Elderly couple planning 2 trips to Europe over next 6 months . #1- Sicily for 10 days and then Stockholm for 6 more. #2 to Spain for a month. Wife and I each have IPhones with Verizon travel pass, when we activate it. Trip #1 to Sicily as tourist so need local calls. texts (and occasional call home to U.S.) and then in Stockholm where wife will need to cal/text family member studying there. Trip #2 as tourist in Spain so local calls/texts and to stay in touch with family back in U.S. Looking for advice on easiest way to use our IPhones... Monthly International Verizon Plan on one IPhone for Spain seems to make sense but trying to see if eSim is a good idea... Also have What's App for both phones and for Granddaughter. Don't want to over spend but has to be reasonably simple . Quiet confusing, especially for old fart!! Can you help? Thanks in advance

Do you want simple or the absolutely cheapest option??

I have Verizon and just use their international plan. Totally seamless. I may be paying a bit more but easy is good IMO.

Thanks, but with two IPhones (wife and me) and 2 trips (one for 18 days in two countries and the other for a month in one country), and need to occasionally stay in touch with home, yet call locals stores, etc, navigate streets, get weather, etc.,. etc., monthly plans from Verizon for both would total $400. Seems that could be reduced... Perhaps eSim for one phone and $100 Verizon [;an for the other?? Any suggestions considered.... or a good online source to get advice? Thanks.

We've moved your thread to the Europe Forum and changed the tags to Italy, Spain and Sweden.

Check out Verizon's Unlimited Ultra plan at approx $52/month per phone. Comes with international plan for all of Europe for calls & data, and also calls from the US to ONE country in Europe. With 2 phones, choose two different countries for calling to plan your trip. When you return, change both phones back to the Unlimited plan for $42/month per phone. Stop into the Verizon store to double-check the details, but I was amazed that this plan has been offered. We too, had been expecting $200 for 2 phones on our month-long trip. Sure beats the SIM shuffle!

Do both of you need to pay for monthly plans for two phones for occasional calls home? Will one do? Do you need more than one phone for making local calls? Do you even need two phones?

I've always hated the idea that cell phone service providers make you pay (gouge you?) for the privilege of using your own minutes overseas. We HAD AT&T and mostly chose one phone to use, paying the extra $10 per day, Ugh. We switched to T-Mobile before our most recent trip in May. They had a "special" going through Costco at the time and I try to limit those extra insult added to injury charges that add up like the ATM fees, credit card foreign currency fees, etc.

We both used our phones each day and our monthly cell phone bill remained the same, with no extra charges and no connection problems. I don't know about their coverage in your area, but I'm happy we switched. I've gone the local sim route previously, and that works, too... now that some phones have 2-sim capability, (or e-sim?) that might be easier than previously, so it might be worth it to check that out if you don't want to bother to change providers.

We are in the same spot (old, Verizon, iPhones). As I understand it, you have to sign up for the Verizon international plan before you travel. Then you are charged $10 for each day of use. As you noted, that can get expensive on a longer trip if you use it every day. However, you can turn the Verizon Sim off when not using it. We got "data only" eSims from Airalo. You have to download their app in the AppStore first. The set up was simple before we left, using the app and there are multiple tutorials on YouTube. For the most part, the Verizon Sim stays off.

We use What'sApp for almost all communication when we go to Europe. We let any businesses we will use know that they can contact us at our regular numbers through What'sApp. Our kids also use it, so keeping them updated is easy and loads cheaper. The Verizon plan is only used as a back-up or to occasionally check voicemail.

I keep my Verizon number just in case someone needs to get ahold of me. Too much hassle to possibly call everyone who might need to get hold of me and expect them to remember. My daughter(s) get an e sim.

My husband and I have two phones with Verizon. We are limited users so have limited plans. We have our phones set to wifi calls so text and make calls over wifi in hotel etc.

When we travel internationally I get eSim from Airalo for data that I use for navigation, Uber, look up train schedules on web, etc. When not on wifi. I never use it all.

Texts cost me. 10 or 25 cents so I don't care for the few I send.
For voice calls off wifi, I make few so pay the $1.79 per minute if necessary.
Meanwhile, my husband signs up for the international plan that is daily. If he uses it on a day, then he pays the flat $10 for unlimited.

On recent trip needed to make repeated voice calls to a customer service number about a problem so using his phone at $10 was better that day. Every other day my phone handled everything that was non wifi.

Again, I caution that I am not constantly texting, sharing photos, etc. So if you two want to be in constant communication especially with voice, our approach may not be best.

Thanks, all, you provided much useful information.

Isn't it sad that Verizon makes it so hard (or expensive) to stay in touch while traveling. $10 a day might be OK, but between Spam calls, passing cell towers, etc., that would activate the charge, seems ridiculous. What's App, using the existing mobile number, is fine for those who we can tell to use it, but what about anyone else who we know might call. eSim for data is fine, but for voice calls, it costs more and I get a new phone # which would have to be distributed. Wife and I could have different solutions to save money, but we don't share all business contacts, old friends, Doctors so that doesn't make sense. Could switch carriers but quite happy with Verizon in our neighborhood. Will check out Unlimited Ultra. But earlier post that said that Verizon's International plan was "totally seamless" caught my eye, although other websites have pointed out that calls from one country to another do add long distance charges (confirmed with Verizon) and Plan might charge extra for calls to landlines in the same country (denied by Verizon agent via chat).

So thank you all for helping me sort it out, even if it's going to cost me.

eSIM is cheap and easy. We order on Amazon and activate when we land.

I give my new phone number to my office before I leave.

If you have Wifi where you are staying you can make voice calls using whatsapp. It is more than just a message service. I use it all the time to keep in touch with family in the UK and friends in the US. Saves a fortune on overseas calling. Same for anyone calling you while you are away so you don't accidentality pick up an expensive call.

Spedprof--I can relate to your frustration. During our overseas travels in pre internet or useless internet days, we had decades of doing everything possible that saved us $$, including buying cheapie local phones with considerable credits, which surprisingly worked out great for years. We did not want to be in touch back home anyway unless WE reached out. Getting away from demands was part of the reason we were traveling.

Gradually, we needed to be in touch with ill parents and so on. We tweaked our system successfully with locals SIMS.

Flip forward, and suddenly, two- and even three-factor authentication become needed to prevent stolen identity. Someone has to stay on top of it all.

I have written at least two threads about this problem and my solutions which you may sift through:

2023: Other than the first posted question, look at my post #18
2024: My changing to another Verizon plan debacle (solved right away!)

My advice? You be you. Yes, it makes sense to shell out for ONE phone to be tethered to everything important back home. And then you can play footloose and fancy free with the other.

Which person has to stay on guard is up to you. With my husband and me, I could easily have just left him with NO phone calls; data only. He uses his iPad on wifi everywhere, and that's protected by his office security. I, on the other hand, am the point person for all of our credit cards and our phone plan. That means that anything in terms of authentication would naturally go through me. In an emergency, you can bet our daughters, who dearly love their father, are going to call ME.

As to cost, it always boils down to "What is your total trip cost?" What % of that cost would your phone be? My husband thinks it's ridiculous that I spent so much time sifting through all of this when to him, the differential was just the cost of one restaurant meal.

It is all in a matter of perspective. When I was a student in the UK it was so expensive to call home that our only communication was by aerogram. A cost for a 3 minute international call was probably about $75 in todays money

We lived in W.Berlin back in the 80s and it was much cheaper for my parents to call us rather than the other way around -- of course when they called it went on their bill, so win-win.

Our recent experience is that Verizon has an alternate international plan to the $10/day.
There is an option to pay $100 for one month of service internationally, this has worked well for our trips that are generally 2 + weeks.

Not many people use Skype any more, but it's a very reasonable solution for international travel.

A Skype account can be used at no cost to call other Skype users. You can also purchase Skype credit and use it whenever you have a WiFi connection to call anyone worldwide. And you can get a Skype phone number that people can use to call you wherever you are. You need to open a Skype account (free) and download the app.
​​​​​
I live in Italy, but I have many friends and relatives in the US. I got a US Skype number that people can use to reach me anywhere in the world. I originally got it mainly so my elderly aunt in the US could call me, and I got a Philadelphia area number so she wouldn't even need to use an area code. (This was over 20 years ago. Now every call uses area codes.) You could give this number to anyone who might need to call you. You might even be able to set your Verizon number to transfer your calls to that number while you're away from home. (I haven't lived in the US for over 20 years, so I don't know how that works.)

If you're connected to Skype when someone calls you from the US, you can answer it on Skype. If not, you can set it to transfer the call to another phone. I have it set so that if I don't answer on Skype in three rings, it transfers the call to my (Italian) cell phone. This is at no extra cost. If you don't answer at all, you'll get a message about a missed call.
​​​​
I don't know exactly how much a Skype number costs these days, and they don't make it easy to find out unless you open a free Skype account. You can get a number for 3 months for under $20, though. You should set it to renew using your Skype credit, and then prevent it from renewing by keeping your credit level low.

For instance, you could get $30 worth of Skype credit, use part of it for getting a 3-month Skype number, and use the rest of the credit to make local calls or calls to the US using Skype. You might need more credit than that, but Skype calls to most countries cost just pennies. You can make a lot of calls with $10 worth of credit. You can add credit in small amounts, I think $10.

I also have a Skype subscription for unlimited calls to the US, but I probably could cancel that by now. Aside from using other internet calling services, I now have unlimited calls to the US with my Italian provider.

​​​​

After trying different options over the years (dual e sim, using an old phone and installing a sim purchased at the airport), I’ve come to use the verizon int’l plan. Usually I buy it for a month (as noted above for $100) or for short trips for $10 per day. (I’m not big on sharing photos or videos in general and I do my web surfing /big downloads on the wifi from my lodging.) When it comes to technology I’m all about the easiest option, both for me and for some folks in my life back home. Another factor is that I need to keep my home phone number bec some at home don’t/won’t use WhatsApp and are not likely to remember to use an alternate number for me.

If a trip is longer than ten days I take the Verizon monthly $100 plan.
Just do not forget to cancel when you get home or they continue to charge you.