Best Tourist SIM Card for London/Southampton

[cpl100]

Hello all,  Cruising in October and will have 8 days (total) prior to the cruise in London and in Southampton.  The cruise then goes on to St. Maartin, Labadee, Puerto Rico and St. Thomas.  Would like to get a sim card for our phones rather than use Verizon's $10/day plan.  Appreciate all knowledge and experience on this subject.  Thanks.

[ducklite]

I have a UK Sim through Vodafone.  I just put it in and top it up as needed. The O2 plans are just as good.  

 

That said, I'm to the point where I'm just using my Verizon plan.  If you don't make a call or answer an incoming call, and keep your data off so you only use WiFi, you won't be charged.  You also don't get charged for incoming texts.  I've done this the past few trips to the UK and it has worked brilliantly and for what has worked out to less money.

 

 

[picsa]

A PAYG sim from Three is the cheapest for calls, texts and data in the UK (3p calls, 2p texts, 1p  per MB of data so OK providing you are not using an awful lot of data) and is probably the easiest of the cheap sims to buy. St. Martin and Puerto Rico are also on their free roaming plan so you could get a free bonus by using it there for no extra cost

[Host Bonjour]

A few years ago when I was last in England, Tesco had something - a calling card or something - and I used that when I wasn't connected to wifi because otherwise, wifi enabled all the apps like WhatsApp, FaceTime in which one can call or text. In Italy I also used 3 which as mentioned is Pay As You Go, and so similarly, you only need to use it when not connected to wifi which is reasonably easy to do these days. Replenishing 3 is easy to do online once you have the SIM card.

 

Even though Verizon won't charge if it's not used, I guess once it's used, it's a $10 hit no matter how much you use it that day whereas with 3, or Vodafone or whichever, you use it as needed and...well, pay as you go. I already pay Verizon enough money each month, I'm not sure I'm so keen on giving them another up front handout straight away. 

 

But here's the kicker: when I was using them, I ended up reading some fine print and, as these things tend to go, all the different SIM card players are mostly owned by the giant communications companies anyway and so, Verizon (or AT&T, etc) is getting my money anyway. So, it's basically just a matter of economic efficiency and...you're mileage may vary. More money for other things, telecom giants, or I usually stake out where the wifi is and always make sure my accommodations have it.

 

If you need to be 24/7 accessible for incoming, different story, use your provider phone plan. Otherwise, consider the phone Apps and wifi combo with the SIMs. 

[cpl100]

On 8/5/2019 at 4:42 PM, picsa said:

A PAYG sim from Three is the cheapest for calls, texts and data in the UK (3p calls, 2p texts, 1p  per MB of data so OK providing you are not using an awful lot of data) and is probably the easiest of the cheap sims to buy. St. Martin and Puerto Rico are also on their free roaming plan so you could get a free bonus by using it there for no extra cost

I am assuming we will be using a lot of date navigating around London and Southampton and again in St. Maartin.  Puerto Rico and St. Thomas are in the US so Verizon should include for free.  Can't see why I would use it in Haiti unless there is an emergency in which case cost would not be a factor in my safety.  How is the coverage with this plan you mention?  Also, is 3p pence as in a penny?  Thanks.

[cpl100]

On 8/3/2019 at 2:53 PM, ducklite said:

I have a UK Sim through Vodafone.  I just put it in and top it up as needed. The O2 plans are just as good.  

 

That said, I'm to the point where I'm just using my Verizon plan.  If you don't make a call or answer an incoming call, and keep your data off so you only use WiFi, you won't be charged.  You also don't get charged for incoming texts.  I've done this the past few trips to the UK and it has worked brilliantly and for what has worked out to less money.

 

 

I have used my Verizon plan during some vacations.  However, for a 22 day vacation it is not the best option.  And I don't know of a way to use wifi to navigate a foreign city.  Do you?

[ducklite]

1 hour ago, cpl100 said:

I have used my Verizon plan during some vacations.  However, for a 22 day vacation it is not the best option.  And I don't know of a way to use wifi to navigate a foreign city.  Do you?

For over a week or 10 days in the UK I'd use the UK SIM.  

 

You can set your route on WiFi with data off and it will still navigate you, even if it's no longer connected.  

[Bashtor]

1 hour ago, cpl100 said:

I have used my Verizon plan during some vacations.  However, for a 22 day vacation it is not the best option.  And I don't know of a way to use wifi to navigate a foreign city.  Do you?

 

If you use google maps, you can download the maps to use offline.  That might help with the navigation part.

 

Instructions

 

I don't think you can do walking directions, but it might have the functionality you need.

 

Brian

[BlondeKajun]

I use giffgaff dot com...u can order online & shipped ahead of time , so it is ready to go when you arrive.. you can add more data as you need.

[gnome12]

I had purchased a SIM for Denmark which I had sent to my first hotel. (Lycamobile - it cost me 79 DKK and provided a huge amount of data in Denmark, international calling to 30 countries including Canada and the US although data was limited in the EU). The only difficulty was in filling in the online form to send it to the hotel. It only allowed a single name in each of first name and surname fields, and the hotel had asked that I put the arrival date in the address. I used FirstSurname as First and JulyThirteen as Surname. This would have worked fine for the UK also; the data limit in the EU was 5 GB.

 

That said, because I would be spending 2 weeks in Scotland, and I was worried about coverage, I got a new SIM from EE which was recommended as having the best coverage in northern Scotland. I also had this one sent to the hotel. I paid £15 for an international SIM with 3 GB of coverage. This one was a little different; they sent the SIM for free, and then I had to top it up, which gave me some issues; I couldn't manage to do it until the next morning.

 

All told, even with 2 separate SIM cards, I paid just over $40 Canadian for the 2 SIMS; $15 for the Danish one and $25 for the UK.

[ducklite]

15 hours ago, Bashtor said:

 

If you use google maps, you can download the maps to use offline.  That might help with the navigation part.

 

Instructions

 

I don't think you can do walking directions, but it might have the functionality you need.

 

Brian

You can do walking directions as well, we do this regularly.

[gnome12]

19 minutes ago, ducklite said:

You can do walking directions as well, we do this regularly.

I still like to have access to data. You may want to check things like opening hours when you are out, and so on. If it was expensive it would be different, but if I can get a local SIM for $20 or so Canadian, why not? I never have to search for wi-fi. 

[Host Bonjour]

And yet...I managed to get around many countries on four continents before I ever had a smartphone, worried about data or wifi. Sure I popped into internet cafés but not often and a lot of the time it was to post on our message boards or send a quick message home. A lot of times there's wifi access simply by standing outside or in front of a place that has it; I'm surprised sometimes when I see something available. 

 

A majority of posts on these boards recommend off-line google maps. I don't know that one can always count on getting a signal everywhere too!  Definitely though, the local SIM cards worked out really well. If you use an iphone, make sure it's unlocked; newer models all are, so check out to see if yours is if you're not on Android OS. And bring a paper clip with you so you can pop open the SIM card tray to insert the card. If you purchase the card at a SIM tech store, the clerk might put in the card for you but if you buy one elsewhere, you're on your own. It's easy, but it's just a tiny little access button to depress to open the tray. After that, the top ups are online. And yes, you need wifi for that!! 

 

Let us know how it went when you get back 🙂