Best Way to Stay in Touch with Traveling Companions?

I checked with my vendor (at&T) and our phones will work in Italy although expensively @ 1.39/minute - and we can get a plan to cut the rate for those calls a bit. We will both carry ours in case we get separated, and we consider it a small price to pay for the peace of mind. You may want to check with your provider to see if your current phones and/or data and text plans can work.

We have used walkie-talkies in London and Paris, but not very far from each other (well inside a mile range) and for not very long (2-3 hours). Extremely useful if you split up around the Vatican or Palatine Hill, I'd say... but I'd wonder about the range if you really split up to go entirely different ways. We never have had a problem finding a "quiet" channel in a city, unlike at WDW. We find them practically indispensible, even though we got funnny looks in London.

I'm pretty sure I remember reading that American walkie-talkies are illegal at least in Italy because they use the same frequency as emergency responders. See this site: http://tinyurl.com/walkietalkiesinitaly1 And here's a previous discussion on the topic: http://tinyurl.com/RSwalkietalkiesinitaly Most people choose to use cellphones, apparently.

Michael, As someone else mentioned, Walkie-Talkies purchased here are illegal in Italy and other countries in Europe. The frequencies used for FRS / GMRS radios are different than those in European models, and could conflict with emergency services or other agencies that are licensed to use those frequencies in their home country. The other issue to consider is the fact that specifications for Walkie-Talkies generally show the best performance in "line of sight" applications. In an urban environment with lots of stone buildings and considering the fact that one of the other parties may be inside a building when called, this will NOT be an effective mode of communication! My suggestion would be to use one Cell phone for each party in your group. Text messaging is the least expensive way to communicate. Depending on which network and plan you choose, sent texts are usually ~75¢ and received are usually FREE. Since you didn't specify whether any of your group presently have Cell phones or which network they're with, it's difficult to offer specific suggestions. Happy travels!

I do not know what Phone vendor you use, but I have Verizon. They have a program where they will ship you an international phone as a loaner for the duration of your trip and transfer your current number to that international phone. Then you can use that phone just like you normally would while in Europe. They charge you $1/per minute to call (not cheap) and $0.50 to send a txt and $0.05 to revcieve a txt. If you do not plan to use them much may be a good option especially if you just send a quick txt to your travel companions to meet at a certain time and place.

@Michael - Pick up some cheap refurbished unlocked quad-band phones on ebay. I got a basic Motorola for under $20 with shipping (and I had a $15 gift card I bought for only $7 :) Then buy SIM cards when you get to Italy. @Ted - You should be aware that AT&T will also charge you for ALL incoming calls you receive while abroad - even those you don't answer. The only way to avoid this is to forward all calls to a US number (home #, google voice, etc.) or leave your phone off or in airplane mode. However, if you forward all calls, you will still be able to send and receive text messages. Outgoing texts are $0.50 and incoming texts are charged the same as if you were home. Meaning if you have a text package (unlimited, etc.) you won't pay extra for incoming texts you receive in Italy.

Thank you all for the heads-up re our walkie-talkies -- I had no clue about the potential problems. I will have to research this further before I pack them for Paris again in a few weeks. I had no problems with them in the Louvre at all previously, nor at different points in the city. Ditto for London. Now you have me seriously re-considering...

We're going to be renting two phones through Rebelfone.com for our trip in May (for a dollar a day). They have a "buddy" rate that costs only 50 cents a minute. I plan to report back on our results after our trip. One catch with Rebelfone is that they require a refundable $100 deposit per phone. We put that on our credit card so we could have extra assurance if there's some sort of problem. We considered buying two unlocked phones, but I figure phone technology might change quite a bit before our next Italy trip and it's better for the environment not to buy what are in essence disposable phones. I also like the idea of knowing what our phone numbers will be before we leave for Italy. And Rebelfone can give you a US number that your friends can call if they need to reach you in Italy. I PM'ed with another person on this board who used Rebelfone and he had no problem with them. I also researched them through Better Business Bureau and saw that they had a B rating due to a single complaint lodged against them, related to a billing dispute. Best wishes.

<<I checked with my vendor (at&T) and our phones will work in Italy although expensively @ 1.39/minute - and we can get a plan to cut the rate for those calls a bit. We will both carry ours in case we get separated, and we consider it a small price to pay for the peace of mind.>> Your AT&T iPhone WILL NOT WORK in Italy unless you signup for their international plan. Your phone will say "no service" up on the toolbar where the AT&T 3G is located. Was in Europe last year and trust me this is what will happen. I suggest you talk to another rep at AT&T. Lydia