I have an iPhone 4s, with AT&T as my provider, and travel abroad multiple times each year. I don't have an international plan, so to make calls, send and receive e-mails, browse the internet, or download data for my apps (like my weather apps and newspaper apps), I use a wi-fi connection at airports, airport lounges, and hotels, utilizing Skype to make calls, while keeping Data Roaming turned off to avoid incurring pricey roaming charges. That all works very well for me, and I almost never go more than 24 hours without wi-fi access.

One thing that has always bugged me, however, is when I get voice mails while abroad: my iPhone displays the red icon indicating that I have one or more voice mails, but I've become accustomed to waiting until I land back in the U.S. to retrieve my voice mails so I don't get charged. And, of course, until then, I'm always in the dark as to whether the voice mail I know I have is time-sensitive or (most likely) not time-sensitive.

Surely there must be some good way to retrieve my voice mails while abroad when I have a wi-fi connection (including access to Skype). But what is it? I can't call my own phone using Skype on my own phone to retrieve my voice mails (to my knowledge). Is there an AT&T number (not my own cell number) which I can call using Skype to retrieve my voice mails? Can I check my iPhone's visual voicemail purely using wi-fi, but without data roaming or incurring any other surcharge? Should I sign up for a free service like Google Voice and alternate between enabling it when I am leaving the country and disabling when I return? Any advice is greatly appreciated.