World SIMs Vs. Local SIMs

What's best for you really depends on how many calls you're planning to make and how long you're staying in each country.

If you're only planning to spend a couple of days, and/or not make any significant amount of calls, just get your home SIM roaming enabled and check that there are roaming agreements between your supplier and the networks in each country.

Why do I suggest you use your home SIM if you're planning to spend a short time there? Sometimes you can spend half a day trying to get them to give you a SIM card, if you're only there for a day it's not time effective.

My usual travel plan goes: Take roaming enabled mobile. Use locally bought calling cards if I want to make any international calls. Use SMS to communicate unless it's an emergency.

Roaming info can be found in my FAQ under OnTheRoad/MobilePhones:

I agree with Lan that getting a local SIM card can be a pain depending on where you are and which network you are trying to use. I bought a SIM card on the Spanish Yoigo network a few months ago to take advantage of Internet access capped at €1.20 per day, but found that the Yoigo network requires a Spanish ID number to sell a SIM card (even PAYG). I got it in the end with a bit of blagging but if you don't know anything of the local language & beaurocracy it could be difficult.

However, I'm not sure that using your home network's roaming is necessarily the cheapest way to go when you can get a global SIM card with no roaming charges. You don't say where you live, but there's a UK based page here: http://www.moneysavingexpert.com/phones/cheap-roaming-calls</a> that might be useful.