Get connected & stay connected for your European motorhome trip

February 20, 2019

Shockingly, in 2018, only about 30% of our clients from overseas who set off for the very first time on a European campervan trip, did so with a working mobile phone and access to the internet. Having seen the stress and inconvenience this can cause, we would like to urge you to arrive with a phone and data connection that is ready to use!

Collecting your new motorhome and starting your journey is precisely when you will most need to connect to the internet and be able to make calls so we suggest you take some time to find a good solution and put it in place well before you leave home.

Getting and staying connected for a long motorhome trip may seem a little costly but it is a necessary cost. You cannot research anything, book anything, get tourism information, stay in touch with family, call us to ask how something works on your new van or get help during a roadside emergency without a working phone.

As our clients come from all over the world, it is difficult for us to find a solution to propose to everyone but a recent tip off from a seasoned, Australian client prompted us to look into the offerings from “Three Mobile” in the UK (available on Amazon). ECC Operations Supervisor, Sally spent some time checking this out and it does appear to be available for delivery to all countries and work throughout Europe.

We are sure there are many alternatives to our suggestions below but feel it is more helpful to give you a real example of something you can actually buy than a load of techno-jargon and leave you to figure out what to purchase. Please forgive us for the limited choice below but we have your best interests at heart and hope this helps to get you connected.

The Three Mobile “Pay as You Go SIM” pre-loaded with 3000 minutes of calls, 3000 texts and 12GB data for 30 days is a well-priced phone SIM at €29.49 on Amazon France (check your local Amazon website for price in your currency) and the most widely available Sally found. It also has an adaptable SIM card so it will fit all phone types for SIM sizes. You will get your own Three Mobile phone number with this SIM and it takes up to 24 hours to work after activation.

The start date on these SIM cards begins when you first use them and they are valid for 30 days. Therefore, you can plan ahead and buy a number of months at a time. This does mean that your phone number will keep on changing so don’t forget to let everyone know back home. Your phone will need to be unlocked in order to use the SIM so do make sure you check that out before you leave home and get it unlocked if necessary.

If you want to access the internet on a device other than your phone, you might want to buy a WiFi portable hotspot such as the Huawei E5577 (again available on Amazon priced at around €65) and use it with Three Mobile’s “Pay as You Go Broadband” (Internet with Legs) Data SIM card +12 at €30.98 on Amazon France (again, do check your local Amazon website for price in your currency). This is a data SIM card only so you won’t be able to make phone calls or text messages from it but you can use multiple devices on WiFi at once so very useful if two or more of you need an internet connection at the same time. Unlike the phone SIM, it’s valid for 12 months and if you use up the data before then, you can top it up on the Three website. With all data SIMs from Three Mobile, you are limited to 15GB per month because of their ‘fair use’ policy so don’t bother buying a bigger sized Data SIM – you just won’t be able to use it.

To give you a rough idea of what 12GB of data looks like, Three Mobile’s website advises:

12GB will give you:
Send 12,000 Outlook/HTML Emails
Surf the Web for 120 hours
Download 60 four minute videos
Download 384 four minute music tracks

With these two SIMS, a portable hub and an unlocked phone you’ll be well and truly connected! The information in this blog was taken from the Three Mobile website in February 2019 and correct at that time.

Buy these SIMs and a Wifi hotspot on Amazon and bring them with you so you arrive with working devices for a stress free start to your trip. Whatever you do, don’t even think about arriving without a working phone!