Visiting Italy and France
 

I've done a lot of research (on the Web and reading here), but I want some opinions as to the best way to go.

My wife and I are going to Europe in May, and we'll be in Italy for for 8 nights and France for the same. I have a (now) unlocked GSM Treo 650, so no problem there. But I'm trying to decide whether it makes more sense to buy SIMs for Italy and France before I go, buy an international SIM beforehand, get one in Italy and use it for the whole trip, get SIMs in Italy and in France, etc.

We're not going to be on the phone all the time, but we will want to talk to our family while we're gone (her parents will actually be in Europe the same time) and I don't want to pay the international roaming rates for Cingular/AT&T).

It would be nice to have some GRPS/EDGE data access as well.

Any suggestions?

depends....
 

Think it depends on how much calling you plan to do. 8 days is pretty short.

Did you see the GOING TO EUROPE sticky?

Going again? Anytime soon? Wud not go for 2 SIMs unless you are going again or making lots of calls. Wud not go for intl SIM unless you plan to travel more or have someone to whom you can sell it or donate it.

Don't forget a calling card; usually cheaper than cells and you should be able to use from hotel rooms.

Also, EU stuff is much in flux. May be lots of changes upcoming. Might be best to wait.

Bon voyage.

Stan

Realistically, this 2+ week trip is it for a while (slightly delayed honeymoon, and it's hard to find time to travel that much).

Neither of us are doing any work while in Europe, so the only phone use is talking to family. I don't expect that much, but I think I'll avoid the whole calling card thing for simplicity sake.

Is it easy to buy SIMs locally? I've seen some of the online sellers saying how you need three copies of your passport plus a whole lot of other stuff to get them--I don't believe everything they write, since they're obviously trying to sell me something, but it seems like all I need is let them copy my passport.

The problem with trying to give advice right now is the current push of the eu to regulate roaming and it is claimed this will be in effect before summer and it also depends just how much and how important it is to receive calls...it is cheaper, much cheaper, to make calls with a calling card but with a mobile you're reachable easily 24/7......

Yeah, the accessibility factor is one of the most important things to me. I guess I'll just wait for now and see how things are looking in a month or so.

Thanks.

Well, it's really easy to buy SIMs locally in France or Italy, all you need is a picture ID - presto! Takes about 5mins. For example, calling the US with an italian WIND prepaid is 0,5€/min, should be a lot cheaper than using your US phone. Cost for the card itself is 10€ with 5€ of credit included.
I wouldn't recommend using an italian SIM in France, costs are likely to be similar to the roaming charges from your US phone and you'll have some trouble topping up.

They should call YOU
 

What do you mean by accessibility? That they be able to reach you at any time?

If you buy a SIM there (say Italy as recommended) and the outbound rate is .5 Euro (not euro cents - 1 Euro is ~ $1.30 so .5 Euros is about 65 US cents), then I recommend that your family calls YOU. You will have free inbound in Italy and they will have to pay intl LD charges to an Italian cell. My guess is with a decent US calling card that will be around $0.30 per minute, perhaps less. It's cheaper to a landline so if you happen to be in the hotel room, they could call you back on a landline #.

TRUE, you will be paying INBOUND fees with the IT SIM card in FR. Top up on your last day in IT.

Stan

Stan...just to clearify the euro is indeed broken into 100 units called cents (or referred to outside euroland as euro cents) but something costing 0,50€ would correctly be called 50 cents by some...(of course not .5 euro cents)....

What makes the most sense is probably to get a SIM in Italy, run out most of the minutes, and then one in France. I'm not concerned with paying for a second SIM and any unused minutes--small percentage of the cost of the trip :)--but I just want to have my cell phone is my primary means of communication.

Of course, it would be easier to have one phone number throughout the trip rather than two, but that means either buying an international SIM or just keeping the Italian one while in France. Either way, still much cheaper than just using Cingular's international roaming.