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Ok, so do you grab a cheapie and a local SIM, or take your phone and get a local SIM, or do you organise global roaming in advance?
It sounds like global roaming costs a packet ... but I don't know what data options are local ...
We're going to HK for 5 weeks.
Take your phone and get a local sim but let your family know the phone number with the sim. We got our sims put in at Bangkok airport when we arrived. Check Trip Advisor, you can ask questions in the forums or search for the info you are after. Turn off global roaming too
Check that your phone is unlocked first. You can't put a new sim into an unlocked phone.
Otherwise buy a cheap prepaid.
Don't do global roaming! I did one trip and came home to a $1800 phone bill as I didn't realise that I was paying for the incoming calls as well and it's super expensive. Now I buy a cheap phone and sim and take my phone for wifi only.
When I went to UK for 5 weeks I just bought local SIM with data, and just stuck in phone. No idea if is unlocked or not but worked fine (Galaxy S3) there were loads of options for data etc. HK will be similar, you can prob find out best option on net in advance. I wouldn't mess with global roaming myself, too many horror stories, Also you don't have control if someone phones you then you are charged the extra and they are only charged the cost as if you were in home country. As you can't control who will call you then if your SIM isn't in the phone then there is no way you can be charged.
Get an overseas sim and out in phone. Just check that your phone isn't locked to local network (telcos often lock @contract" phone plan to their network. Prepaid are usually locked)
If there is a chance you will get calls on your "normal" hun vert far are important you can have all calls diverted to message bank and then dial in from another oh I've to check messages with a PIN number (telco can explain how)
Hmm, maybe we'll leave our phones at home to be safe, and take our old phones. They still work fine (not perfect, not as good as our nice new ones, but perfectly serviceable for the purpose of calls and texts).
I just got back from the US yesterday. Work related and so they added a data pack and I got reminders of my usage. I kept my data roaming switched to off when I wasn't using my phone which stops any usage that you are not controlling such as location etc. I got a small amount 100mb and I barely used it as hotel had free wifi, and I still used more than 80mb as i got a warning. I was away for 8 days.
I think for personal use it would be better to get an os sim :)
When I travel OS I get my telco to turn off my data package (they usually time it to departure time & then I turn it back on with a phone call when I return - also turn off global roaming). I also have global roaming but have all my calls bar VIP calls automatically forwarded to voicemail. I've done this for all of my OS trips (Bali, USA, Cambodia). I'm also doing the same when I go to Colombia next month. Usually the only people needing to contact me are on my VIP list (family only) and while I'm in Colombia they will be over there with me, so the only thing I will be using is iMessage between those of us with iPhones or using WhatsApp.
If I was going for longer than 2 weeks, then I would contemplate getting a local SIM with a prepaid phone.