We are leaving for Europe on Sunday to visit the Netherlands, Belgium and Paris. We would like to buy a throwaway cel phone for our 2 week visit. Can anyone suggest how/where to make such a purchase when we arrive in Amsterdam? Are prices reasonable? We do not need to call the U.S. but would like to be able to call hotels and our niece in Paris.

I would suggest buying a prepaid-telephone. I have seen phones as low as € 34,99 with €15 call-credit. See for example the phones at the bottom of this page: http://tinyurl.com/254sxd

At Schiphol itself is also a telephone-shop: http://tinyurl.com/254sxd
You could possibly buy a phone there.

Otherwise you can find dozens of shops in the centre of Amsterdam ('T for telecom', 'The phone House', 'GSM shop' etc).

Most prepaid-phones do require a minumum of registration (but you can slo choose to remain anonymous). It is possible to call in France and Belgium (and other European countries) with them, but rates can sometimes be high.

Also make sure to buy some call-credit (on cards) in advance in the Netherlands! They will not be avialable in other countries.

The clerks in thes tores will definitely be able to help you.

http://tinyurl.com/24p2or

I pasted the wrong url for the telephone-shop at Schiphol: http://tinyurl.com/25pwnt

This shop is found beyond customs in the regular shopping plaza.

TommieG,
do you know of a website that has this information in English? I checked out the telecom website, and couldn't find a language button anywhere. We would be looking to get a phone on arrival in Poland and use it in Lithuania and Germany as well. We'd love a throwaway phone for two weeks in these places!

The websites above are specific for the Netherlands (and therefore mostly in Dutch).

Have never been to Poland but at www.phonehouse.com I see that they also have shops in Poland (not website stated unfortunately for Poland). I think that in Poland it is also very easy to get a prepaid-phone, just like in the Netherlands. Don't know about prices though.

Here is a website with the avaiable network in Poland. By looking up the roaming partners you can if Polish networks have agreements with Lithuania and Germany.
I thnik they will because for instance the Orange-network is a large European-player.

Forgot to post the website:http://www.gsmworld.com/roaming/gsminfo/cou_pl.shtml