Hi Everyone, I am about to head off to Helsinki. What is the best way to call home since my cell phone will not work in Europe? Is there a calling card I should use or maybe pick up a temporary cell phone?
Posted by
Myrtle Beach, USA
12313 posts
If you have an ipod touch, or are bringing a smartphone or computer, Skype is a great option for calling home. You can use it from most hotels (some have pretty weak signals), Starbucks, McDonald's, plus a host of other bars and restaurants around Europe. I took a set of earbuds with a microphone for my ipod, rather than use the built in speakers/mic. I thought it worked really well whenever there was background noise. Set it up at home and make some practice calls. You have to make a deposit to call land-line phone numbers, $10 to start (I set it up to add automatically if needed). At a couple cents a minute, we didn't use our initial deposit up during a month of travel.
Posted by
Kurikka, Finland
92 posts
A cell phone can be bought for 40-50 euros. Most phones are unlocked. You can buy a prepaid SIM card at any kioski (10 Kioski, R-Kioski, etc). Put in an unlocked cell phone and you can use up the card's value. Many prepaid SIM cards can also be "recharged" at a cash (Otto) machine using a VISA card. Cell phones with local SIM cards are excellent for communcation w/in your group. Messages like "I'm in the castle courtyard. Where are you?!" can save a lot of time/worry/trouble. For communication w/ home the easiest thing by far is just to use e-mail instead of telephone calls.