My wife & I will be traveling to Barcelona, Majorca & Madrid for about 3 weeks in July. We are leaving home in the States two teenagers. We have traveled to Europe many times in the past, but even in the most modern places, staying in contact by phone was never cheap, nor easy. What do you all do out there ? Rent a cell phone from my phone company (seems to cost an arm & leg for airtime) Thanks a million

If all you want to do is call home, the public telephone is not too expensive. You can invest in a calling card, either from Telefonica (the phone company) or another type (sold at tobacco stores and kiosks). They are usually sold in denominations of 10 and 20 euros. The telefonica ones are inserted into public phones and the other brands have an access number and a pin on the card. They both are reasonable options. You could also just use coins in the telephone directly. Last December I called the United States using coins and had a 15-minute conversation for less than 5 euros. That seamed quite reasonable to me.

When I call home from Spain (home being the UK) I always go to a locutorio. They are really cheap.

I agree with Nevado's recommendation about the Telefonica Phone Cards. As I recall, they come in 6-or-12 Euro denominations. They are available for sale at Tabacs and many newsstands. You use them at the 'blue' pay phones (found all over the place). When you insert them, the screen on the phone tells you how many Euros credit you have remaining. A cousin told me I could add Euro credits from a phone; but I haven't tried that.

I direct-dialed from Santiago de Compostela to Philadelphia one morning and it cost me about 1.50-Euro for a call of about 10-minutes. Calls within Spain are extremely cheap, unless you are calling someone's Mobile phone. On another trip, a call to my cousin's mobile phone in Spain cost me as much as a direct-dial call to Philadelphia from Spain.

Other Phone Cards require you to dial an '800' number for access and then the calls cost more. I use the Telefonica cards exclusively

I also recommend the Telefonica Card. Just remember to take it out when you are finished. Twice I have forgotten and was lucky that it was still there 5-10 minutes later.

The Telefonica card is quicker and easier since you do not have to dial the 800 number and then enter a pin number.

Let me give a reccomendation: EF e-kit. It's a calling card by the company EF Tours which specializes in high-school school trips through Europe. I've traveled with them and making calls was SOOOOOOO easy, and you don't need ANY money to put in the pay phones, you just have to wait a minute after dialing the number. Theyr'e also reloadable. I believe you can get them at www.eftours.com