When I travel now, I call the provider for my cell phone, which is compatible with European technology, and have them put on a "international package" for the duration of the visit. As I recall it was quite cheap, $5 or $10 dollars. The calls were more expensive, possibly $1.99/minute to the US, less within Europe. (Memory is poor for the exact details.) But actually, you don't tend to make many phone calls because you don't have to keep calling home to find out if something bad is happening, since they can call you when something bad is happening. Before I had this phone, when I rented a car overseas from Auto Europe, they offered cell phone rental as well. The rental of the phone itself was negligible, as I recall, practically a give away. The calls were priced similarly to the cost of calls that I am now able to make and receive on my own cell phone. The odd thing was that the phone was sent to you in the mail before you left, then you sent it back when you returned, and its pricing was conducted as though in England. So, if you were in Germany and calling with in Germany, it was priced as though you were calling England to Germany. At the time, I had investigated some other companies that provided cell phones for rent and they all operated as though out of England, and mailed the phone. My theory that you could rent a phone at the airport when you arrived in Europe did not pan out. There seemed to be no alternative to having it sent to you before the trip. This was a few years ago, of course. The advantages I see from renting a phone, or getting the international package, is that people in the US can call you easily. (In fact I received a phone call, while touring the Beguinage in Bruges from my hamster's veternarian, who was boarding her, to tell me that the hamster had developed "persistant head tilt" and that they had changed her medication.) Also, when you are circling a walled city with no idea how to find your hotel within the walled city, you can call the hotel and they can direct you. If you are traveling with other people, you can use it to meet up, after separating. I got the international package on my phone and my daughter's phone, which is actually one service plan, and then she was able to go off to flea markets while her father and I toured museums, knowing we would be able to contact each other. Don't know if any of this is helpful. Devon
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