Boingo Overseas?

Boingo Mobile is $7.95/month, and you can use it on 2 devices. I did use it last summer (Italy), but (due to Italian law), there were few networks...Spain and France are a different story. We toted 2 iPads with us.

If you for the sim rout for your phones, look for one of the major retailers (like The Phone House) that carry several carriers, and are in more than one country. They are freestanding, also inside many of the Carrefours.

You can get the Verizon global service, which gives you data for a reasonable price for any amount of time you want - a week, a month, etc. I think it was about an extra $30. per month. You can use this for your email, and iMessage is free no matter where you are in the world (iPhone to iPhone on an Internet connection). I like to do this because it's just simple. You get access to a local carrier through the agreement with Verizon, and your email works wherever you have a 3 or 4G connection. Your regular texts are whatever the country text charges are (usually around .50 each, some places are $1. each) and the biggest problem is the actual phone calls, which are ridiculously expensive even with the global plan. As far as I know Skype will not work for calls generated in another country.

Thanks for all the advice. I agree with DSJ in not wanting to entice thieves and we're not taking much technology with us on the trip. We figure that, with a single iphone, we can have all we need in terms of checking all our email accounts and, if absolutely necessary, making a call or two. We have Ooma at home so we can make calls via WiFi and most of the hotels have some sort of internet. With the iPhone we won't have to carry all sorts of travel books with us . . that's kind of nice. I'll have it around my neck, with a good cable, and that'll be the only thing I have to worry about. (We'll have a kindle with us for the plane rides . . . not the end of the world if we lose it but we won't carry that around day to day. We also take mini-mp3 players on the plane; they were $9 each so, again, not a big deal.)

The nice thing about having internet on the phone over there would be for additional restaurant recommendations and site-seeing stuff but, you're all probably right, we could just get by with the standard WiFi. For the $7.95 -- we're only away for one month -- it might be worth the additional "Boingo" fee . . as a back up.

stu

Pobre said:   Agree with VPN suggestions...however, I never log into sites that need a PW, unless I am on a secure/known connection. I only use it for browsing....

It's fine to use a VPN for surfing, but the whole point of using a VPN while traveling is so that you CAN securely log into sites and do the things you need to do. VPNs are what corporations, governments, and universities use to allow employees that are on the road or at remote sites to access sensitive corporate files.

You can use a VPN on the iPhone and remember that even if you pay for wifi internet, it's usually still considered unencrypted and public.

I have used boingo in the UK and Germany. It is hit or miss, probably more to sloppy management of their locations database, than to malicious intent to defraud you. I specifically booked some hotels in Germany because they were listed as boingo locations and then was frustrated when I arrived and couldn't get online. I also had some issues in the UK.

But for $10/month it is impossible to beat. Even if it isn't 100%.