Cell phone coverage

Does every family member really need cell service every day?
Verizon only charges by the day if you use it.

How many phone calls do you think you’ll need to make?

We get by with free Wi-Fi, keep our phones in airplane mode, can text etc or could use WhatsApp
We just returned from a 22 night trip and never needed cell service and have never needed on all our previous trips..

As a couple, we just have one of our phones (my spouse’s) activated with the $10 a day plan. I keep my phone in airplane mode the entire time and sign in with hotel/restaurant/etc. Wi-Fi when I want to “use” my phone. If I need an activated phone while we are out and about and can’t access Wi-Fi, I just use my spouse’s phone.. It has never been a problem or issue for us. Family knows to call that phone in case of an emergency or urgency. I can still take pictures on airplane mode…I just send them later when on Wi-Fi. :)

I switched from AT&T to TMobile mainly for that reason. International is all included (I have the TMobile Magenta Max).
https://www.t-mobile.com/cell-phone-plans

If you are unable to switch to TMobile, then you might want to consider buying an Italian SIM card and have it installed in your phone(s). In order to do so you must make sure your phone is unlocked, and if your phone is fully paid, you can have it unlocked by Verizon (if not already unlocked).
The cost of a plan for tourists in Italy is under €30 for a full month plus the cost of the SIM card (€10). That would cover you for a full month (basically under €40 per phone).
The draw back is that you will have a foreign telephone number while abroad, so people won’t be able to reach you at your number, but you can still call them using your Italian number, or use your WhatsApp account.
The other alternative is not to use the phone, as suggested above, and get by with the free wifi provided by hotels and restaurants.

carousse, if you can live without your Verizon phone numbers for calling and texting, just get Italian SIM cards when you get to Italy - from TIM or Vodafone, two Italian mobile phone companies with good coverage and good reputations.

If you want to communicate among the four of you, set up WhatsApp or Whatever beforehand, something that doesn't rely on texting with your US phone numbers.

If you want to call/text US phone numbers for free, even calls to landlines, set up Google Voice before you leave for Italy. Then you'll get a new Google number (free) you can use for calling US numbers and texting people, so you can communicate with people back home who may only have landlines or flip phones...and be able to call your airline's or credit card's 1-800 numbers for free (on WiFi - or use mobile data from your SIM).

More info here on Italian SIM cards. You will need your passports to buy/activate.

eSIMs may be another option if your phones support them.

https://prepaid-data-sim-card.fandom.com/wiki/Italy

Last summer I used the $100/month Verizon international plan since my trip was 29 days. It was 200 mins calls, 1000 texts and like 4 or 5 gig of data. Now I see they have unlimited data for that amount! I still used FaceTime (wifi) to call hubby and mom back in states. And wifi when available in coffee shops etc for maps etc. it was plenty.

I highly recommend the extra phone battery - anker brand worked for my iPhone. My screen was on a lot for pics and directions so it ran down in a hurry. I carried my old phone too, as a “just in case” bc it still shows GPS and has a working camera (to save juice on my main phone). Anyway, you’ll have to weigh the time and cost of the Verizon vs SIM card depending on your length of stay.

I use MINT mobile now so I’ll definitely get a SIM card for Italy and on into the alps. The mint data is sky high $$. Have a great trip!

Ciao!

We also have Verizon and will likely use their International plan for our 5-week trip this year. Since Verizon now caps the monthly charge to $100 per month, it seems more economical for us to use their plan than getting a cheap phone to use internationally since neither of our phones can use an eSim. We will only activate the Verizon plan on one phone and use it as a hot spot if for some reason we need both phones active at once. (The other phone will be in airplane mode the whole time.) We have also taken @AndrewH's excellent advice and signed up for a Google Voice number that automatically routes calls & texts to my phone. Since Verizon's plan is unlimited except for calls, we'll use GV to make/receive calls over WiFi and the unlimited plan for data. Another benefit of setting up GV now is I can give our GV number for all reservations/bookings we're making instead of my personal number (which will not be active in Italy).

I will echo Roberto's suggestion for T-Moblie. We never even have to give our phone usage a second thought while traveling. Free unlimited texts and calls home are $.25 a minute.

Another TMobile fan. My wife and I have used it in numerous areas in Europe and have been very happy with it. We were surprised how well it worked in New Zealand as well,even in rural areas.

As noted by Helen Turner, if you have an unlocked phone, you can purchase a TIM or Vodafone SIM and take advantage of a one-month tourist plan for 40€. Unlimited calls and texts within the EU, and probably enough data to get you through..

We have T-mobile. We also have the t-mobile roving wifi hotspot device. Using that device, we were able to access internet anywhere in Italy.

It always amazes me that people go to Europe bound and determined to use the phone all the time. We use data for maps and information. In 8 trips to Europe since 2011, we have not used the phone as a phone on a single occasion.

Paul, do you have any sick relatives at home - some who might only have flip phones or landlines but you still want to keep in touch with them while you are out of the country for a few weeks? Have you ever had a problem with a credit card or an airline ticket? Some people still need to use a phone as phone sometimes when we travel, and many of us have good reasons to, even if you don't understand what they are.

We also had a situation once where one of our B&Bs had to call us due to a burst water pipe. They were kind enough to make other arrangements for us (incredible blessing) and they called to give us the details since we were en route.

I just discovered that the Verizon “5G Do More” plans give you a free international day each month. If you don’t use it, the days accumulate. Two of my family members have these plans, so they each will have 16 or more days available for our trip. Some plans allow you to transfer unused days to other plans on your account. Maybe you have one of these plans?

Also consider whether you can use one phone as a hotspot if needed. Of course, this wouldn’t work for streaming. But for a quick search, it should work.

Are your phones unlocked?

Google Fi has international roaming for no extra charge. You could always switch to them for the duration of your trip. Otherwise you could buy sim cards at the airport from Vodafone/TIM or whoever

Search this forum for esim discussions, there have been a lot lately.
I used BNESIM for 2 weeks in Italy in March, based on info from this article:
https://abrokenbackpack.com/best-europe-esim-providers/#Airalo_eSIM_Eurolink_Plan

I chose BNESIM because with the discount I paid ~$7 for 3gb European plan that doesn't expire, data only, no phone number and no texting. I have Verizon but it's an older plan (I don't get the 1 free day per month) I've activated the $10/day international plan but haven't had to use it. Instead I installed the esim at home (all digital, nothing physical, so you don't have to take out your verizon sim card). When I landed in Rome, I changed the settings in my phone, google pixel 4a unlocked. After the 2 weeks of very regular useage I still had almost 2gb left for my next European trip, hopefully this fall. Everyone back home in the US who wanted to get in touch with me uses whatsapp. Many hotels and restaurants in Italy will use whatsapp, but not all. For this trip, I travelled with my husband and we did buy a sim card for his phone (vodafone ~35euro) so I could make a call with his phone when needed to call locally (restaurant reservation) but there would have been ways around that if we didn't have his phone.

Putting in a physical sim card from one of the major Italian carriers (TIM, Vodafone, Windtre...) is pretty straight forward, we've done that on several trips in the past, but I'm glad I tried the ESIM this time and will probably use it again. My sister has TMobile, but has always had terrible luck with service even though it's supposed to work (older Iphone?) so this time she also added BNESIM, for very inexpensive, and she used that for her data but didn't have to disable her TMobile number. That worked nicely for her.

We get by with free Wi-Fi, keep our phones in airplane mode, can text etc or could use WhatsApp
We just returned from a 22 night trip and never needed cell service and have never needed on all our previous trips..

So, if I am understanding this right....if you are in airplane mode, and you are using wifi...it won't count as being "used" for the Verizon part.

What if you take it off Airplane mode, but don't make any calls? I suppose there is a chance of incoming text messages which may trigger it, right?

You are correct that keeping the phone in Airplane Mode will prevent any Verizon data/cellular usage. With WiFi turned on, you will have access to any free service available through local hotspots, hotels, etc. If you turn off Airplane Mode, you have a good probability of using data even without calls or texts because many apps are active in the background and use data without us even being aware of them. I ran into this years ago when I got a text that I had "engaged" the international plan without any activity on my part. Turned on Airplane Mode and solved the issue.

As to "you will have access to any free service available through local hotspots, hotels, etc.", when we were in Italy Sept-Oct 2022, we found almost no "free WiFi" in cafes or restaurants. Hotels, yes. In previous trips, I had used cafe Wifi to look stuff up and so forth. But not on this trip. The availability of inexpensive WiFi in Europe has led to many cafes and restaurants discontinuing this open free WiFi thing.

I have an AT&T unlimited data call and text plan. Don’t know the name of it but it’s the max for the last few years. I have also added their international day pass. It has worked great in France, the Netherlands and Spain. I brought along a portable hotspot last year but we ended up not using it because the AT&T plan is fine. It’s $10 per 24 hours of use and it is capped at 10 days/24 hours of use per billing period. I was in France for 21 days last year and paid $140 for international day pass. All that time I just use my phone as I normally would at home for calls and for Internet and texting, except for using Google Maps much more extensively!

The best thing to do, even though it’s a pain to get through, is to call your service provider, mobile, or Verizon, or AT&T, and so forth and talk to someone who really understands how their international plan works, and how it is billed. If something doesn’t sound right question it because not every customer service person fully understands the company’s plans. In other words, trust, but verify! If you have others traveling with you, sometimes a portable hotspot is a good answer as most of them can support multiple devices.

Has anyone else had problems with TMobile Magenta Max in England? After 5 hours on the phone with 3 different techs and still no success in making calls (none of them could figure out why calls would disconnect after about 10 seconds), I gave up and bought a SIM card at Vodafone. A huge waste of time; I’ll be in the market for a new provider when we get home.

Since you've already figured out how to use a SIM successfully overseas, maybe you can just keep doing that when you travel. If you like the T-Mobile coverage you get at home, consider a T-Mobile "MVNO" (company that uses their network) like Tello or Mint Moblie (Mint has just been acquired by T-Mobile though). Tello is only about $15/month for unlimited talk and text - you can choose the amount of data you want per month (and change your plan every month if you like). Same T-Mobile coverage you've already been getting but at a lower price. But, Tello offers no international roaming at all. With T-Mobile, you are paying extra for the "free" international roaming which unfortunately you were not able to use this time...

I have kept my Dutch Vodafone SIM alive since 2017 (use it every six months or top it off online every six months - varies by the company and Vodafone's rules differ in each country). It allows me to have working phone service when I land in Europe. I have yet to use it in the Netherlands though!