Cell phone in Europe?

It depends to whom are you going to phone when you're in Europe: if just calling back home, you should compare the offer from your provider with international call rates from European providers; if you plan to make call to somebody in Europe, is definitely cheaper using a European contract, even if it's true calling from a European Country to another one is more expensive than calling inside national borders (but with your homeland provider, it would be even more expensive). The problem is not the phone, but the sim card: if you have an unlocked phone, you can just buy a rechargeable sim card in one or even each Country your going to visit and put it in your phone; your not going to lose money this way, since, for instance, a prepaid sim card in Italy will cost you typically 5 euro but you also get 5 euro to spend in calls. If you don't have an unlocked phone, then you may consider to buy one in Europe: unlocked cell phones are very easy to find in Europe (actually, it's the norm, especially in continental Europe), and a basic phone from brands like Motorola, Samsung or Nokia can be found at 25 or 30 euro. Some of them do even includes a sim card and a contract.