Yes, there’s free roaming in both directions.

The first thing to do is make sure your phone model supports the 3G and 4G/LTE bands used in the countries you’re going to — cheaper phones in particular don’t always have good support for frequencies used outside the region (in your case, presumably North America) they were purchased in. You’ll need to contact Tracfone for this information if you can’t find it online or in any documentation you got with the phone.

Assuming it’s going to work, you may be able to use the SIM you buy in Italy in both the UK (including Northern Ireland) and the Republic of Ireland without extra cost. Many Italian operators still include the UK in their free EU roaming plans, and the Republic of Ireland is obviously in the EU anyway. The minor problem you’d have is that the call/text/data packages last 30 days, and your trip is slightly longer than that — topping up when you’re outside Italy may not be particularly easy, so you’d be left without service either at the start or end of the trip.

The alternative is just to buy an Italian SIM card to use in Italy, then a UK SIM to use in England, Northern Ireland, and the Republic of Ireland. UK operators aren’t (currently) charging roaming fees for use in the Republic. This is probably what I’d look to do, since having a local number in the UK will likely be more useful than having an Italian one (see below for why this is).

You’ll be able to call US numbers if you want to, but it won’t be free for you or the person you’re calling. I’d suggest calling over data with an app like WhatsApp, Skype, Facebook Messenger etc if both of your phones support it, or getting the people you’re traveling with to just buy local SIM cards like you are — domestic calls will be free.

Hi Mary,

If you’re only going to be London, you’ll have decent coverage with any of the mobile companies, so Lebara’s a good cheap option (Lycamobile is another one). You’ll see signs for either or both of them in the window of pretty much every convenience store you walk past, and should be able to find SIM packs in most supermarkets as well. Sometimes the person at the convenience store might set it up for you if you ask, otherwise there’s instructions in the pack to do it yourself.

It looks like the cheapest option with either of them at the moment costs £5, and gives 3GB of data plus plenty of domestic calls and texts. That’s the price listed online, but I’d be surprised if it was much different in a store.

It’s not one I’ve come across before, unfortunately, so I can’t say whether they’re legit or not. The only company that sends UK SIMs overseas that I have any experience with is the one linked in the post, which has similar pricing (and a cheaper option if you don’t need as much data).

Thanks for the trip report, Rojer! The only thing I wanted to add was that there definitely is wi-fi on planes in Europe, but it’s dependent on which carrier you’re flying with. Despite being a budget airline, for example, Norwegian Air has free wi-fi on most of its European flights. Some other carriers also offer it on a paid basis, while others don’t have it at all.

We bought a SIM Card before we left from a company here in the USA that got shipped to our home in a few days. It came with 4G LTE data (15GB from memory) and minutes and texts. It was great because it just kept working in all the countries we visited.

Also there is quite a lot of free wi-fi in the UK and Europe, but sometimes it’s awkward asking for the password with language differences. And if you are using public wi-fi (eg in a coffee shop) you should always use a VPN.

Finally, there’s no wi-fi on airplanes, unlike here in the USA.