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Purchasing Sim cards Ahead

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AbbyDee

Court Jester
Time of past OR future Camino
In celebration of the 35th anniversary of my 25th year, I will begin my Camino in September 2017
The never ending subject of sim cards: I have been doing some research online and I came up with this:
https://simcard.spainsur.com/home/4...ntries-prepaid-sim-card-includes-10-euro.html.
you can buy them before hand and they will ship them anywhere, even to your home address before you leave. Now this may not be the best plan fiscally, the convenience of being able to buy it ahead of time, and not having to go all the way to Pampaloma may be worth something.

I am pretty certain that this is not the only game in town. And I have seen IRoam sim cards for sale on the Staples website.
Any insights? Inquiring minds want to know!
 
...and ship it to Santiago for storage. You pick it up once in Santiago. Service offered by Casa Ivar (we use DHL for transportation).
If you do watch out for activation start date, duration, data allocation, cost, provider.

Besides having to pay more for the convenience check the SIM provider country, data will cost more if SIM is not Spanish despite EU legislation for single market.

I just get it when I arrive in Spain. Phone shops can be found around bus/train station or main shopping street.
 
I used Vodaphone. For 15 euro, I got one month validity, 1 hour international and domestic calls and from memory 1.5 gb data. My only problem was trying to recharge it on line as all directions are in Spanish
 
The one from Galicia (the round) and the one from Castilla & Leon. Individually numbered and made by the same people that make the ones you see on your walk.
The never ending subject of sim cards: I have been doing some research online and I came up with this:
https://simcard.spainsur.com/home/4...ntries-prepaid-sim-card-includes-10-euro.html.
you can buy them before hand and they will ship them anywhere, even to your home address before you leave. Now this may not be the best plan fiscally, the convenience of being able to buy it ahead of time, and not having to go all the way to Pampaloma may be worth something.

I am pretty certain that this is not the only game in town. And I have seen IRoam sim cards for sale on the Staples website.
Any insights? Inquiring minds want to know!
I had great luck with this website and had the sim cards sent to my house in Canada fully activated and ready to go: http://www.simcardspain.es/en/
I used the Vodafone International and had great coverage all across Spain. Easy to top-up online at the same site if you should need it but with 1.5 gb of data and wifi in pretty much all the Albergues you probably wouldn't need it anyway.
Buen Camino!
Jordon
 
I have used Vodafone on every camino since 2006.
I've found SIM cards in nearly every city.
Are you walking the CF? Because, once you are in Spain, you will reach Pamplona in 2 days.
 
Vodaphone or Orange (what I use) are probably the most convenient.

I usually have no need to top up but if I do there is no need to grapple with the complexity (even topping up the SIM card in an English speaking country is a challenge). Just go to a bigger town/city with a phone shop, phone store, giant supermarket or train station shops and give them your local SIM number. They are able to top up for you without even keying anything on your phone.
 
3rd Edition. More content, training & pack guides avoid common mistakes, bed bugs etc
I had great luck with this website and had the sim cards sent to my house in Canada fully activated and ready to go: http://www.simcardspain.es/en/
I used the Vodafone International and had great coverage all across Spain. Easy to top-up online at the same site if you should need it but with 1.5 gb of data and wifi in pretty much all the Albergues you probably wouldn't need it anyway.
Buen Camino!
Jordon

Thank you for your information. From everything I have seen, Vodaphone seems to get top marks. The tossup seems to be whether to order it and have it delivered, (one less thing to be concerned with on the camino) or buy it in Pamploma and possibly get a better deal. Data is not a big concern due to wifi which seems to be plentiful everywhere.
 
Most Tobacco stores and news stands can top up all brands of cards.
I can always find one very easily...often even small villages have tobac shops that do this service.
 
On Camino de Levante in 2015 I even managed to buy new credit for Orange in candy store in one smaller town :)
 
Train for your next Camino on California's Santa Catalina Island March 16-19
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