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 don't want to belabor the points that others have already made, but first things first to check how "nicely" your phone will play with this card.For best results, your phone must be completely unlocked, and it must take a physical SIM card. Not kind of unlocked, not "my carrier can unlock it for me with a code", or any variation thereof. For reference, I have a Moto G7 Plus (US version) that I currently use with Mint Mobile. I know this may be painfully obvious for some of you, but your phone MUST take a physical SIM card. If you can't take a physical SIM card out of your phone, you cannot use this SIM card (again, painfully obvious). If you can access a physical SIM card slot but you're also somehow running a dual-SIM setup, please make sure to disable the other signal. Also, remember to turn ON mobile roaming.Now onto some observations:If you have one of those little SIM remover tools, great. If you have a safety pin, great. Assuming your phone meets the usability criteria, this is plug and play. I didn't even have to restart my phone. Prior to landing in Barcelona, I switched out the SIM cards, and was ready to rock and roll by the time I walked off the jet bridge. If you're heavy handed and are prone to breaking things, please have someone help you punch out the right size SIM, or you may be very sad.You don't need to register if you get this particular package and only need it for less than 30 days. You'll get texts reminding you to do so, blah blah blah, but just ignore them if you're traveling for less than that time period.Speeds were different from the coast of Barcelona through the coast of Civitavecchia (and Rome), but all more than adequate. Obviously I can't speak for all of Europe because I didn't go to all of Europe, but I've uploaded some photos with captions of where the results took place. In some spots I was able to hit what was shown in my status bar as true 4G (and not just LTE) and maxed out ~125 Mbps (Portofino Italy), and the slowest I had was a download speed of ~3 Mbps (Livorno/Pisa, Italy). The other areas that you'll see in my photos are Barcelona (14/21), Rome (26/10), and Nice (53/20). I wonder if this is due to the fact that all things being equal, this SIM card is what we'd call a prepaid MVNO in the states (like Mint Mobile), so customers who are post paid subscribers on each individual carrier's plans get priority. Plenty fast for just about anything you'd need it for, including navigating, social media, emails, etc. You're limited by the 20 gigs of data, of course, so probably not the best use of your resources to do Zoom or Microsoft Teams meetings with full video. For reference, on my 11 day trip, I used less than 8 gigs of data, and a good portion of that was listening to podcasts.I think I misread the description, but if you pop this into your phone, you cannot use it as a wireless hot spot for other devices. However, you CAN tether it to your laptop via USB cable, should you choose to do so. Mainly if you know...you're one of those people who can never truly disconnect while on vacation and feel a need to check into work emails, etc (do as I say, not as I do, bahahah).