Dubai Stu

For the best coverage in the EU, you need a phone with 900 and 1800mhz GSM. If you want a phone that gives you the maximum travel capacity at not to high a price, buy a quad band GSM phone. If you have a little extra money to pop, get one that also handles the 2100mhz band which will also give you coverage in Korea and Japan. That extra fequency also gives you access to high speed data throughout Europe and Asia. You also want to make sure that the phone is unlocked so that you can use any providers smart card ("sim").

The best resource on prepaid sims is prepaidgsm.net.

tev9999

1. Check all of your current chargers to make sure they work on 100-240 volts. If not, you will need a voltage converter. Most things now are, but one of my GSM quad band "world phones" came with a 110 volt only charger, so I had to carry a converter. A small 50 watt one will be fine for charging phones and Ipods, but won't run a hair dryer or iron.

2. I have an "all-in-one' adapter that can do UK, central Europe, US, Austrailia and others. It is a big block with a sliding switch that will allow you to flip out different prongs. It works, but does not always seat well in sockets and can fall out. You can get one at Kmart, Walmart, Radio Shack and many other places.

3. You will need a tri or quad band GSM cell phone to work in Europe. You will also need to make sure you have international roaming enabled. Note your roaming rates will probably be high.

4. Ipod travel kit is probably overkill and expensive. You should be able to get by with the all-in-one option for around $10 or pick up individual adapters for each country (i think you will only need UK and central Europe) for a couple bucks each.

I now look for devices that charge on USB. My current cell phone and MP3 player do, so all I carry now is a central Europe plug for my laptop and a USB cable.

burberrybrit

Where's the cheapest place to get adaptors and convertors? I don't want to buy one of those all in one kits because they have weird adaptors that I don't need and only one of the kind I DO need. I will have my laptop , cell, and an Ipod. Not sure what other "appliances" I will be bringing at this point. Will only be in Switzerland and France.

cpx

I generally get them from local chinatown or flee markets.
each costs about 50 cents. You can always get them online.

mkt

Ebay is good... another option is check with a hotel and see if they have any old lost and found chargers that were never claimed. That is how I have gotten RAZR chargers for every country.. lol

burberrybrit

Thanks!

daved

http://mfueldirect.com/home.php

GUWonder

Not a bad idea. Time for me to ask around since I have UK chargers that I really could surrender for a more mainstream European one.