buy a phone for 3 weeks in Italy?

Our first trip here a few years ago I rented one from Cellular Abroad. I thought it was a pretty good arrangement for just those few uses and I even used it to call home once a week. Cost about $85 for our 3+ weeks. Not cheap, but better than buying a phone and service for a short trip.

Betty,

I believe that it's a good idea to have a phone along during travels, and I've been travelling with one for years. There are several options you could consider.....

• Buy a PAYG phone when you arrive in Italy (you'll have to register using your Passport during the purchase, and may need help setting it up since the menus will be in Italian - you'll have to top-up when your minutes are depleted).
• Buy an unlocked quad-band GSM phone off E-Bay or other sites, and just buy a SIM card in Italy (again, you'll have to register for the service).
• Buy a phone with SIM from one of the travel phone firms such as Roam Simple, Cellular Abroad, Telestial, Mobal or EuroBuzz. This will provide you with a working phone before you leave home. Many of these use U.K. based numbers, but have consistent rates throughout Europe, and often use post-paid billing (calls charged to a credit card) so no need to top-up. One of these is currently advertising phones for $29 and a Europe SIM card for $5, so the costs are quite reasonable. This is the method I've been using for the last few years, and it's worked well. Check their respective websites for all the pricing and other details.

You can get a PAYG phone for about €30, comes with some minutes. You can set the language default to English, but messages about how many € you have left will be texts in Italian. Top up minutes at a tabacchi (most only take cash, many have a minimum purchase - €15 should be enough).

Do you currently have a cell phone. Is it a quad band and unlocked? If so, you can use it in any other country. Just buy a SIM card in Italy and install it in your phone. They're relatively inexpensive and come with minutes. Our cell phone is not quad band unlocked so a few years ago we bought a used one on Amazon. It was very inexpensive ($29) as it was not the latest model. We bought a sim card ($10) from TMobile to use here to be sure the phone worked. We have used that phone in several countries and use it at home as a second phone. SIM cards in other countries can cost anywhere from 15Euros to 30 or more and they come with minutes on them and are sometimes valid for one year. Last year April we bought a SIM in Italy and used it for only a few minutes. When we unexpectedly returned to Italy in February it was still valid and we were able to use it again. When buying a SIM card be sure you're not buying one with data on it if you don't need it as it will be more expensive.

I'm assuming you're not a smartphone user? Buying a cellphone once your there is the easiest.

It looks like you can go to a TIM office anywhere in Italy and pick up a Nokia or Samsung mobile phone for €29.90.

Bring your passport.

That's a fine price and would include the European charger and everything. Plus, I bet they'll show you how to use it and how to call home if you're super nice.

I routinely travel for 4-5 weeks at a time and never have a phone, except for my iPhone which I keep in airplane mode. You can make & confirm hotel reservations using email over wifi, which is widely available in Italy. We never needed restaurant reservations in Puglia -- but if you do, your hotel can make them for you.

For those times you want or need to call someone, you can use a Skype app. Skype is very inexpensive and easy to use. Just set up an account before you go (and test it to make sure you are comfortable with it). My favorite thing about Skype is that you can use it from Europe to call U.S. 800 numbers for free. If you have a problem with an airplane reservation or a bank, this comes in very handy. I was on hold once with American Airlines for over 2 hours without using any of my minutes (trying to get home from Milan during Hurricane Irene). You can also use Skype (and email, of course) with a tablet, if you don't plan to bring a smartphone.

Looks like I have a variety of options with a range of prices. Thanks to all of you! I was especially pleased to hear that I probably don't need a phone if I have a laptop--which I do plan to take to stay in touch with family/friends and post photos. Betty

I see a lot of good recommendations so far from other travelers. I find most travelers don't need a cellphone and if you are taking a smartphone there are some great wifi options (same with your laptop). If you think you need to make a lot of calls within Italy then it usually is easiest and cheapest to buy a basic phone there and then a prepaid sim-card. You can find more tips here.

I left my phone at home for my trip last year and plan on doing the same this year. I found once I get to the city, our hotel staff were all helpful in setting up dinner reservations for us and calling places locally.

If your cell phone carrier in the U.S. is T-Mobile and you have their Simple Choice Plan, you can bring your phone and don't need to worry about getting a temporary phone or unlocking your phone and getting a SIM in Italy. it is only $0.20/minute to make calls while in Europe and texts are free. Unlimited use of data is also free while in Europe which is great to not have to hunt down a free wifi spot every time you need to access the internet. We've been using it for quick searches of reviews for nearby restaurants. We were skeptical about whether 2G speeds would be sufficient, and for some bloated sites, it is too slow. But for efficient sites that have good mobile phone experiences (Yelp, Bing, Facebook) the speed has been great.

More thanks to Robert and Forest for your suggestions. Very helpful! Betty

I have a dumb question..how do you know if a phone is unlocked?

bjdimare,

First, it's usually better to start your own thread, so you get notified of any responses, rather than the original poster. But since this is relevant to the original thread, I'll tell you.

Turn off the phone, take out its SIM card, and insert a SIM from a company other than the original one that came with the phone. So, if you have a phone from AT&T, you insert a T-Mobile SIM, or a SIM from any other phone company (Vodafone, Orange, TIM - whatever you can lay your hands on). Then turn the phone back on. If the phone almost immediately asks for a SIM PIN 2 and will go no further (it will not boot up), the phone is locked, and will only work with a SIM from its original carrier. On the other hand, if it boots up and says "searching for network" (whether or not it finds one), it is unlocked. If it is quad band, it should find a network. If it is only dual band and is on the wrong continent (the US uses 850 and 1900, while Europe uses 900 and 1800), it will not find a network.

Another option is to check with your US cell phone carrier. I use Verizon and their international plan has served me well. I currently have an iPhone 5 so I can use it in Europe, and prior to that I had a Verizon dumb phone that included GSM. They also have a loaner program for people who have phones that don't have GSM. Don't know what carrier you use, but it's worth a call to them to see if they have an easy solution.

I did buy an Italian phone many years ago, but I only used it on that one trip. I find it much easier to deal with instructions/messages in English, than to try to decode Italian messages.

These are great responses--so much good info! Thanks to everyone who has shared their experiences & wisdom on the subject. I feel prepared now to make an informed decision, which will probably be to rely on my laptop only, or possibly also to take my T-Mobile cell. Thanks y'all! Betty

One other thought, although I have not tried this. Skype! If you have a smart phone and you add the SKYPE app to it my understanding is you can call land lines for 2 cents a minute. You have to preload money into your SKYPE account. You can also call other users of smartphones, who have Skype on their phone, for no charge. A colleague I travelled with in Italy this past month used SKYPE to call his wife back in the states from his smart phone to hers.

Thanks Harold and Sherry. I do have an Iphone5c. I also have AT&T. A friend told me that AT&T is not happy about unlocking phones and may not do so. If they do, I wanted to check to make sure it was unlocked. So thanks for the info. It seems their international plans would be kinda expensive. I am going to fight it out with them as I have been a customer for over 12 years. That should give me somerthing. Thanks again
B

I ended up just adding international data, text and talk to my iphone 4 using ATT for our 3 week trip to Europe. It was about $100, super easy, I just added it and then removed the services online. Worked great, no need to find sim card, unlock phone, all that hassle. If you can afford just a touch extra money and don't plan to talk and text a ton (300mB, 50 texts and 30 min. were good for me), I would definitely recommend just adding the services on your regular phone.

Kim

kim,
my only problem is being able to keep in touch with my three kids who are in different places. I know there are free wifi
areas but i would need to have roaming on the phone wouldn't I? Or something? I don't know. I need to get in touch with at&t. I can text my kids that's fine.. The phone would be for an emergency or if there is a problem with a reservation and I need to get in touch with my travel agent. Whose office is in Italy. Yes, after all the money I am spending for our three week trip another $100 is nothing. And yes, I would rather keep my phone. This is our first trip to Italy or Europe for that matter so this is all new to us. Thanks

Last year we put our Sprint phones on "vacation hold" and used hotel WiFi to email our kids. No data connection required.

But having working phones for reservations and texting each other within Europe (where are you??) seems useful so we're considering just doing pay-by-call/text service on our AT&T phones. For limited usage this should come in less than adding international plans. Mobile data turned OFF and hotel WiFi used at night. But still up in the air on this -- may do as Kim did and add lowest-level plans.

Follow-up #1 -- after talking with Andrea at the Sacramento group meeting, we bought Eurobuzz phones ($49 plus shipping for 2 phones with SIMs and adapters, calls at $0.79 per minute and $0.79 texts) for our infrequent calls and texting needs and putting smartphones on vacation hold (saving the cost of our domestic plan which we won't be using.)
Will post after we actually use the phones on our next trip.