Chris,
Unless your phone is unlocked, you won't be able to use a locally purchased SIM card. If Bell is anything like the other Canadian networks, they probably won't unlock the phone until the full price is paid (I'm in the same situation at the moment). Are you on a term plan and still paying for the phone? If you bought the phone directly from Apple, it will be factory unlocked. If you bought it from Bell you'll have to ask them about unlocking.
Actually a charge of $60 is not unusual and I pay at least that much with a competing network. Although not cheap, it provides the easiest and most seamless way to use a phone while travelling. On a trip that costs $5-8K, I'm not too concerned about and extra $60, as it's not going to upset the budget at all.
A data allowance of 200 MB is a bit "limited" but should be adequate if you use Wi-Fi as much as possible. I'd suggest leaving the Cellular Data switched "off" unless needed (ie: for checking the GPS) and use Wi-Fi whenever you can. The limits for voice and text should be adequate, but you can minimize the texts by using something like Viber whenever you're in a Wi-Fi area, as that's completely free.
It would be a good idea to go through your "Settings" and "Cellular" menu and check which app's are selected under "Use Cellular For". Some app's (such as Mail) operate in the background and can be using the data network even when you're not aware of it. You could also set the Mail to fetch on a less frequent basis.
One other thing to keep in mind if travelling with your home cell number is that you'll still receive calls from anyone calling your number. Those calls often seem to happen in the wee hours of the morning, from someone that didn't bother to check the time difference. You can either place your phone in "Airplane mode" while sleeping or go through your "Contacts" list and change the privacy settings as you wish. If you place the phone in "Airplane mode" but switch Wi-Fi "on", you'd still be able to receive texts on Viber.
I also have an iPhone and travelling with it is a "work in progress" that I fine tune on each trip. I can't use locally purchased SIM cards as I need to be accessible from home, and don't want to burden my contacts with the expense and complication of making international long distance calls each time they want to reach me. I've used European SIM cards with local call-forwarding services in the past, but it's just too much of a bother.
