Smart phone advice for solo traveler

There are many more cell phones from Apple brand you can try, which are having those applications which is specific for travelers. I think you should try 91 mobiles dot com for better experience regarding cell phones.

International plans are getting better every year. I suggest you contact your carrier and ask about plans. A couple fo GB should be enough for three weeks and should be reasonable. You will use your phone away from WIFI more than you realize. It is a travel essential now.

Hi Jan,

I just spent August in Europe in London, Barcelona, Paris, Como, Venice, Florence, Cinque Terre and Rome and I too have an ATT Iphone. I did purchase the $60 international plan before my trip as well. I used the phone sparingly only as a last resort. On my fifth day of travel I received a text message from ATT saying 80% of my data was used up. On the ninth day it hit 100%. After that they wanted .20 cents per MB. Also on my phone bill, they added about $25 of taxes and fees to that $60. Also the ATT Passport App that is supposed to Auto Log you into public Wifi across the world never worked anywhere in Europe. I regret buying this plan. I set my iphone to airplane mode at all times and turn the wifi back on manually. This allowed me to access wifi in my hotel and at cafes. I never took my phone out of airplane mode after that day. FYI, google maps works even in Airplane mode with wifi turned off. You will need to download the city map of the area you are in while connected to wifi. After the streets show up on the map, you can turn everything off and google maps will still work (I don't know how but thankful that it did.) The sim cards in Italy cost 25Euro for 25Gigs which is much cheaper than ATT. Also, after Italy, I flew to Abu Dhabi and Thailand. The ATT Passport app did work at the malls in Thailand so unlimited wifi in public over there.

Nik

Any international plan with your American carrier will cost you way more than the local SIM cards designed for foreign travelers to Italy:
With Vodafone:
http://www.vodafone.it/portal/Privati/Tariffe-e-Prodotti/Tariffe/Estero/Vodafone-Holiday-English
Or TIM:
https://www.tim.it/offerte/mobile/estero/dallitalia/tim-visitors-uk
This one is even cheaper with only 2 Gb instead of 4.0, and 200 min voice (no text, but you can buy separately):
https://www.tim.it/offerte/mobile/estero/dallitalia/tim-welcome-it

To use a local SIM card, I'd need to get my iPhone unlocked by AT&T? I'm just within a few months of renewing my contract with them so don't know if this is doable? I see all the YouTube commercials of how you pay $199 to get the unlock code and that feels dicey.

Nik: did you have your phone on airplane mode and still use up most of your data in the first 5 days? What would you do differently? Do AT&T tack on all the additional taxes and fees above the Passport Plus price of $60/ month?

Thanks for all the help!

jan,

Yes, you would need to get your phone unlocked in order to use any SIM other than AT&T (assuming that their phones are locked at the time of purchase). Phones sold directly by Apple are unlocked from the factory (that's what I'm using).

One point to mention regarding use of "Airplane Mode". IMO, that's not necessary and that will block ALL transceiver functions of the phone including voice and text. A simpler solution is simply to switch off cellular data in the "Settings" menu.

I have Verizon, not ATT, but I found it worth the cost of getting the global plan from my carrier. It meant I had my normal phone number, which was helpful if someone needed to reach me in an emergency. It also meant I didn't have to deal with Italian-language messages and installation instructions, which is part of getting an Italian SIM card -- that alone was worth the price of the global plan

In one month in Italy I used less than 200 MB of data, even though I rarely had access to wifi. My data use was mostly limited to checking email when I didn't have Wi-Fi, occasionally looking up directions or phone numbers, and finding information on a few of the places I visited.

I just signed up for the new passport service and will know more about this specific plan next week when I use it, but I did use AT&T's previous iteration which was similar last fall. I didn't find that I had a lot of extra taxes and fees at that time. I did mostly use WIFI, but it was nice to be able to text to keep in touch with other family members since we were not always together and didn't always have WIFI. I also experienced an accommodation issue where we had to be moved and having some voice minutes we essential to the resolution of that issue. Part of the reason I used AT&T was to keep my own number in case of a work emergency or if my elderly parents needed to reach me, and I was traveling in 2 countries in 2 weeks and didn't want to buy two sim cards.

For what you are doing, I would call AT&T to ask them to unlock your phone and buy a SIM card once in Italy. It doesn't sound like you need to be reachable at your US phone number, and you can keep in touch with family and friends when you have WIFI using an app. We had great luck with Viber. In the UK, my daughter was able to buy a sim card for her unlocked iphone (we called AT&T and got hers unlocked) that lasted a month at a time (she was there for 4 months) that provided her with all the texting and data she needed for a very reasonable cost. That sounds like it would work for you in Italy if you could find it, IF AT&T will give you an unlock code.

Hi,

In the first five days I did not have it on airplane mode all of the time. In hindsight I would have done that. My bill for August was $85 higher than normal after adding the $60 passport plan. I saw a bunch of taxes and fees. Never made a phone call.

If I could go back and do it I probably would unlock my phone and get a local sim. I know that would cost more but at least it would be unlocked.

On an unrelated note, I would also pack lighter. I had just a 20lb backpack and it was still too much.

Nik

This is why we bought unlocked phones and then bought plans (in our case Tmobile) for them. We are about to try them in Europe, but if things don't go well, we can put in sims. We are traveling in 4 countries over 7 weeks and don't want to have to buy 4 sim cards. We only need the phone for security (contacting each other -- there was that time without phones when my husband was in the ER and had no way to contact me and so after that we bought little phones in Europe) and contacting landlords on arrival.

It doesn't sound like you need connectivity since you've traveled before without smartphones and seem pretty prepared. But just for convenience, and to keep others updated on your travels I would just rent a pocket wifi for data, buy Skype minutes as needed to make phone confirmations. The mobile wifi devices are relatively inexpensive (about 3 euro/day), and they usually deliver to your hotel and provide a way for you to drop it off, even if you are departing from a different city. I used one called witourist but just Google "Italy wifi rental" and you will get a ton of hits.