Sim Card & Data Plan

That all sounds a bit unusual, given the kinds of SIM cards and plans that are available throughout the EU. It's fairly easy to purchase a SIM card in any European country, and have that provide you with calls, texts, and high speed data throughout Europe without any need for buying a new one once you cross from one country to the other, and without roaming when you cross from one country to the other.

I've used My UK SIM Card and that, despite the UK in the name, seamlessly works throughout not just the UK but the rest of the EU. Orange has a card that offers calling, text, and data throughout Europe, and even includes a certain number of texts and calls back to your home country. The Orange one in particular seems like it might be useful for you, as you not only want coverage through various countries in Europe but also want to call home to Canada occasionally.

Many of the options available for purchase are even marketed to people in North America who want to order and receive their SIM card at home, before departure, so you're not scrambling around trying to find a good one upon landing, or paying too much for one in an airport.

It would help to know which cellular provider you're using at home? The easiest solution (although not the cheapest) would be to simply use international roaming with your home network. Both Rogers and Telus have roaming plans, but I'm not as familiar with Bell products. If you need to receive calls from Canada, that would be the best option.

As previously mentioned, you could also buy a SIM when you arrive in the first country in Europe. You'll probably have to spend some time with the retailer while it's set up, and there may be a language issue.

You could also look at a travel SIM from companies like iRoam, Cellular Abroad or Mobal. These often don't have "generous" data allowances, but are good for voice and text.

Although not part of your post, are you aware of the requirement for an International Driver's Permit in Italy (compulsory) and also France (recommended)? You'll also have to be vigilant to avoid ZTL (limited traffic) zones in Italian towns (hefty fines).

Get a Dutch Vodafone SIM on eBay. Set it up at home. Then you can use it as soon as you land in Europe. It will work in Germany, France, Italy, AND Switzerland, even though Switzerland isn't in the EU.

This is great for data only. You can add enough credit to make calls within the EU but they aren't cheap. I'd install WhatsApp which is popular in Europe. You could also install Skype if you want to make calls back to Canada (to phone numbers not to other people with Skype - but not free, so add say $10 credit to Skype to make calls to Canada or within the EU for a few cents per minute).

The Vodafone SIM supports 30 day data bundles. So you'd need two for the time you will be there - though if you add enough credit to the SIM (say 40 euros) you can have it renew automatically so it will just work continuously.

My write-up from two years ago is mostly still valid:

https://community.ricksteves.com/travel-forum/tech-tips/dutch-vodafone-sim-card-for-use-in-europe

but now you get 2X as much data (6GB for 20 euros for a month, not 3GB). And you must have activity every six months to keep the SIM alive.

You can buy the SIM on eBay (search for "vodafone YOU SIM" ) for $11 USD (not sure how much CAD). Took about two weeks for me to receive the SIM in the US from the Netherlands. You'll have to roam to a GSM provider in Canada to set the SIM up the first time.

What Andrew H said -- this is my second trip using the NL Vodafone SIM card I got on eBay, only took minutes this time to pop out the AT&T card and insert the Vodafone one. Lots of data for GPS use.

Thanks for your replies

Looking into the Orange Holiday...looks promising! The Dutch Vodafone on eBay looks very good but I don’t think we can make that happen before we go. Yes I have installed What’s App & have used Skype for years. Telus is our carrier in BC but expensive to use on a regular basis for our trip. It will be in our back pocket if we need, as the cost is $15 per 24 hr period. We are familiar with SIM cards etc as we switch to Tel Cel for Mexico, in the winter.

Our biggest THANK YOU is for the heads up requirement for an “International Drivers Permit”! Even though we specifically asked our rental agency if we require anything other than our B.C. Drivers license. Response was NO!!
We have already been in to BCA this morning and have our International Drivers Permit! We know several people that haven’t done this but believe me we are so happy & appreciative for the information. Thanks to Ken our neighbor - we live in Kelowna!

The only thing with the Orange holiday card is it's set for 14 days. From personal experience you can add additional data/calls - after the 14 days are up (and those don't have a time limit). The only snag is you can only add by going to an Orange boutique (as far as I know), you can't just do it on the phone or online.

The Orange Holiday can be topped up on line, if you’ve registered the Sim with Orange in advance. You can register it online or in the boutique. The top up I did worked fine on line.

I did what Andrew recommends. I got my vodafone sim card off ebay ahead of my trip to Europe for 3 weeks this June. I put enough credit on my account to get a 2gb + 2gb for 10 Euros (I think). I don't believe they still have that promotion. I set up a hotspot for my sister and we had plenty of data for our needs. We only used 1.6GB of our 4GB available to us (oh well). We did have problems with the hotspot at first. I have a Samsung S10 and she has an Iphone. I did some looking online. In the APN settings, there was a setting "APN type" that I needed to change from "default" to " * " (star symbol). The hotspot started working after that.
Unfortunately, I had a setting off in my Google voice account, so it was using the network for calls instead of wifi. When I called my sister the first night, and reached her voicemail, it used the vodafone sim network and charged me 2Euros of my leftover credit for a 4 second call. I found this out last night when I reached out to vodafone chat. I couldn't figure out what I had done to make 2Euros credit disappear, but they could tell me when and how long the call was, but not what number I called. This was the only thing I came up with. I messed with my Google Voice settings after that and put things right so it didn't do that the rest of the trip. Unfortunately, now I'll have to add credit so I can send a text every 6 months to keep my sim card active until my next Europe vacation.
It was great having cell data service for real time directions in Europe. The google directions were really pretty accurate even for using public transit. It would tell us where to walk to catch what bus/metro line and how many stops to ride it for. I highly recommend!