Tandem Tom

Looking for a recommendation for a plan for an upcoming tour. We will start in Brussels and ride down through France maybe up through Luxembourg and eventually end in Amsterdam.
So ideas would be great!

morgoth924

Is buying a prepaid sim card an option?

Tandem Tom

We have used prepaid plans before in other countries. Just try to find out which one is a good plan to buy in Belgium.

morgoth924

Proximus and orange are the biggest players. Roaming is free in the european union, so you could also look at dutch, french or lux players, no knowledge of those, though.

Tandem Tom

Thanks! I have heard of Orange before so I will check them out.

Frkl

I'm sure it's too late, but just in case someone in the future searches a similar question--prepaid SIMs in Europe are much cheaper and without as many restrictions as in the US (generally no minimum terms of service or required monthly minimums). Most discount supermarkets have their own mobile "brand" which are in fact SIMs for major networks (O2, Vodafone, Telekom). You often get a starter essentially for free (you pay for instance 10 Euro for the set, get the SIM and then get the purchase price in prepaid credit). Many of the providers have (again in comparison to the US) very cheap packages (I pay 8 Euro per month for unlimited domestic calling and 4GB of LTE). International calling is not so expensive.

EU regulations mean that if you purchase a SIM in an EU country, it will work at "domestic" rates in other EU countries. But be careful if you transit Switzerland--this is expensive. But you can often get "Swiss" packages (a week of Swiss service at a flat rate, for instance).

New regulations have tightened security to prevent the criminal use of "burner" prepaids. You will probably need to do an online ID check to activate your SIM. but you don't need to be a European resident or have a European address to activate.

Tandem Tom

Thanks for your reply! Not arriving in Brussels until the end of August. We will try to go to a phone shop and let them set it up.

Hawxx

What did you end up with in the end?

calamarichris

Good luck with the weather too. I rode from Brunssum , NL (Limburg) to Luxembourg and back in the days of Milli Vanilli. and the Berlin Wall. Rained the whole time. I had no fenders. The idyllic farm roads were coated with slimy pig-manure and I had no fenders on my Masi. I had pig-poo IN MY MOUTH AND MY EYES. FOR DAYS.
Fortunately the hotels permitted me to check in and to launder my cycling clothes.
Worst week of my life. Even worse than my first week in Army basic training. So much constant rain and pig ****. There was no escape.