Buy EU SIM card at AMS or FCO, or Rome city?

[Middleager]

We'll be flying yyz-ams-fco arriving Rome 2021.Dec.3  for Dec. 5 NCL Getaway transatlantic cruise.  So we'll be in Rome 2+ days and a few ports in Italy, France, Spain, and Portugal.

 

Is it better to buy a EU SIM card at the airport (during transit in AMS, or upon arrival in FCO) or in Rome city (we'll be staying near Piazza Navona)? 

[gnome12]

1 hour ago, Middleager said:

We'll be flying yyz-ams-fco arriving Rome 2021.Dec.3  for Dec. 5 NCL Getaway transatlantic cruise.  So we'll be in Rome 2+ days and a few ports in Italy, France, Spain, and Portugal.

 

Is it better to buy a EU SIM card at the airport (during transit in AMS, or upon arrival in FCO) or in Rome city (we'll be staying near Piazza Navona)? 

Your transit in Amsterdam includes passport control (entry into the Schengen zone) so I wouldn't plan on doing it there.

 

Other than that, I would research your options in advance for Rome, to make sure that you get the best combination for you. (Sometimes the data is highly reduced out of the country you purchase in.) Then decide if you can buy it at the airport, or in town, the closest location for that carrier.

 

You can also get EU sim cards on Amazon.

Edited November 4, 2021 by gnome12

[Ex-Airbalancer]

Check out this site 

https://www.traveltomtom.net/destinations/europe/italy/best-prepaid-italy-sim-card

[Magicat]

We've picked up a sim card in Britain (when it was part of the EU) and we had 30 gb of data and unlimited call and text in Europe.  This was a number of years ago and I believe it cost 30 or 40 Euro.

I have friends who have purchased sim cards on line and had them mailed to Canada.  Easy to reload the card as you use it.

[Cardex]

 

We have bought this one from Amazon a few times. https://www.amazon.ca/dp/B01FI1JW72  Used it in Europe, on a Panama Canal cruise and in the US. We have an old phone we put it in and then use it as a hotspot and it worked great. We have only used it for data so not sure about the phone/text part. I know it does not work for or in Canada.

[lots-of-km2]

51 minutes ago, Cardex said:

We have bought this one from Amazon a few times. https://www.amazon.ca/dp/B01FI1JW72  Used it in Europe, on a Panama Canal cruise and in the US. We have an old phone we put it in and then use it as a hotspot and it worked great. We have only used it for data so not sure about the phone/text part. I know it does not work for or in Canada

 

I agree completely.  UK Three is very  reliable, the data provided is very generous, and the price on Amazon Canada is competitive. This sim is excellent value for money -- better IMO than pricing you'll find on the ground in Europe, and cheaper overall and more user friendly than competitors Orange Espana and Orange France.  UK Three's customer service language is English.   

 

UK Three is a data card only (no phone number or texting function), but you can use the SIM in conjunction with the excellent Fongo app (which will give you a Canadian phone number) and for WhatsApp. 

 

From personal experience, I can confirm it performs really well in Italy, France, Spain and Portugal.   And if the destination port of your TA is Puerto Rico or the mainland US, it'll work there too.

 

Edited November 4, 2021 by lots-of-km2

[gnome12]

There are also UK 3 cards that include phone calls, and they are also competitively priced.

[lots-of-km2]

15 hours ago, gnome12 said:

There are also UK 3 cards that include phone calls, and they are also competitively priced.

 

You're right (thank you!) -- and I stand corrected, because the UK Three SIM cards that I use do, in fact, have unlimited calling (within Europe only) and unlimited texting functions as part of the deal.  The assigned phone number is a UK number starting with +44.  

 

It's me that's been treating these SIMs as data-only.  When overseas, the overwhelming majority of my calls are back to Canada and the US.  Those calls are add-ons, and can be costly. As a result, I've tended to not use the UK Three calling feature, except for calls within Europe, and have just used UK Three data to make free Fongo calls back to North America with an assigned Canadian phone number. 

[boone2]

Just a warning re the orange SIM cards available on Amazon. We have been in Spain for a month returning tomorrow. The orange cards have to be registered if using them for longer than 2 weeks. It was impossible to register them. I got texts every day telling me to register. I tried at least x4 and it would say I was successful and an text would be sent confirming. Never got one until the 12th day saying I was registered followed by a text telling me to register. On the 14th day all my considerable data was cancelled and because we needed the data to navigate etc I had to top up at considerable extra expense. And the website was incredibly frustrating to use. Never again.  I’ll wait till I get to my destination to buy although the Uk one sounds good 

[lots-of-km2]

2 hours ago, boone2 said:

Never again.  I’ll wait till I get to my destination to buy although the Uk one sounds good 

 

Your post refreshes my memory on my awful experiences with Orange -- data fails and persistent, repetitive  texts from them, demanding I do this or that, and repeatedly rejecting what I'd done. 

 

So glad that Three UK international sims came on the market a number of years ago.  It's an incredible product. 

 

 

[cdn_tbird]

When we were in Italy in 2019 (cruise plus 2 weeks visiting relatives), I picked up a couple of TIM Tourist SIMs for me & DW. They're good for 30 days and give you 15GB data, unlimited chat and 200 minutes for local/international calling for 20 Euros. The nice thing is that they are good throughout the EU. This is how we discovered that Montenegro isn't in the EU (instantly zeroed our data pool) but it was easy to reload additional data when we got back to Venice. You buy it on their site and redeem at one of their stores. I believe there is one at FCO. If not, lots of them in Rome.

[Ex-Airbalancer]

7 hours ago, cdn_tbird said:

When we were in Italy in 2019 (cruise plus 2 weeks visiting relatives), I picked up a couple of TIM Tourist SIMs for me & DW. They're good for 30 days and give you 15GB data, unlimited chat and 200 minutes for local/international calling for 20 Euros. The nice thing is that they are good throughout the EU. This is how we discovered that Montenegro isn't in the EU (instantly zeroed our data pool) but it was easy to reload additional data when we got back to Venice. You buy it on their site and redeem at one of their stores. I believe there is one at FCO. If not, lots of them in Rome.

We have also use a Tim card , would use them again, it did not work in Israel 

[hoklun]

If u have a newer iPhone or Pixel, try a esim from airalo or knowroaming. You buy online and scan the QR code. 

[CaptFantastic]

If you arrive at terminal 3 in FCO, you’ll see a Vodafone booth between passport control and baggage claim. Do NOT buy a SIM card here. They most likely won’t apply all your credit and your data will stop working after a few days.

I didn’t see any other shops, but I was tired and stopped looking.

 

If you take the train to Roma Termini, there will be other shops there, and usually better prices for more GB/minutes. I know there’s a Vodafone there too, but only because I was trying to fix the issue from the airport. They were super nice and helpful.

[Kamloops50]

On 11/4/2021 at 11:34 AM, Middleager said:

We'll be flying yyz-ams-fco arriving Rome 2021.Dec.3  for Dec. 5 NCL Getaway transatlantic cruise.  So we'll be in Rome 2+ days and a few ports in Italy, France, Spain, and Portugal.

 

Is it better to buy a EU SIM card at the airport (during transit in AMS, or upon arrival in FCO) or in Rome city (we'll be staying near Piazza Navona)? 

I would check with your Cellphone company . I'm with Koodo , international roaming is $12 Canadian per 24 hours. This means that if I making a call at 12 noon . I'm charged $12 and can make calls for the next 24 hours without a roaming fee and me plan covers the cost the minutes.

 

I have use my phone in the US , Mexico and even Tahiti without paying the minute charge. Just $10 for the US and $12 for Mexico and Tahiti. This charge was in Canadian  dollars .

Edited November 23, 2021 by Kamloops50

[Middleager]

Thanks everyone.  My Public mobile plan doesn't have something good.

 

I end up buying from amazon.ca a Orange EU SIM card for $45.  Supposed to get 8G (some say it's actually 12G), 30min., 200 texts from any countries.