Hi recent travelers to Turks & Caicos,

Did your American cell phones work on the island? I am staying at the Sibonne and the rest of the family is staying at the Somerset for a wedding . I would to be able to coordinate with them to coordinates walks, lunch, etc. Any suggestions for communication options on the island?

Thanks!

They do work, but you have to (at least with verizon) call ahead and they have you update your roaming in your phone. Or if you have a sym card that works too- but it is very expensive (bothh).

Verizon in T&C will be hit or miss, most Verizon doesn't work.

At&T will work, but ultra expensive.

You have a couple of options: If you think you'll ever go back, you can buy a cheap phone and pay as you use-incoming calls are free and don't use up amounts. You can bring down an unlocked phone and buy a SIM card for it. Or you can just use the hotel phone.

The beauty of Sibonne and Somerset is they are right next to each other, separated by a small paking lot.

We were there a couple months ago. We have T-mobile, it didn't work at all. We just wanted to make a couple of calls back to the states so we asked our hotel how much it would cost to use the phone in our room and they said about a dollar a minute so we went ahead and used it. We made three calls that added up to about 35 dollars, which was about what I thought it would be. It was alot easier than trying to figure out other ways to call.

We had verizon and it worked- my husband's blackberry worked without issue with his sym card. my phone was less reliable, but still worked generally.

With Tmobile you need to activate the international roaming...it's a free service but you have to activate it. Then the calls are about 1.35 per min. It's convenient just to call home and check in...if you're going to chat...get a local sim card.

Peace, Greenie

You guys are the best! Thank you!