charged to your credit card as you use it, so you don't end up with any unused minutes that go to waste. Yes, the per-min. rates are higher, but I don't chat on it. For day-to-day (or thereabouts) communication, I use email, or a phone card purchased at a convenience store.

The best answer for you will depend on how you want to use your phone.

Kathy, for quick 1-minute calls the easiest (and IMHO best) way is to use a US cellphone with a SIM card. If you have a cellphone from AT&T or T-Mobile it will work in Europe. The cost is about $1 a minute, but for brief calls you won't rack up a big bill, and you'll have the knowledge that you can be contacted from the US if need be rather than having to call regularly with a calling card to keep in touch. Furthermore with a cell you can call from anywhere; many hotels add a surcharge when you call the phone card toll-free number from your room, adding to your phone costs. And even cheaper than calling, with a cell phone you can send & receive brief text messages as you travel. You just need to contact your provider and make sure you have international roaming enabled for your phone to work internationally.

If you have a phone from another provider, they will loan or rent you a phone that will work in Europe. For example Verizon has info at the page http://b2b.vzw.com/international/Global_Travel/index.html

The answer, as it so often is, is "it depends." Do you plan to talk a lot or a little? If you are thinking about short, infrequent "touch base" calls, then there is one answer, and if you think you will have many and/or long calls, there is another. Steve's approach works best for the many-minutes user, since you will need to invest in 2 different SIM cards--one for each country. So unless you are making lots of calls or long calls, the cost of separate SIM cards will make the overall cost of calling too high. Namcy's advice is best for the few-minutes user, since you don't need to buy a new SIM card when you enter a new country (or face expensive roaming charges), but instead have a permanent European SIM card that works anywhere but has higher per-minute calling charges. Also, if you think you are likely to travel abroad in the future, Nancy's plan gives you a permanent international cellphone number, whereas Steve's plan requires you to buy another local SIM card for your new trip. Again, worth it if you make lots of calls, but not if you don't.

I echo what others have said here. Depends on how much you use it. We took our T-Mobile phones with us for a month in 2008 and a calling card if we knew we were going to have long conversations. We used our cell phones a little bit (20 min max), but we did text a lot more than call. That was way cheaper. T-Mobile is $1/minute flat rate for calls (you call them and they activate you for international calling-no charge for that), but only 15 cents per text. We did use the calling card once for a long "check in" call with family, but it was only 5 cents a minute. Texting worked great for change of plans when we were in 2 groups.

Steve points out something worth remembering... If you're traveling with your US cell phone and you typically receive a lot of cell calls, it may be worth changing your message to tell callers you're out of the country and to leave a message on your home phone number instead of the cell. Then turn it off at nite so callers unaware of the time zone difference aren't calling at 2am.