Shutting off messaging on my iPhone?

I'm going to London/Paris starting Monday for 10 days. I originally planned on taking my Sim card out of my iPhone so it would be just like an iPod touch with Wi-Fi so I can still use iMessage, email, Facebook, Twitter etc.

However, I have decided to purchase an international data plan (please spare the "you don't need it", "everywhere has Wi-Fi" comments. Not everywhere does and I want it for an emergency in case I get lost and I happen to be out in the middle of the country and there's no Wi-Fi) I spoke with AT&T today and they assured me as long as I don't answer my phone if I get an incoming call I wouldn't be charged an arm or a leg.

He also suggested turning my text messages off so if people without iMessage text me, I won't be charged for it. My question is, when I turn the text messaging off and then turn it on when I return, will those texts come through? Or if someone text me when I have it turned off, I simply won't ever receive it? I didn't think about this until a ways after otherwise I would have asked in the store.

This is just an opinion, because I don't know 100%… I'm guessing that when you turn your text messages back on you will receive them all. Kind of like if you are somewhere and don't have a good signal and can't get your messages, but then once you have a signal again you get them all.

It depends when the messages was sent. Your carrier will hold undelivered messages for certain time frame, and delete them after that. You can ask AT&T what is that time frame is.