I always use Giff Gaff - we've find them very good and will happily send a SIM to NZ. However they do like you to visit the UK (they see you as roaming when on the continent), so not so good if there is no UK portion of your trip.

If you're just after data, last time I used an Airalo esim. https://www.airalo.com/europe-esim which worked perfectly.

lxsw20:

 

If you're just after data, last time I used an Airalo esim. https://www.airalo.com/europe-esim which worked perfectly.

 

I used Airalo around Japan and it was really good. For some reason it was particularly cheap in Japan.

Data only, which was all I needed.

After a recent UK trip, while I arrived with a Giffgaff SIM that was shipped to NZ, I found the SIM vending machine at the airport (Heathrow in our case, but they're everywhere) was a better deal for us, and most SIMs included Europe roaming.

We ended up with a EE SIM which worked well.

rscole86: @saf, how recent is recent?

I'm pretty sure all of the UK providers have stopped treating the EU as local, so you pay a pretty penny to roam now. EE was last to do this, I think they changed around May last year.

I've personally always just purchased a local (European Telco) SIM and travelled with that when needed.

Interesting. This was in November.

Maybe some old stock? No idea, but was UK & Europe, can't remember exactly what I paid but was better off than the Giffgaff SIM I had prepared.

rscole86: @saf, how recent is recent?

I'm pretty sure all of the UK providers have stopped treating the EU as local, so you pay a pretty penny to roam now. EE was last to do this, I think they changed around May last year.

I've personally always just purchased a local (European Telco) SIM and travelled with that when needed.

Same. Over the past 10 years I have set up month-by-month prepaid arrangements with Vodafone about ten different times in the UK and various EU countries. Works fine and there’s always a physical shop you can visit if needed.

However as mentioned above, I’m pretty sure that since Brexit, you can’t easily roam UK>EU (and vv) with VF. I’ve never tried that.

freitasm: It is not for me, but it would be good to have data (tablet) and voice/SMS (phone).

I will check Airalo now.

Airalo is solid in Europe but it will depend on the persons travel plans. I used an Airalo UK SIM and Airalo French SIM on my recent trip to London and Paris. Airalo was also good for us in Turkey.

There are regional eSIM options as well but they cost more. 

There is no voice option, it's data only.

I'm going to use mobimatter instead of local data when I'm back in NZ, they have a range of option as well.

rscole86: @saf, how recent is recent?

I'm pretty sure all of the UK providers have stopped treating the EU as local, so you pay a pretty penny to roam now. EE was last to do this, I think they changed around May last year.

I've personally always just purchased a local (European Telco) SIM and travelled with that when needed.

Looks like GiffGaff still have free EU roaming:

https://www.giffgaff.com/roaming-charges

shk292:

 

Looks like GiffGaff still have free EU roaming:

 

https://www.giffgaff.com/roaming-charges

 

We were there in July - two weeks continental Europe followed by two weeks UK. Roaming was fine (and free) but we did get messages telling us the roaming would not last longer than two weeks as we (at that time) had had no UK calls / test / data used. 

Thanks. I don't think there'll be UK in that trip. Airalo seems to be good for the tablet (data only).

Any other suggestions for voice/SMS?

Sorry, I don't think there's a plan to get to UK.

Just done 10 weeks in Netherlands, Sweden and Denmark, on my way back today.

Lebara SIM from NL has been flawless. No idea if they are the cheapest. It was something like 20Euros for 10GB and unlimited everything else.