Cell phone advice

The key question is how much are you going to use it, and to do what - GPS, text, email, etc. Many people can get by without using a phone at all, or just using wifi to do email and Skype, for example.

We are italy now and our phones are not accessing our network. We use Wi-Fi to message via Facebook and WhatsApp and also to send email if needed. You can make an audio or video call using WhatsApp while accessing Wi-Fi. FYI wifi is available almost everywhere.

I won't lie about fact that sometimes Wi-Fi signal can vary. For us it hasn't been a major issue.

Friends of ours paid for roaming service and at times could not receive or make a call while in certain areas of Europe.

My T Mobile international plan suddenly cut me off after 2 1/2 phone calls in Europe, and I got the run around by their customer no-service department located in The Philippines.
I told them to completely cancel all my cellphone services, and all communications were by E-mail on WiFi for my trip.
I enjoyed not having a cell phone so much that I decided to stay off voice communications permanently.

Rick just had his son on his podcast (aired on July 8) talking about cell phones as well as other useful technology tools in Europe. He had some great advice about unlocking your phone and buying a sim card in the country that you are visiting it. It might be worth a listen. Here is a link to the podcast: https://www.ricksteves.com/watch-read-listen/audio/radio/programs/program-490

We also have Verizon service in the US. If you want to use your Verizon service overseas, go to the Verizon website and look at the section on international plans. After answering a set of questions about where you plan to travel and how you plan to use your phone, you'll get a recommendation of which Verizon plan makes sense for you. For our last four trips we took the $10/day plan which only charges you for the days you use your phone. A day is defined as a 24 hour period and during that time you'll have coverage under your US data plan. By utilizing wifi, what's app and FaceTime, we only had to use the cell service for two days out of sixteen on our last trip to France. As for avoiding roaming charges, we were advised to put our phones in airplane mode and turn roaming off.
This subject has been covered extensively on this forum and probably explained far better than I have.

You have loads of options from various Verizon plans (monthly which limits your calls/data OR daily which uses your current domestic phone plan's limits) OR putting in a new SIM card which will change your phone number but is said to be cheaper.

I just go with the Verizon Travel Pass plan for $10/day. It's only charged if you use your phone, and it's good for 24 hours from the initial use. They send a free text telling you when you're about to go into a new's day's charge.

If you plan to use hotel WiFi & don't need to constantly stay in touch, it's a good plan.

In Italy we went into their phone store and I bought a Sim card for their country...my phone is an unlocked Apple 6 I have plenty of storage and pay $1 extra a month for extra memory in US... at the store the clerk took out my Sim card which I carefully saved... put in the Italian card... hooked me all up and got it started... cost for 3 weeks $35 the best 35 dollars I spent in that country!! Everything worked... photos, facebook, email but most importantly Google maps and the directions to places we NEVER would have found without my phone!!

Was just in Ireland and also used the Verizon $10/day cell phone service. Didn't need to do anything prior to the trip - I got an automated text message to respond to once I got there. Like others have said, it depends on how much you need to use your phone.