Did not have a smartphone the last time I went overseas. Somehow got through with only stopping a couple times to pay for a half hour or so at internet cafes. Times are different now. I don’t expect to be making a lot of calls, but more things seem to run through phone apps than ever.
I have Verizon and read up on Travel Pass. Seems like it could add up to a bit (10 dollars any day it’s used), unless very careful about usage.
I know that there are a lot of more savvy, frequent travelers here. What do you all do?
Adding-- this is for two weeks in France and UK.
Do you need to make/receive calls? If so, could they be scheduled? If you are not expecting important business calls or need to be reachable via voice while you are traveling then 10/day is the best way to go.
I have ATT, I could receive text messages for free, but would get charged for sending.
You could use wifi to make calls and text when it is available. Most hotels have very good wifi now that making calls shouldn’t be a problem. There are few apps you could use to make calls for free.
It depends on how much data you intend to use. You can get the $25 or $80 (only available via store or online/phone chat) fixed price plan for overseas use if you don’t think you’ll run through that much data. I can say that the $25 plan doesn’t include a lot of data and both my H and I, and our kids, have run through it quickly when traveling. For 14 days, you’d pay $140 (if you use the phone everyday) on the Travel Pass. The benefit to travel pass is that it uses the data/phone plan you have at home. We have the unlimited plan, and use a lot of data when traveling for maps, directions etc. (I know you can download maps and use them offline), so we have started using the Travel Pass. If you don’t need your phone for any reason on some days, you are not charged. However, be sure to turn off all auto updates or notifications because those will trigger the daily charge, as well. Alternatively, if your phone is unlocked, you can buy a local sim card with data and top it off, as needed. If you do that, be sure to share the number with anyone at home who may need to contact you.
I’d suggest to get a sim card in Europe.
They have some great rates and great plans! Much cheaper than $10/day.
@garland
If you are heading to the UK first you could buy a ‘pay as you go’ sim card. My son is on his phone all the time and only pays £10 a month! (we are going to be in for a shock when he goes to the US for college) If you shop wisely you will get free roaming charges when in France.
You do not need a credit check. Just go in to Carphone Warehouse on first day and buy a sim. Again buying wisely (all the info on the internet) will get you free texts to US and free wi-fi data. So as long as you are in a ‘free’ wi-fi place (hotel/a friend’s home/cafe) you will be able to pick up all emails etc.
Internet search 3, EE, vodafone, virgin. All pay as you go sim operators.
Hope that all makes sense.
I have AT&T and when I go abroad for a short trip I use the their $10/day option. But for a trip as long as two weeks I opt for the set price $80 or $130 options for a big load of data that you use when and how you see fit.
I presume Verizon has some similar programs
^So you just buy extra data, and it doesn’t have to be something particularly designed for travel abroad?
Sorry to sound like a rube, but I honestly haven’t used a phone out of the country basically, ever.
Thanks for all the quick answers! 
“^So you just buy extra data, and it doesn’t have to be something particularly designed for travel abroad?”
No, it’s a special access while abroad program that you must sign up for. It’s not just more data. If you don’t have your account activated for access abroad when you land in Europe you will get no signal.
Thanks. that’s just the kind of info I need!
Also, when abroad you need to turn off your cellular data access when you are not actively interacting with your phone (calling, web surfing, or checking e-mail). Otherwise you may burn through all your international data quickly and get hit with roaming charges.
On an I-phone you open Settings -->Cellular–>Cellular Data and turn that off when not in active use.
When I’m abroad I find Google Maps to be godsend for finding my way around. You can turn your cellular data on for few minutes to search out the route to your destination, then turn your data off while you are actually traveling to your destination. Google Maps will continue to guide you to the destination even though it is no longer engaged with the internet.
Wait, so, if I just show up with my phone without paying for some kind of international access, I can’t use free wifi when it’s availale, because I have no signal? Clearly I am not up to date on stuff!
You should be able to use the free wifi.
However, when you are not on Wifi your internet may not work as your service provider may or may not be “activated” in the foreign location.
(I believe ATT will connect to a sister network in the foreign country if there is one available. However, I am not sure on the pricing etc. For me in Mexico it was something like 10 or 50 cents a text message.)
I use a combo of my Google Voice number (free) with wifi, and/or a local SIM card from wherever I am. My plan’s international roaming costs much more than these options.
@Scipio Google maps allows you to download a map area to your phone for offline use. Do it on wifi and all set.
I have T-Mobile which on my plan gives free access overseas to every place I’ve traveled recently. Just back from Germany and Denmark where it worked seamlessly. I regularly use my I-phone in Singapore and Hong Kong without making any adjustments. I do turn Roaming off when I don’t need it, but I’ve forgotten a few times and not been dinged with charges.
Before I figured out that my plan allowed this access, I was buying a SIM for each country I entered. Generally quite inexpensive and even I can put the SIM card in. I used to research the “best” SIM plan for my needs in each country, then I figured out that the 7-11’s or airport store or where ever I was making my purchase generally only had one or two options. I started just going with whatever stock seemed reasonable and found what ever I purchased to work for my needs.
@Scipio, thanks for explaining that I don’t need to keep cell data on while driving with Google Maps. I will know for next trip - had it turned on continually for the visit just completed. Oh well.
If you are using ATT, you would need to let them you want to activate overseas usage or else they would charge roaming. I assume you would need to do the same with Verizon.
Heads up, Verizon phones don’t always work overseas. It is why I always had ATT or T-Mobile. Verizon may be different now.
My kids always put on airplane mode then turn on wifi, so there would be no data or voice usage. There are enough places that provide free wifi now it is not an issue for them.
A word of caution is not to do any financial transactions online when using public wifi. Even with the hotel wifi, check with them which one is their wifi before you log on.
Since we started traveling quite a bit several years ago I spent a bit of time investigating options.
We have a family Verizon plan and it works very, very well for us in the US. Verizon just plain sucks when it comes to international options.
The best carrier for international access is T-Mobile. They have a plan which covers 140+ countries. IIRC, it comes with 2Gig high speed data and you can purchase a bigger package. Once you reach your data allotment your speed gets throttled down - to still very usable levels. Two lines, with a shared 6 gig high speed data allotment, unlimited texts and .20/minute outgoing calls run us $80/month. Since we had US numbers our kids were able to call us from their US phones and neither we nor they were charge any additional fees. Being the saver that I am we used Skype or MagicJack on either Wi-Fi or the countries cell network to make our outgoing calls. We’ve used this plan throughout Europe, parts of Asia, Mexico and the Caribbean. I install our T-Mobile Simms either right before we leave the US or once at our destination.
There’s a few oddities which I learned along the way. You need to connect to the US T-Mobile network at least once before going international. Install the SIMM, send a text, your done. This registers you with the home T-Mobile network. You also need to actually ask T-Mobile to activate the data. This was weird and frustrating. I could immediately send an iMessage but couldn’t do a Google search. When I called customer service I was informed I needed to actually call them and ask to have the data portion activated. Well, okay…why would I specifically buy a feature unless I wanted it to work?! That was the only glitch.
Even though T-Mobile will officially only suspend a line for 3 months, they have been fantastic with extending the suspension. Since we seem to be traveling every 3-5 months I pay around $10/month to keep the SIMMS in suspension and keep the numbers.
Whatever method you choose, be sure manually force an ‘update carrier settings’ if you are not automatically prompted to do so when arriving at your international destination. I was having difficulty with data in the UK while H was surfing along quite nicely. His phone displayed a number of carrier options and automatically routed him to the strongest signal. Mine was stuck on a particularly weak carrier signal. Once I updated the carrier settings I was able to force my phone onto the strong signal network and all was well.
Ss a side note, the T-Mobile plan allows for hot spotting. However, many countries will block access to certain sites - like FB or even your Gmail - via hot spotting. I’ve not pursued the VPN option which I understand gets you around the blocking restrictions.
Google Project Fi, an MVNO using mostly T-Mobile and some Sprint in the US, offers international roaming in most countries for $0.20 per minute for voice. SMS and data are no extra charge.
https://fi.google.com/about/rates/
https://fi.google.com/about/plan/
However, the service only works with a very limited number of phones.
https://fi.google.com/about/phones/