Using a cell phone when traveling internationally

When my dd went to Europe last yr, we just got the added on ATT international unlimited texting prog for a month. I think it was an additional 30$ is all. She had unlimited texting. As far as data, she only used her phone when she had free wifi. It worked out great, and was reasonable.

I just returned from a 2 week trip to Russia. I did not get an international phone plan added to my phone. Instead, I used wifi when available. We had it in the hotel we were staying in as well as a few other places around town when I needed wifi. My family has iPhones, so iMessage was free, as was FaceTime when it worked. Also found that the calling through FaceBook worked well, too. I made sure that cellular data and roaming were off, turned off Wifi when I wasn't using it, and left it in airplane mode. I could still use my phone for a clock/alarm, a camera, that kind of thing. I printed out maps of where we wanted to go before I left so I had that to hand rather than using the phone for maps.

Just something to think about.

DS is overseas for a long period of time, and he found an app called LINE. We can text and video call (like facetime) for free. We could prob. do voice calls, but he always calls on video.

You could check it out-it might help keep costs down.

Our family went to London and Paris two years ago for 10 days over spring break. DH had a blackberry for work and had access to calls, texting and data. So we used that for family to contact us. I had an international plan through AT&T for $60 which included data and texting. I kept roaming and calls turned off unless DH and I went separate ways. The kids had everything turned off unless they were connected to wifi. If the kids did use texting, it was $0.50 per text, so if they really needed to text me it was ok.

I did use data to upload audio tours at various places, as well as to navigate. It helped when we would come off a metro train, when we were looking for our hotel in Paris, and other times.

I would suggest the kids only use wifi to post photos. That will keep them off their phones and focused on where they are. If they send photos at night when they get back to the hotel, it will be afternoon back in the states, so they will still get comments from friends.

One thing that I did each day was send an email back to friends and family of the day's events and CCed myself. I'd send a few photos along with what we did that day. It let them know what we were up to and it was nice when I came back home and could see everything we did each day. It's a bit of a whirlwind when you are there.

I'd strongly suggest to them that they wait to post until they have free wifi. What's a couple of hours to be patient until they can use free wifi??  

Completely agree.  This is what we did in Europe with no problem.  Our hotels all had free wifi, almost all restaurants did also. We had Iphones and used Imessage also.
We put it on airplane mode and data off.  My DD got directions while we were in the hotel room and just saved the photos so we had directions.
We did not buy any additional international calling plans.

Oh and my DD studied abroad for six months and did the same thing.  We facetimed a lot also.  No international calling plan and it worked out fine.

When we go from Canada to the US and receive a text it doesn't cost money. I didn't get my daughter a plan the last time we went, so she only had Wifi. So you could ask about that. Even if you don't get a talk/text plan you don't want to be charged for incoming stuff you don't answer. .

Just because they want to post doesn't mean they have to. Is anyone remaining home? If not, no one should post pics until you return home

Are your phones unlocked? It may be cheaper to buy a European sim card and just use that while overseas. I've purchased these in the U.K., France, and Italy and it always worked out better than the pricey fees AT&T wants to charge (my carrier as well). In the U.K., I think I paid something like $15 for unlimited data for 1 month. Most likely you can get a European sim card that covers all/most of the countries you'll be in.

For actual phone calls, I found Skype was the cheapest (but you must have WIFI or a data plan for this to work). It's just a couple of cents usually to call back home with Skype.