Taking Cell Phones Abroad

When it comes to taking electronic devices like your cell phone, MP3 player, or laptop abroad, we suggest leaving the gadgets at home in order to truly experience Europe. By using call centers and internet cafés located in all major cities, you can contact home cheaply and as often as you feel is necessary. We only suggest taking a cell phone if you are traveling for a long period of time and want to have it with you in case of an emergency, or if you are traveling in a group that plans on splitting up sometimes and want a way to contact each other. However, you will often find that cell phones add unnecessary costs to your trip and eat up money that could be used to pay for hostels or food.

Lisa from Denver, CO, shares her experience about taking a cell phone to Europe:

I really wanted to have a cell phone since I was just going with my one friend and it was both of our first times in Europe. I wasn’t sure what exactly to expect over there, so I wanted to be able to contact my friend. In case we got separated and only had one key to our room (which did happen once), I didn’t want to be stranded (which also happened once). I also wanted a phone in case I ran out of money (which I did) and needed to call my mom to send more (which she did, thankfully).

I ended up meeting a guy in Kilkenny, Ireland, and my friend went home early from the pub. She ended up not answering her phone to let me in. She shut it off - so it ended up not even helping when I actually needed it. I also wasted a ton of money by calling her 10 times trying to wake up her since it charged you a buck every single time you connect to voicemail.

My cell phone company gave me a big rundown on what things will cost, especially with my data plan (internet). I had to turn the data services off manually, and I had to keep my phone off as well because roaming charges were unreal. My phone company also told me I could get a new chip/phone in a European phone store when I got there that could work as a pay-as-you-go phone and plan. I opted not to do that though, mostly because I didn’t want to do all that extra work. I ended up just paying about $100 in extra charges which my mom paid most of as a gift to me because she wanted me to call her a few times to tell her about stuff.