Sim card for iPhone 5 for UK/Europe trip?

M

moyjos

Hello knowledgeable SS travellers :)

I am travelling the UK and Europe (Germany, Italy, France) in October.
What is the best value sim card to stick in my iPhone? I know there will be wifi in most hotels, but would still like to have a bit of data on my phone so I can tether my iPad and use Skype to phone home.

My phone is currently on an Optus plan. I have no idea if the phone is locked or not :( google just confused the heck out of me :(

What are your tried and tested cards?
 
Hi

I have not used a sim in Europe except for Serbia which involved a visit to the Telstra shop and they set it up there. Only valid for Serbia. Was going to get one in Italy but relied on wifi which is available in a lot of caf?s etc. my hotels must have wifi for free too, or I choose another. I think you may find you will be buying a sim in each country. We were moving a bit, it wasn't worth the hassle

Cheers
 
Whatever you do, do NOT do roaming. 18 months ago i did a trip in Italy with a friend's son, who was proudly sporting his iPhone 4s with data roaming. On the road from the Milan airport he had Google Maps on the phone and chewed through $500 of data in about an hour.

I'd suggest either a travel sim card bought from Australia (like those from AusPost) or buy a local sim wherever you land (but you'll need a new sim in each country).

In my experience, data for phones was expensive and a pain. It was much, much easier to get a data sim for the iPad which was something like 3GB for 30 days for Euro30. We did all email and FaceTime from the iPad. Walk into a shop, smile and point to the iPad, pay the money, shop person installs it, it's working even before you're out the door.

If your iPad does not do cellular data, then get a portable wifi hotspot thingy locally buy sim cars for it as you move around.
 
I turn off roaming the minute I get on the plane.

I learnt from my first visit with my iphone, came home to a Telstra Bill of $5200 and I had not been using the data, the phone was automatically updating weather, etc!! Telstra did write it off when they checked I had not used data but it was a one off.

I have Skype on my iphone and use wifi at the hotel or caf? to phone home. I also use the ipad with wifi only.

I am overseas 6 times a year and this works fine for me. Hotels have wifi, it may only be in the lobby but its always free.

Chris
 
We went to Ireland last year and hired a wireless hotspot from Hertz when we picked up the rental car.

It was great - we had internet everywhere we went and it didnt cost us a fortune.
 
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