Phone Packages in Portugal

Posted by glennwoolford65 on 07/06/23 06:43 PM

I'm just wondering if anyone could suggest a service provider that will allow me to make calls, text, and have a decent amount of data for my upcoming trip in September. I have to admit that I'm a little out of the loop with anything to do with cell phones, and my own service provider charges $16/day for their international travel package (which leaves me with a nice little bill after my 17 day trip). My phone is an older Samsung so it doesn't look like I have an eSim option.

I'm hoping to be up and running as soon as I arrive as I'll be starting off in Sintra and will want to use my phone to get an Uber ride from the Lisbon airport.

Thanks in advance for any suggestions.

Posted by aulopone

07/06/23 06:55 PM

374 posts

I use Vodafone Travellers and it was fine.
You can buy it at the Vodafone store at the Lisbon airport.
https://www.vodafone.pt/en/products-services/visiting-portugal.html

Posted by shoeflyer

Chicago

07/06/23 07:26 PM

662 posts

Well, you say you're a bit out of the loop with cell phones but you know about eSims,
so I think you're ahead of a lot of people...

Just note that if you change SIM cards, you now have a Portuguese phone #, which
means anything you originate comes from that #, and you won't get calls that come to
your regular #. Dialing the US requires the country code to be included.

Posted by CWsocial

near San Francisco

07/06/23 09:29 PM

5477 posts

Here's the info I wrote up in my Trip Report regarding the Vodafone SIM that I bought at Lisbon Airport last October:

Vodafone Portugal SIM card:
• Arriving on a Sunday (when city locations were closed) I bought the "Vodafone Travellers" SIM for €20 at Lisbon airport with 20GB (I used 2 GB in 3 weeks) plus 500 minutes and 500 texts that I didn't use.
• The line moved quickly and the SIM card was working immediately upon walking out of the shop.

It looks like the price has gone up to €25 for the 30 day package and only 10GB, with still 500 minutes / texts for use within Portugal and the European Union. It also has 50 minutes / texts for international use, such as back to the US.

The SIM card worked great, including Lisbon, Sintra, Coimbra, Porto and a day trip into the Douro Valley.

Posted by tns1

San Diego, USA

07/12/23 08:43 AM

37 posts

We did not buy our local sim cards at the airport due to long lines, but found Meo, Vodaphone and NOS cell phone stores in a Lisbon mall in the Alfama district.

My experience with an older Samsung Luna pro using the Vodaphone travelers sim was less than hoped. The 50 intl minutes worked fine, but were nowhere near enough. The texting did not work and the store couldn’t figure it out. A few days later and I couldn't even make local calls. This all may be due to this being a Tracfone, who claimed they unlocked the phone but apparently it was temporary. Swapping with a Meo sim which worked fine in an iphone did not fix the issue, and possibly caused the phone to relock. The Samsung would not see the cell network, and was only good for WiFi (internet) and camera during the entire trip. Tracfone is apparently notorious for only giving you a temporary unlock which seems to relock if you swap sims. You want to make sure your phone is permanently unlocked if you plan to change sims, or maybe just pay the extra for the intl package they are offering.

For my iphone, I only used about 3GB data during our 22days, mostly for driving (maps) and surfing while walking around so most was cellular data, not WiFi. A 10GB card was around 15 euro or less.