I’d imagine they’re also more frustrating because data while roaming is typically much slower.

Always get a local SIM / eSIM from where you’re traveling. I doubt there’s any country in the world that costs more than $20 / 10GB (give or take). I’ve done this through several countries in Latin America, Singapore, Malaysia, and all over Europe and it’s worked like a charm every time.

You should never use your home carrier and roam when traveling internationally, unless you have something like Google Fi which explicitly states that your data allocations apply worldwide.

How well does that work with iMessage etc? It would be an additional line I guess so should work okay I guess.

It can also be fantastically expensive. Roaming data charges for my phone outside the EU: £5/MByte.

The data to download a menu is more than the meal. Is free wifi common in Europe? I remember it being quite hard to find a hotspot. Same in the UK.. UK had those “the cloud” things in places.