Phone Cards???

[schoolman]

Will be in Europe later this month (France and Italy) and wondered what the best way to phone home would be. I'm sure this has been addressed sometime but to save reading through pages, would someone who has been there recently please advise me. I know calling to and from ship is very expensiveso wondered if an International Phone card would be the best way to go.

[cberge]

Will be in Europe later this month (France and Italy) and wondered what the best way to phone home would be. I'm sure this has been addressed sometime but to save reading through pages, would someone who has been there recently please advise me. I know calling to and from ship is very expensiveso wondered if an International Phone card would be the best way to go.

When you are in port just stop in a Tabac shop(cigarette shop),and buy a telephone card..they come in all sorts of minutes and are really cheap..tell them you want to call the US.Much cheaper than taking a cell phone (IMHO anyway).Don't buy a prepaid card here in the US..they are expensive to use.I am sure other's will post idea's as well.Tehn if you find you really don't need to call home don't buy a card;) . Calling from the ship is just so way out of line it's not funny.Have a fun trip.

[iancal]

I agree, buy them in a tabac shop. We just came back. I think we paid 7.5E in France and gave the card away to a fellow travellor because there was time left on it. The card that you buy in France cannot be used in Italy so keep that in mind when you are decided how 'large' of a card to buy. In Italy, we use the 5E Europa card. Should have bought a larger denomination though because we had to buy several of them as we were there for 2 1/2 weeks. NEVER use those 'convenient' credit card phones as you will regret it when you get your VISA bill! They are a huge rip off. We were able to use our cards from some hotel rooms and not others. By 'able to use' I mean use without incurring any hotel charges. You need to check at the front desk. It is much nicer to call from your room vs. a pay phone w/ the usual background noise