Travelling 4 countries in Europe, what sim should I get?

[melodii]

Hi, I am from Australia and planning a 3 weeks trip in Europe, travelling from Italy (Rome, Florence) to Switzerland, Paris then London.

I'm only staying in each city for maybe 3~4 days max, and as I'll be travelling with my partner I just wanted to be able to use our phones and call each other in case we get lost, and maybe make a few international calls to Australia.

In this case which company should I go with for the SIM? we would need to get micro SIM for our phones. We are arriving in Rome first, can we get it at the airport?

Thanks so much!!
Melody

[davidtheprof]

Similarly, I'll be in several European countries in the summer, also Russia. Mostly pre July 1, when regulated EU rates fall again. I need good data access.
Looking at various options:
Truphone - no good because I live in the States, and they discriminate against us, around $3/MB
Roamline: 51c/MB in Europe, $1.20 in Russia (data only)
Abroadband - 80c/min everywhere (data only)
Piranha: good calling rates, and data 53c/MB in Europe
O2 - OK calling rates, has 25MB/day in Europe for $3 on pay as you go,
Three - $7.80 for unlimited daily roaming, but not on PAYG, only pay monthly

O2 looks like best deal for data, around 12c/MB
details here: http://www.o2.co.uk/termsandconditio...and-conditions
and you can add more 25MB chunks - just means you need it in a phone, not a MIFI device, to check balance and top up.

is there no other way to get a monthly euro data bundle, say 500MB or 1 GB?

thanks!

[davidtheprof]

and there's EuropaSim about 3 Euro for 50MB/day, data only, but 39 Euro to buy!

[NFH]

A Vodafone UK prepaid SIM card is a similar deal to O2. It costs £2/day within the EEA and £5/day outside the EEA. The daily allowance is 25MB.

[ChrisNeedsToKnow]

Originally Posted by melodii

...from Australia ... Italy ... Switzerland ... Paris ... London...

Hi melodii,

I just discovered togglemobile.co.uk today, which is perfect for the countries you plan to travel to / where you´re from. It´s discussed >>in this very forum<<. It gives you a UK number, and additional Australian numbers and numbers from each of the countries you plan to visit can be added, free of charge. From what I understand you could receive calls on the OZ-number (as well as all the others) without incurring additional charges.

If it works as promised, I guess this is your SIM of choice. And they ship worldwide, so you can order it now and test it back down-under before you go.

Rgds, Christian

[ChrisNeedsToKnow]

Originally Posted by ChrisNeedsToKnow

... numbers from each of the countries you plan to visit can be added

Correcting myself: Not Italy!

[ronwi]

You might want to get a Vodafone Italy SIM in Italy. Vodafone Italy has Smart Passport for travel in Europe outside of Italy - 3 euro per day gives you 50 MB of data plus 25 minutes of incoming and 25 minutes of outgoing calls per day.

Scopri Vodafone Smart Passport

To call Australia you would want to use a calling card or a service such as Localphone as those included minutes are within Europe only.

Originally Posted by melodii

Hi, I am from Australia and planning a 3 weeks trip in Europe, travelling from Italy (Rome, Florence) to Switzerland, Paris then London.

I'm only staying in each city for maybe 3~4 days max, and as I'll be travelling with my partner I just wanted to be able to use our phones and call each other in case we get lost, and maybe make a few international calls to Australia.

In this case which company should I go with for the SIM? we would need to get micro SIM for our phones. We are arriving in Rome first, can we get it at the airport?

Thanks so much!!
Melody