We are leaving on Sunday (9/3) for the Italian Lakes, then Amsterdam, then Paris and want suggestions as to the least expensive way to phone home. Phone cards ( don't know how to get them) or just calling from the hotel or renting a cell or faxing. Any help would be appreciated. Thanks, Karen

NEVER call from the hotel - costs are outrageous!

I always buy long-distance phone cards when I arrive. When you arrive at the airport, go to the currency exchange desk; they usually carry calling cards and agents always speak English. Make sure you buy the ones that have a 1-800 number, not the ones you can use in the public phones (they are more expensive per minute and inconvenient). You can generally talk for hours for a $10-$20 dollars. You dial the 1-800 number from any hotel phone. Some hotels will charge you a set charge (1-5 Euros) to dial a 1-800 number (you will find the charge quoted in the hotel room information package). The cards are also available from “convenience” stores, but better to get them when you arrive. Make sure they understand that you are looking for land-line phone card and not a cell phone.

My cell phone works in Europe, but I don’t use it if I can possibly avoid it, as the charges are also very high, but generally considerably cheaper than hotels.

Another alternative you should consider, just in case, is a long-distance card from your own home supplier. They give you card and 1-800 access numbers for various countries. Costs are reasonably as long as you are calling home and not using the card to call other countries. It usually takes about 3 weeks to get the card from your supplier, so plan ahead. Always useful as a back-up to the local long-distance calling cards.

Regards Ger

Karen,

There have been lots of postings on this subject. I know because I looked for the answer myself. Just search in Europe forum, for phoning from Europe to the US. You'll see lots of responses, with lots of different suggestions. I think it is really a matter of preference.........
BB

OReilly and I pasted in postings. His advise is good........

OReilly probably has it right,,,I understand it is a lot cheaper to buy a phone card in the country you are visiting. (good luck with it working)
WE always use a Sams or (Walmart)(AT&T) card phone card 3 or 4 hundred minutes.(more or less, and minutes can be added to your credit card if you run low, wherever you are in the world). In the US it is 1 for 1 , at about 3 cents per minute (cheap),
When overseas you can use it to call home to U.S., but it is about 7 units per minutes (still only about 21 cents a minute). You have an 800 access number for each different country*( get before you leave home).You then call out of the hotel(no charge for their "local 800 number) and you get an AT&T operator OR automation in the U.S. Very simple.
But, it still might be cheaper to buy a phone card overseas. I'm not sure!

It depends on the hotel. We've stayed in hotel where phone calls were insanely priced, and we've stayed at hotels where costs were just as cheap as any other way.

Ask at the hotel--sometimes they don't know what their phone service costs, but often they do. If they know the rates and they are reasonable, just use the hotel phone, otherwise, use a card.

When you buy a card, be certain what you are getting. Some cards (like many hotels) have horrible rates for out of country (the card's country, not yours) calls.

You can always use services like callbackworld or enlinea. Costs are between $0.10 to $0.20 min, but you won't need any phonecards. They got 0800 numbers in every country. It's VERY convenient and easy.

Another thing, 0800 numbers aren't free to call from public phones, there is an extra per minute charge between 20 and 25 eurocent.

logos makes a good point and an almost forgotten one...

Some think callbackworld and enlinea are just for mobile phones...they are not...as long as you have a direct dial number in a hotel (that is accessible directly and not through a switchboard) or in a private residence, you can use callbackworld and/or enlinea...it is free to open up an account with them and rates are indeed dirt cheap (you can also use the availability of their US toll free numbers to be reached on the fly and the call to number, at least on callbackworld, are easy to change and can be changed instantaneously)!

The phone cards sold in Paris allow one hour of phone calls to the U.S. for 1 euro (actually, a lot of them are sold for 7.50 € and they say "450 minutes to North America&quot.

The cheapest way is Skype. Google it to see details of how it works and how to set it up.

I agree with Rufus, some European hotels are surprisingly generous with their phone call rates, even some of the big chain hotels in the Accor group (however, I find the exact opposite is true when trying to call Europe from a big chain hotel in the U.S....the rates are exhorbitant). If your hotel does offer good rates and you're making a quick call, then it's probably just as easy to use your room phone.
If OTOH, you need to make several long phone calls, then try a calling card.
Faxing is the most expensive, in my experience. Cheapest is sending an email if the hotel has a free computer for guest use.

Even though using the telephone to call anywhere in the world has become easy and cheap in most countries, and I do understand the importance of keeping in touch in emergency situations, I would also like to point out that it is a great relief to be free of all telephone calls during a vacation, and that people survived without telephones for thousands of years. Most of the great travel literature of the world, going back probably to Homer's Odyssey and beyond, probably would never have been written if people had been calling home every day to talk about how they were spending their time. I really enjoy travel stories from friends who have returned from vacations without knowing ahead of time things like "oh yes, that place where you said you had the bad pizza."

THough we've mostly used our AT&T Sam's PREPAID card from hotels (no charge to get an outside 0800 local number....which connects to AT&T in the States) we have, on a couple of occasions used the card at a phone booth overseas and never had a charge as "logos999" mentioned. Of course there is an initial coin connection, which I think you get back. Get the local 0800 connection (different for each country), then follow the prompts, and you are right away talking to people at home. Never had a problem.

Just to re-enforce the "ckec the hotel rates before using" advice. A colleague of mine (honest it was a colleague and not me) called home (Australia) a few times using the hotel while at a meeting in New York. Said collegue had a fit when presented with the bill. The charges were over $2,000!

>never had a charge as "logos999"
I can positively confirm that you will be charged a 20ct fee per minute for dialing 0800 from German public phones. (T-Com)

Another thing, if you wan't it dirt cheap German public phones have a phone number and will ring, if that number is dialed. It's on a sticker on the phone which will read like this 890000053654221. Which means the number you have to dial from the US. is 01149 89 53654221. The phone will ring, no phonecard needed.