Buying phone for temporary use.
 

We are traveling to Amsterdam - Brussels - France and would like to have a phone to call ahead for hotel and restaurant reservations. Since we will be in Amsterdam for only 4 days, Belgium for 6 days and France for 3+ weeks, we think having a phone for France only makes the best sense.

My question is: our first stop in France is Strasborg (Alsace) and last stop is Paris. Would we be able to buy a phone in Strasborg and would there be limitations to its use? This is our first experience with cell phones outside the U.S.

Thanks for your help.

You can purchase a used world phone on eBay and buy a sim card once you land in France, or order one online. Vodafone is one of the major service providers.

Vodafone owns a large part of Verizon, to give you an idea.

Here are options:

1. Use your own phone from the U.S. if GSM capable and supports 900/1800mhz: For some reason you did not mention this option. If the usage is just a few minutes overall, you can continue to use your U.S. plan provided if you turned off your data roaming if it is a smartphone. If your phone is unlocked, you can just buy a SIM card in France.

2. Obtain a GSM 900mhz/1800mhz unlocked phone in the U.S. Buy French SIM card in France.: You did not mention this option, either. Either buy one or find someone else's old phone which might be just sitting doing nothing in their closets.

3. Buy a phone with a SIM card in France. Places like FNAC has a large selection.

You can also rent a global phone for for a short period of time through Verizon. We have done this several times and found it to be fairly inexpensive and convenient. This works best if you are already a Verizon customer as your number stays the same

Or,to answer your original question, you can buy a BIC phone in France for 29 Eruos.http://www.bic-phone.fr/

Available in Orange boutiques, supermarkets, tobacconists, etc.

Travelnaia: We are in the same boat: trying to find an economical phone for six weeks in France, Italy, Switz,, GER. Tried global phone last time but the per-minute cost is prohibitive. Carlux, good suggestion...but, If I get a bic-phone, how do I know what the per-minute cost is? It's great that I can recharge anywhere, but how do I know if 50Euro will last for 2 days or 2 weeks?

IF you get a BIC phone, have a look at the manual for costs - it's in French, but shows 50 centimes a minute for calls in France, 70 centimes in Europe, and 1.55 for the rest of the world.

http://boutique.orange.fr/doc/contrat2013.pdf