We normally go to Italy for a month and get an Italian SIM card. Easy, simple, always works well for us.
For our next trip, we will spend our first 4 ½ days in Amsterdam before we go to Italy, so that will complicate things. After looking at the various options, here's our plan for using Verizon International Pay-as-you-go.
It all seems like a bit of a pain in the neck, but Verizon's other plan, the $10-a-day plan, could cost us up to $100 for our two phones, is that correct? (We sadly had to switch from T-Mobile in order to get cell service at our cabin.) I do understand that the $10 only kicks in when you make or receive a call or use data.
For our 4 ½ days in Amsterdam, we will:
- turn on Verizon International Pay-as-you-go
- put our iPhones in airplane mode but with wifi turned back on
- text each other using iMessage with a wifi connection and try never to turn off airplane mode in order to phone each other
- use Google Maps we have downloaded already at home
- stop all apps from refreshing themselves and put emails on fetch only
- only use the internet when we have wifi
- we will not phone local businesses or restaurants or our B&B hosts because that would be an international call
- call my father-in-law every day using Skype only
- stay together much more than we do in Italy so as to minimize the chances of our having to phone each other or to text without wifi
- our family and friends will know our travel dates (and even at home usually email or text us)
Anything I'm missing?
Here's the two things I don't quite get, even after searching Verizon's website and this travel forum:
- My father-in-law in assisted living calls my husband 3 to 12 times a day and leaves long voicemail messages if my husband doesn't answer the phone. He will not remember not to call and will not understand a large posted note such as "Call Jim or Frank, not Ken" or "Do not call Ken."
So, if my husband ever does take his phone out of airplane mode briefly (which we plan NOT to do), will all these calls and voicemail messages become calls we pay for, even if he doesn't listen to the voicemails?
- I get frequent robocalls on my iPhone because I am using our old landline number. If I leave airplane mode even briefly, will all these calls count as received calls even if I delete them all immediately?