I will be travelling to Italy in a couple of weeks from the usa and need a good portable wifi to take with me. I am not able to use esims since my phone is locked and my carrier (xfinity) will not unlock it until the phone is fully paid off (over $500). The international plan through my carrier is $10/day ($80 for my whole trip) with barely any data with it. I dont need anything with text or call since i can use wifi/data to text on apps so this is all im looking for. I was hoping to find something that was about $40 usd but everything seems to be about $70 usd. If i have to pay that I will but I am just looking for the best options. any help is appreciated thank you.
Posted by
San Francisco Bay Area (USA)
16133 posts
Do you have an extra old phone you can load a local SIM on? You can also use the wifi your hotel (and many bars/restaurants) will provide. If you have a tablet you can use that too. With a tablet you can use the hotel WiFi, and if the tablet has SIM capability you can buy a local SIM. Tablet data only plans in Italy are only 10€ for 30 days (plus 10€ for the SIM). I don’t think WhatsApp supports IOS tablets, in case you have an Apple IPad. But it should work with other tablets.
https://www.whatsapp.com/download
I think for iPad you need to use the web based WhatsApp or their Beta version.
Posted by
267 posts
As Roberto suggested, can you get an old phone - maybe borrow one or look on EBay or even your local phone store, they may sell them cheap. If you want to save money on the service, rather than buying a sim in Italy, you could add an esim to an old phone from a data only service like BNESIM or Airalo, Holafly etc. I have been using BNESIM for a few years, I like the never expiring Europe plan, you can get 3gb for under $15. I have used it for at least 6 trip to Europe since 2023 and have probably spent total less than $30 (I buy more data when they have sales or coupons). But other people have had great experiences with other providers as well so do a search.
Posted by
OP
5 posts
thanks for your replies, I've found an old iPhone I could use but it's not new enough for me to an esim onto it so I'll have to get a physical sim for it while I'm there. I'll have to see what my options are.
Posted by
1 posts
We just returned from a 12 day trip from Italy and used WiTourist (https://www.witourist.com/). It was easy pickup and drop off at FCO and was about €120 for unlimited 5G and a 10Ah portable charger for the whole trip. I think they also have an option to ship it to/from your house before and after your trip. We never had any issues with connectivity and with the portable charger it lasted all day.