The best option for using phone through Europe

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dclegg

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#257383 30-Sep-2019 09:15

I'm looking for the best phone option for us when roaming around Europe. I assume this will be picking up a local sim when we land, but would be great to get confirmation of this. I'm also on the lookout for any gotchas when doing this.

We are currently with 2Degrees, and will be using an iPhone 8 & iPhone 11. We will be visiting the following countries (in order)

Italy

Netherlands

France*

Germany*

Switzerland*

England

France

*As part of a Rhine river cruise.

PeterReader

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#2326984 30-Sep-2019 09:15

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trig42

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#2327005 30-Sep-2019 09:35

We got on Orange travel sim in France last year. Heaps of Data, usable all over Europe, but quite pricey (and only 14 days so we needed to buy a topup).

It looks like you can get Sims in Italy (this is your first stop?) - Vodafone seems to offer a pretty good deal there - 30 Euros, 30 days, 15GB that can be used all over Europe.

Most of the other Italian telcos have similar pricing, but watch for the 'roaming', they may offer you 30 or 40 GB in Italy, but only 5GB for the rest of Europe.

You will find most places have good WiFi. We used data pretty much only for Google/Google Maps (and a bit of translation). Went nowhere near using up the data we got with Orange.

dclegg

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#2327008 30-Sep-2019 09:46

trig42:

It looks like you can get Sims in Italy (this is your first stop?) - Vodafone seems to offer a pretty good deal there - 30 Euros, 30 days, 15GB that can be used all over Europe.

Yep, flying into Rome. Thanks for the advice.

chevrolux

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#2327011 30-Sep-2019 09:49

We grabbed a 3 sim that worked all over Europe.

I think the main reason was they gave a nice chunk of data for maybe 20-30 euro?

neb

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#2331508 6-Oct-2019 17:17

trig42:
It looks like you can get Sims in Italy (this is your first stop?) - Vodafone seems to offer a pretty good deal there - 30 Euros, 30 days, 15GB that can be used all over Europe.

I've got a worldwide data SIM as the second SIM in my phone, but haven't used it in years apart from a few countries like Slovakia where there's no Vodafone coverage. Everywhere else I just pay $19/week to get Vodafone (almost) global roaming when I'm overseas, that's a great deal for travelling.

Scott3

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#2331574 6-Oct-2019 21:47

neb: I've got a worldwide data SIM as the second SIM in my phone, but haven't used it in years apart from a few countries like Slovakia where there's no Vodafone coverage. Everywhere else I just pay $19/week to get Vodafone (almost) global roaming when I'm overseas, that's a great deal for travelling.

Standard vodafone roaming is now $7 a day, so $49 a week.

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Basil12

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#2331580 6-Oct-2019 22:00

I've used Giffgaff on my last two trips to Europe. It is UK based but allows free roaming in Europe as long as you visit the UK at some point. Bargain priced (which suited me) especially given the amount of free wifi typically available (we visited Ireland, UK and Italy in July).

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Lewk

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dns4me

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#2331584 6-Oct-2019 22:15

We picked up a couple of Vodafone UK SIM's at Heathrow airport (they weren't easy to find but we were only transiting the UK so didn't go into London). Put 10 pound on one and 20 pounds on another for 30 days. It was free roaming in Europe (at least while Brexit hasn't happened). I think they had a double data deal and we ended up with 30gb of data on one phone and 26gb on another. It worked very well. This was in July/August this year.

neb

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#2331598 6-Oct-2019 23:15

Scott3:
neb: I've got a worldwide data SIM as the second SIM in my phone, but haven't used it in years apart from a few countries like Slovakia where there's no Vodafone coverage. Everywhere else I just pay $19/week to get Vodafone (almost) global roaming when I'm overseas, that's a great deal for travelling.

Standard vodafone roaming is now $7 a day, so $49 a week.

I'm on Prepay, it's $19 for a week.

everettpsycho

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#2331679 7-Oct-2019 07:53

I'm pretty sure the EU banned roaming charges so most networks shouldn't charger you for it. I'd check with the networks just in case. I always usually recommend a three UK sim card but I'm not sure if you can get one posted to here. It's a lot of data for the money and works all over Europe, you can even use anything left when you get home.

antoniosk

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#2331728 7-Oct-2019 09:49

We used giffgaff last year. Sims ordered from NZ and delivered here, activated when we arrived. £20 was near unlimited everything, and we burned a total of 4gb over 3 weeks.

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allan

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#2331745 7-Oct-2019 10:13

Used a Vodafone SIM, picked up at a Vodafone shop in London last year with the one month deal. Worked in all of the countries mentioned in OP.