Sim card for traveler from Australia

  • Removed user
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    72625 posts
    26 October 2018 at 6:11:01 #818800

    Hello,

    Firstly can I say how much I enjoy reading all threads about all the varied topics. You can never have too much information.

    I hope someone can help me with my dilemma. I will be travelling from Australia and looking for a SIM card to cover Germany, Switzerland and Austria. I don’t want to just rely on hotel wi-fi and wi-fi hotspots. Any suggestions? My provider in Australia does a $10 per day charge but given that I will be away for six weeks it will be a costly exercise.

    I look forward to hearing suggestions from everyone.

    Thanks.

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    Removed user
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    72625 posts
    26 October 2018 at 7:42:39 #898364

    Hi Gramalji,

    We have two recommendations for internet access, one Sim card and one hot spot device. Both are explained on our Sim card page here: http://www.myswissalps.com/si mcard

    Judy52
    Participant
    131 posts
    26 October 2018 at 11:49:20 #898365

    Hi Gramalji

    We recently did a six week trip to those three countries also and the sim card dilemma was a pain in the neck. It was expensive as we had to get different cards for each country. We went to Switzerland first, then Austria then Germany.

    Apparently if we’d gone first to Germany, then Austria and lastly Switzerland it would have been less expensive as you can use a German card in Austria but not the other way around.

    We got Salt cards for the Swiss part and they were expensive but the internet was unlimited for I think 2 francs a day for 10 days after which we had to top up again.

    In both Austria and Germany the amount of internet provided was quite paltry, but if the wifi worked okay in the hotels at night we managed. In a lot of hotels the wifi was bad though, and they weren’t cheap hotels, so we really relied on our mobiles.

    I don’t know if you’re travelling with a companion, but the main reason we like sim cards rather than a shared wifi device is so that we can contact each other if we go out to do separate things.

    Heather_noll
    Participant
    1 post
    26 October 2018 at 17:52:28 #898366

    Hi Gramalji, I recommend you check out the Australia Post travel SIM before you leave. I used it successfully and economically last year for travel in Switzerland, Italy, Germany and Poland, and will use it again in December 2018 in Switzerland. Heather.

    Judy52
    Participant
    131 posts
    27 October 2018 at 3:36:43 #898367

    Hi Heather

    The Aus Post sim doesn’t give you much cheap data and data is what most people want when travelling overseas. We used our phones for so many things when out and about – looking up train and bus timetables, checking restaurant reviews, finding the way to places with google maps etc

    Then at night in the hotel room we wrote blogs of our trip for family to read at home. If the hotel wifi was hopeless, we relied on our sim cards for data. We actually didn’t use our phones for calls at all – we called each other through a free internet app if necessary.

    Removed user
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    72625 posts
    27 October 2018 at 21:43:44 #898368

    Hi Gramalji,

    I am travelling for 5 days to Switzerland next week and plan to take salt sim card for data that cost $2(or $1?) per day for unlimited data. hoping it will fulfill my data needs with 2 kids. I heard we can turn on hotspot on phone to share the data, so will see how that works.

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