My daughter and I will be visiting Amsterdam and Paris in August and would like to keep in touch with family in the U.S. as well as each other while traveling. Any ideas on what cellphones and plans people are using.

I have a T-mobile GSM phone and use it all over the world, including the US. They have a huge network, and you pay a flat fee of $0.99 to $1.99 a minute. I love T-mobile because of their vast coverage, but many US carriers now carry the GSM phones. Make sure you get a tri-band. I actually just upgraded from my Samsung, to a Sidekick II only because it gives me web browsing and email capabilities, but my Samsung worked great in Italy, the Bahamas, South America, everyplace I have traveled in the past few years...

Forgot to add that if you already have a cell phone, just call you current carrier. Odds are they offer a Tri-band, GSM phone already and you won't have to switch carriers, you will just upgrade your phone.

Thanks for your tip. I think we will call our carrier first and see what they have. The T-Mobile GSM sounds like a good deal and we will look into that if our carrier does not offer services overseas. Thanks again.

No problem!

I use T-Mobile, too but here's an alternative if your carrier doesn't have GSM...

http://www.mobalrental.com/gsm/
$49 buys a phone, then you only pay for calls made/received at somewhat high rates but good deal if making only a few quick calls or for emergency
(most rates are $1.25-1.50-2.95/minute)

Search here on "mobal" - there has been a lot of discussion, including a couple of satisfied customers

You can also buy a phone on eBay and get a SIM card in each country you visit. There are dozens of threads on this topic.