I have been given advice to have a prepaid phone for a trip abroad in May. Has anyone had experience with this and/or advice?

Moved to Europe forum

In what sense?

If you have an unlocked phone getting a SIM in Europe is pretty easy and likely cheaper than roaming. Is that what you're asking?

I agree with TN. What is it you're trying to accomplish?

Phone calls?
Texting?
Maps?
internet?

there may be different solutions using your existing hardware at a much lower price. Buying new hardware only to dispose of it a short time later isnt the best idea...

I would never buy a prepaid phone just for one trip with exception of where one is going. This has been recommended by some for trips to China.

Who advised you to get a prepaid phone for Europe, though? Or rather, ​​​​why is it being recommended?

Pretty sure that virginiafish doesn't mean buying a new phone, just a prepaid phone plan. I always buy something prepaid (as opposed to post paid) when travelling so I don't get any nasty surprises. I used to buy either a SIM (and prepaid plan) at my destination or an international SIM (and prepaid plan) before travelling, and top us as needed. Nowadays, the cost of just extending my normal phone plan to include international roaming is very cheap - and I imagine that's the case in most countries nowadays. The advantages of keeping my normal number are obvious and include when it is needed for multi-factor authentication.

I suggest your first step is to contact your current mobile phone plan provider and ask them how much it would cost to extend usage for international roaming.

As said above, if you want to buy a new phone SIM, your phone must be unlocked (i.e. not part of a payment plan where the phone is locked to a particular carrier).

I only do pre-paid all the time.
I use wifi wherever I can (there is a lot of free wifi in public spaces, trains, buses, airports, stations, libraries, restaurants, hotels now. They normally just ask for email address (I keep an email address for just this purpose with a link through to my main one so as to limit spam).
GPS, of course, does not use the phone system so as long as you have downloaded your maps that is just energy using (thanks US military).
I still use a lot of SMS messaging once I've made contact with say a hotel. That cuts out phone calls and of course there are tools like WhatsAPP via wifi for conversations.

Mostly I’m like bilboburgler but we rarely use wifi any more because of security concerns. The only drawback to that is not being able to back up photos without consuming huge amounts of data.

If you have an unlocked phone, the easiest and cheapest option would be to pop into a phone shop or supermarket market and pick up a pro paid PAYGO sim card and have them insert into your phone. 10 £/€/$ will buy you 8-10gb of data plus unlimited calls and SMS for one month. SIM themselves are v cheap or free. O2 are very good as they allow free roaming throughout Europe

There are plenty of cheap €100 phones with a fair bit of storage. I wouldn't suggest buying a flagship phone but I have a "beach" phone that replaced by old Ipod. The phone was cheaper and has more storage than my old Ipod. If my phone falls into the sea the hardship will be reloading the music not replacing it.

If the choice is between an expensive roaming deal and a new phone the phone might be a cheaper option. Plus you can use it for future trips or lend/give it away to family or friends.

Any EU provider offers free roaming within the EU, and in some non EU countries. It applies to PAYG/prepaid Sims as well. That's EU law.
A few UK companies still offer it too, including O2, but many no longer do, despite their pre-Brexit promises.
If your phone is unlocked then just get a sim for it, or better yet an e-sim if your phone can use one. Don't buy a burner phone, waste of precious resources.

Alternatively turn your phone off and only check for messages when you have wifi. Tell people at home to use a message service like WhatsApp or Signal (for Meta haters) or email you, and say you will check daily.

You can get a VPN to minimize security concerns. You should always use a VPN when using WiFi in any public place, even when you're not traveling.

With you on VPN.

There is no reason to care about vpns or using public wifi if you arent doing anything like accessing your bank acct, etc. What are people doing anyway that they need to use a phone so much? If you are looking up bus lines, museum hours, maps, etc, who cares.

I’ve been using eSIMs for the last few years and find this is best. I get to keep my phone number. eSIMs are good for data and texting. I will use WhatsApp for the few calls I need, provided the recipient has it as well. Since most people we’ve dealt with in the travel industry now have WhatsApp, it’s not an issue.

I'd worry more about random USB charging than VPN.

https://www.fcc.gov/juice-jacking-tips-to-avoid-it

Bring your own charger or power bank.

since most people now carry a wallet on their phone, vpn is a must

+1 We all have so much data on our phones now (including cards and banking) that it's critical to protect the data on our phones with simple things like this and VPN if using wifi.

wallets on phones don’t use WiFi to pay. Payments work offline via NFC (Near Field Communication) so a VPN will have no effect.

They do use wifi when loading cards to the wallet, but presumably most wil load cards at home before departure.

VPN doesn't mean safe. There are dodgy VPNs. Ask yourselves how the "free" VPNs pay the bills. Even some of the paid VPNs have been found to sell your data.

https://www.forbes.com/sites/emilyba...ool-kids-data/