Options When Traveling To Multiple Countries

Hello all, hopefully you can help me!

I have an unlocked phone (recent model from vodafone) that was used in Australia. I am told this will work in Europe. I plan to take it with me to Europe for my 8 week trip.

I will be in Greece for 3 weeks, Italy for 2 weeks, and London for 4 weeks (in that order) with short trips (3 days) to France and Spain. Does anyone have a similar experience, and what did you do?

What is the cheapest option for cell phones. I was planning to buy a sim card with the pay as you go option when I land in London on my way to Greece in the begining and keep the same one throughout the trip in all countries. However, from recent posts I have started to understand that some people buy sim cards in each country they visit - is that a better option?

Things I would like to use the phone for: safety, keeping in touch with travel companions (call to meet up, etc), calling ahead to verify reservations, and sometimes recieving calls from home (u.s.). I would use a calling card to do the majority of my calls home because I understand this is the cheapest.

So my question is should, I try to get a SIM card for Greece, Italy, and UK, or just UK? If I just get one from UK what is the best SIM card from UK (or Greece, b/c that is my first stop) that would work for the entire trip.

Can anyone help? Please?

[EllasDevil]

OK, my personal suggestion would be to get a Vodafone SIM card.

If you decide to get a Vodafone sim card from the UK, they are very cheap. Before leaving the UK, call 5555 from it and activate Vodafone passport.

If your usage isn't going to be all that heavy or if it's important to have the same number than this isn't a bad idea.

To use Vodafone passport, you need to make sure your roaming on a Vodafone network which are vodafone UK (UK), vodafone GR (Greece), vodafone IT (Italia), vodafone ES (Spain) and SFR (France).

If you buy the SIM card in UK, it means calls recieved in the UK are free. Each call recieved while you are not in the UK will be subject to a flat charge of 75p. You'll then be able to talk for an hour without incuring charges. Outgoing calls have a flat charge of 75p applied plus the cost of the call (although this charge will be the same as if you were making the call from inside the UK)

If you're going to be recieving a lot of incoming. Why not get a Vodafone UK sim card and a Vodafone Greece one.

If you arrive in Athens Eleftherios Venizelos airport, you can buy a Vodafone Greece sim card at a store called Germanos.

Again, before you leave Greece, simply call 1333 and add Vodafone passport. I believe when the message talks to you, you need to press 2 to activate et voila (the recorded voice will be in Greek). With VF GR, any calls you recieve when overseas have a fee of 1? charged and again, you can chat freely for up to one hour, outgoing calls are charged at normal rates as if called from inside Greece with a 1? fee added per call. Incoming calls recieved in Greece are free.

For balance, call 1252 (the first time you call, select option 3 then option 2 to put all the automated menus to English)

Also diall ##002# from both sim cards to remove the voicemail (voicemail deposit can be expensive when overseas)

[Effendi]

I think that 1 card for every country could be the cheapest solution. In Italy you usually pay 5 or 10 ? to get one (Wind usually is the cheapest), the same in the UK (virtual operators are cheaper, I think Virgin could be a good solution also to call the US), while in Greece I think Cosmote has the best coverage and offers.

If you prefer to buy just 1 card in order to have the same number I agree with Ellasdevil, a Vodafone Passport could be the cheapest solution; but I'd rather buy the 3 sim cards, one for each country.