Good morning from Canada!
We are going to the SW of France for a 6 week sit and need any advice on purchasing an International SIM card for my iPhone while there. Any advice or tips (cost, where to purchase, anything to avoid?) would be greatly appreciated as we have never done this before.
Thank you
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We used Lebara, you can get it at any corner. Supermarkets also have SIM cards (prepaid). Should be around 10 EUR.
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Lebara is great. I used them in Spain & Portugal with no issues.
You could also try an esim like Airalo if you want to be able to connect to data as soon as you land and not have to go buy a physical card.
Disclaimer that I haven’t tried it so can’t quite vouch for it just yet, I’m going to Mexico on Saturday and testing it out then!
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Thank you Timmy really appreciate it!
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Thank you Lindsay! When you went to Spain/Portugal, did you just go to a cell provider and purchase the new SIM card at that time? I will Google Esim and Airalo to see if I can get an International SIM card before we leave if that is an option. 
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We always buy them as soon as we arrive. I’ve heard Lebara is good but we’ve also used Orange and another one. In the past, we bought them at a phone shop when we arrived and they helped set it up. Now, we often buy one at the airport. Most grocery stores etc also have them. Super easy.
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Exactly, there was a little kiosk outside a grocery store and I just grabbed it there. You should be able to find a seller at the airport though if you want to get sorted before venturing further.
Apparently with the esim, you just download the app and install the esim electronically. Sounds almost to good to be true but the nerd in me is pretty excited to try it out!
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o2 ,lebara or if you have an 11 and up iphone you can Esim from anywhere in the world. i reccommend Esim you can pick any company. my number is in germany with o2 and I can go anywhere , with a few exceptions , in the EU. I pay 10euros a month. have fun !!!
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Thank you and we hope to have fun, yes!
It sounds like a great option, we will check it out! thank you
Thank you so much!
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You might like to look at this link:
It seems My Truphone is accepting new customers again
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Do please tell us here how you get on and, of course, have a fabulous time in Mexico!
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You might want to check out the car you’re renting–many of them have their own GPS. In France a while back, I didn’t change my SIM card from my Kenya one. I had the HO’s internet while there. Out on the road, the car did my bidding–easy!
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I’m in New Zealand and so far have been using my UK mobile only when I have wifi. I’m renting a car but paying extra for a GPS. The cars owners have lent me so far have all had a Garmin. So yes, I’ve managed….
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I use Orange when I’m in France. The first two weeks are expensive but you get some international calling. After two weeks (it’s call a Holiday package) you have a choice of packages, many cheaper. You can also get SIMs at the airport if you want service as soon as you land, but I have also bought them through Amazon and had them mailed to me at home (U.S.) and put them in myself upon landing. Once I bought an eSIM online, which was a pain to figure out.
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I bought an eSIM for my iPhone yesterday. It was explained to me by my local service provider, SafariCom, that the eSIM is the way things are going–at some time in the not-too-distant future, we will not have removable plastic SIM cards in our phones, but the entire connection will be made over the eSIM.
In the meantime, however, when going to a different country, I was advised to acquire any new local SIM card on the eSIM. This means we don’t have to remove the currently active local supplier card, and we end up with two service providers. Locally, that’s useful where there is more than one supplier, and you want to have a number for two of them to reduce calling charges by using the same supplier as the call recipient uses. Otherwise, it means you have one in-country sim (the eSIM) and one home country SIM which you would use with roaming.
I have a feeling that roaming is no longer quite so expensive as it was ten years ago, but I have no experience on which to base this remark. Perhaps someone else knows better about this?
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Hi. We are traveling to Europe for 6 months from May and would appreciate any advice on the best Sim card to buy.
There seem to be so many options
Thanks
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We use Lebara , its good to use all over Europe ( 41 countries in total) and great value. We are low users so go for the £5 a month option!
https://mobile.lebara.com/gb/en/help - I may even have a referral code if you decide to go with them
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We went with Vodafone in the Netherlands, as that is where our journey started and we have friends there. We pay Eur18 per month for unlimited calls/texts, but the most important part is data, we get 20GB each per month. In saying this, if I remember correctly, we needed to provide an address and passports.