Overseas connectivity

A large proportion of hotels and AirBnb accommodation offer free wifi access, however mobile phone connectivity is still very expensive when beyond wifi range.

Big News: Europe introduced free mobile roaming in June 2017 which makes much of the previous information outdated. I recently used a German Vodafone sim in the UK and it worked well with roaming ON. Just need to reset Mobile data to zero at the beginning of the period and you can track how much you have used and switch off apps that are hogging too much data. I really only have to use Google Maps as while out and about.

Data access is usually all one requires when on the road. Apps like Viber, WhatsApp and Skype offer cheap voice connections, using data rather than cellular access. Data allows internet access and text messages which are generally all one requires.

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Old advice
A good current option is to get a temporary sim card. In London I recently bought a "3" network  £25 30 day card which gives unlimited data and significant phone use within the UK and in 17 other countries substantial data access. About 1Gb of data is usually enough for 30 days. When using this card outside the UK it is necessary to switch on Mobile roaming, which is normally something to never do on one's home sim card, but OK when using this prepaid one.

In Germany and €20 sim card from Vodafone provided 1Gb of data. Any mobile phone shop offers these sim cards.