I am visiting Bosnia, Croatia, Slovenia and the U.K. in September. Being a novice about cell phones, do I have to buy a Sim card for each country, or is there an International one that I can purchase for all of the above countries? I want to email, text, take pictures, and maybe search the internet. I am currently on a monthly prepaid program with my current cell phone. Your advice is appreciated.

I've been through this process a zillion times and for me this is the best and easiest option I've found...http://www.gosim.com/?gosimusa You can get a SIM or a SIM and a Phone at very reasonable prices. If your current phone is GSM and is unlocked you could get away with just getting the SIM. If not, they sell very nice phones quite cheaply. In fact for $49 you can get $10 worth of call credit AND a phone that does what you want. No hassle and you have your European phone number BEFORE you leave. In addition, you get a USA number so anyone that calls you from the US just pays for a local call. It may not be the bare-boned cheapest BUT when I'm traveling I don't want to waste my precious vacation time getting local SIM cards, figuring out their systems, etc.just to save a few pennies. YMMV.........

I agree with the above poster, if convenience is your objective. I would also add that another alternative is to get a UK SIM if that is where you are starting, and just use that as you can roam with it. Depending on the company you may be able to recharge it while on the road using a credit card; check out these people:

http://www.lebara.co.uk

The price of roaming is capped in Europe but is still a little more expensive than normal calls. I would do this if you just want a phone occasionally and don't want to make a lot of calls.

Lavandula

I use a global SIM from telestial.com or ekit.com. I have an unlocked quad band phone I bought from amazon I use for travel.

Thank you everyone for your advice. I did not know I could buy a SIM card prior to leaving North America for these countries. I will research the information you have given me.