Orange Holiday Europe – 20GB Internet Data in 4G/LTE + 120 mn + 1000 Texts in 30 Countries in Europe

First what I liked: unlike other prepaid, travel (Europe) SIM’s this was not only easy to physically install (on my iPhone, very easy just need the SIM card tool the phone comes with or an unbent paper clip also works fine) but more importantly the actual use of the SIM was literally “out of the box”. I’ve used other prepaid sims (as you the reader may have as well) and as you may also have experienced with others, with this is not the case.Specifically you don’t have to:1. Call some international number once you land (and are exhausted from jet lag) to speak with some representative who barely speaks English, to activate the card.2. You don’t have to fumble around on the phone changing this setting or that or downloading some “profile” to use so the SIM can work in the country of choice, all again as fatigued as above.3. You don’t have to wait for some activation text or dial some prefix AND number before you dial the number you want to call, to get a call back once your call is connected.There are no “call backs”. You dial directly the number you want and you’re instantly connected just like a regular phone.There really are 1000 texts with this or at least over 50, which is how many I made during my trip (approximately) and it didn’t appear to affect my call volume or data usage at all to make those texts.And there really must be at least 5 GB of data (because I used that much, according to my phone, see below) so all in all very much worth the price in my opinion.I used it in Italy with no problems. Yes I could have gotten a WIND sim in Italy once I landed for 25 Euros (so about half the price) with 20 GB of data (only, no texts or calls but there is WhatsApp of course) BUT, goood luck finding an open WIND store over the Christmas holidays in Italy to buy one! And all the other prepaid SIMs are just a ripoff either in Italy or on Amazon to be honest, as you’re taking $20-$25 to buy a “preloaded” card but it only has about a 200MB-1GB (depending on the brand) of data that comes with the SIM at that price and then to load more data (much less phone use) it’s like $50 for a gigabyte! Total ripoff!So this is not only much more economical than most, it’s also much more convenient than its closest competitor in Italy (WIND) who again apparently couldn’t be bothered to open a store the week between Christmas and New Years. And also, they are never open on Sundays (which is when you usually land anyway to start a vacation) just a pro tip there.The only downside to this is that it really isn’t economical to keep the SIM and recharge it (unless you do a lot of traveling) because like all prepaids it requires you to use it every 6 months or top it up which means just spending money for nothing unless you actually use it. Which you can’t here in the States. Only in Europe.Also, I never could check my data balance either online (never could find a portal for that on their website, and I wasn’t about to register the SIM in my name, which required you to send them a copy of your passport! I wasn’t going to do THAT just to check my data balance online!). So I never could do that either online or via a text message (I must have texted #123# to EVERY number Orange ever texted me from but never got a response!).So that’s my only complaint. But for a trip of up to 2 weeks it’s pretty good because you aren’t going to use 20 GB of data in less than 2 weeks (if you do, you’re not on a real vacation IMO) and then you can just throw the sim away when you get back and order another one for your next trip.It’s worth it for the convenience and it’s really not much more money than any local sim you can find. Just be sure to NOT put it in your phone in the States, only once you land in your destination country. Because the 2 weeks start ticking when you put it in a phone even though you can’t use it in the US.

I bought one of these for myself and one for my wife for a 10 day trip to the UK, France, and Italy. We needed the data for maps, WhatsApp, and general web browsing. The card was truly plug and play. I installed them when we landed at Heathrow and they worked right away. I set the data to allow roaming, as instructed, and it worked in all three countries with very few issues. The only times I had any connectivity issues was one morning at Disneyland Paris and one afternoon in Rome. Both times I was in a huge crown of people and I think maybe the cell towers were at capacity. All I had to do was restart my phone and then it started working again. If you want to use iMessage with this SIM card you have to add the provided French (+33) phone number to your “send & receive” in the iMessage settings. I did not iMessage anyone from back home from this number to prevent them from incurring international fees, but I did have to use it for some reservations in Europe since my US phone number was off while I was abroad. The data of the SIM card allowed me to just use WhatsApp to stay in touch with family and friends from back home. The price was a bit more than what can be had at a local shop once you land, and there are some E SIM options available as well, but the ease of use was worth the few extra dollars to me. My brother in law, who was traveling with me, used an ESim and he had a hard time getting it set up and had issues with it through out our journey as we changed from country to country. Did not seem to be worth the hassle. This is easy, it works, and it was pretty reliable.

I bought this card for a 40 day trip to Europe traveling through Sweden, Norway and Denmark. Your time (days of usage) start the day you install the card and turn on your phone. About 3 days before leaving the US I thought I would install the card and get the account set-up so I would not have issues when I arrived in Europe. Doing this, I understood it will start eating into my time, but I figured for the price to "TOP OFF" the card and time I would be there it was worth it. I am glad I did since the company would not recognize the card in the set-up phase. I installed the card and tried to register it with the Orange Company online. 1, I couldn't set up an account and 2, Once I got an account set up, the card would not initialized. The only way to communicate with the company is through Email help. I finally email asking for help and 2 days later got a reply. I am now 1 day before leaving on my trip. Spending most of that day trying to get everything to work, I finally got the phone working. I couldn't test the phone because you can't send or receive text or calls from the US. So, now my time is ticking off and still not sure the phone is going to work.I get to Europe and the phone did work. It worked well for sending text and using the internet. EXCEPT FOR ONE THING. EVERYTIME YOU OPEN, USE, OR CHANGE AN APP YOU GET HIT WITH POP ADVERTISING! EACH TEXT YOU SEND, BEFORE YOU CAN REPLAY THERE’S A POP-UP, READING A TEXT, POP-UP, USING GOOGLE, USING MAPS, USING ANYTHING, NONE STOP POP UP ADVERTISING!I kept getting notices from Orange (in French) that my card was out of everything; It's wasn't! Again, email to the company. Two days later I get a reply telling me it's part of their plan to sell additional plans. This is a HUGE pain in the @#$.Finally, I am getting what I know is close to the end of my days in the plan and I need to top off my card. This has to be done on the phone. Should be straight forward, log on, buy additional days, continue life. NOT WITH ORANGE! First, I am back to squire one. They tell me I don't have an account and my email is not a valid email. 2 days later, that gets taken care of. Now, I am past the days for my card, so the phone doesn't work, EXCEPT FOR THE ADVERTISEMENT! I am getting advertisement about every 5 minutes; including notices from Orange to TOP OFF my card. Will, I would if I could but since I don't have an account (according to Orange) I can't. Now I am back to sending emails to Orange. I get the account set up AGAIN and now have several options for TOPPING OFF my card. There is a plan for a 60 day unlimited talk, text and 60 GB data for $35 US dollars. Looks like the best plan. WOW BUYER BEWARE. In the write up on what this plan offers, is the EXACTLY same as the holiday card but with more time, talk, text, GB. So, I buy this option. Now it took a day to it "reactivate" the phone. WOOOOO there Europen traveler, not so fast. Now, I can SEND a text but can not receive one. I can receive a call but can't call the USA. Back to the TECT help.TECT help can't help me because the card I bought was from Amazon and not directly from them, so “I have to contact Amazon”. Now keep in mind it takes at LEAST one day to get a reply from this company. Going back and forth with Orange “HELP”, 7 days later, they tell me I have to contact ORANGE directly because they are a 3rd party help company for ORANGE. So, though my laptop I send off another message to ORANGE, which 3 days later I get a reply,"The plan you purchased includes all of Europe except allowing incoming text and outbound calls to the US. WHAT? How crazy is that? OK FINE, can you change the plan back to the Holiday Traveler plan and I will pay the difference. NOPE! You have to forfeit the plan you have (without a refund) and buy a new plan. Will by this time I am NOT a happy traveler. The internet did work will so I just left the internet on and used my USA phone for everything. I had everything turned off for data roaming and in airplane mode, except for wifi calling. So, We’ll see how badly I get hit by ATT.I have a trip coming up in DEC/JAN to Germany. I will just buy my sim card when I get into country. I found this to be cheaper and easier to use.Other issues using this card. Your number is from France. Didn’t think this would be an issue until….. Parking is mainly paid for through apps just about everywhere. You create an account giving your phone number, email and credit card. Here was the problem I ran into. Because the number is a French number, most the app will not accept it with a email that is not from France. After working with about 8 different parking app companies directly I worked around this issue. If the phone was from any other country, it would not have been a problem, but something about the French number causes red flags.I DO NOT RECOMMEND THIS CARD FOR ANY TRAVEL!