Orange Holiday SIM card

Well, the international calls to the US means nothing to me, given that I can call the US for free with Google Hangouts anyway and text for free with Google Voice etc.

10GB is a lot, but how long is that good for until it expires? A month? Sometimes the data in these packages expires in a couple of weeks. How much is it to renew next time and get another 10GB of data?

The Dutch Vodafone SIM I bought in May (see my recent post with details) for my trip to Slovenia, Italy, and France worked beautifully for me. (Never even visited the Netherlands.) But, I needed it only for data; if I wanted to make/receive local calls within France, then a French SIM would have been a better choice. Otherwise, I got 3GB of data for 30 days for 20 Euros, and the SIM itself cost me about $7 USD on eBay; the whole thing cost me $30 USD total, and the SIM is active for a year, so I plan to use it next year too. Roaming in all of the EU is supported. I used only 2GB of data in 17 days, and I was using Google Maps all the time for walking and public transit directions.

I like that I can also top up the Dutch Vodafone SIM on their website with a US credit card - and that they don't block VOIP apps like Google Hangouts and Skype or VPNs. I also used it as a hotspot with my Android phone.

I bought an Orange SIM in Lyon in June. Don't know if it was the "holiday" one. I think it cost 30€ for 30 days, and then when I was back in France in September I was able to buy a 30-day recharge at a Relay newsagent for 20€. I did have a couple of occasions when I was "out of range" for Orange in fairly remote rural locations, but apart from that it served my needs well. But I didn't try international calls.

We landed in Paris on August 16th. I brought two phones from the US - mine & my husbands. I put the Orange Holiday Sim in his phone and use it as a hotspot and connect my phone via wifi. This way I can still receive texts on my US # and calls to the US are seamless. It has worked brilliantly. I purchased 4 additional top-ups - we have been in France, Holland, Germany, Denmark, Poland, Czechia, Austria, Slovakia, Italy and are presently in the UK - it had worked everywhere. I was even able to top-up online using my cc - I was surprised as I'd read that you need a French cc to do that.

I purchased the Orange Holiday SIM on Amazon and it worked perfectly for me! I received it within 3 days, right before leaving. It was really easy to use, no set up or anything and I got signal as soon as I landed in Amsterdam airport. I stayed two weeks in Europe and used it smoothly accross all the countries I visited (Netherland, UK, France, Italy, Spain...). You get plenty of data, more than enough to share it with someone else as data tethering is enabled. I didn't need to top up but they offer such solution from what I've seen. I can only recommend it!

I am trying to find out what it will cost to use it for a month total. How much is an extra 2 weeks - probably just need one GB for extra 2 weeks

Hi, the Holiday Orange sim initially is $39.99 for 2 weeks and 10 GB. You can purchase a top up card/code at the same time and activate it when you need it (right before your first 2 weeks expires) for $20 Euros and you get 5GB.

boutique.orange.fr/mobile/carte-prepayee-orange-holiday-eng

I purchased the Holiday SIM and for two days In Paris I thought it was the greatest thing. The third day I couldn’t text photos. The fourth day I couldn’t text anything. Between 4 and 5 texting worked but no photos end of day 5 no texting at all. I’ve rebooted, reset network connections and finally powered off Removed and replaced the SIM card and powered back up and I still can’t text. I stopped at an Orange store in Paris and they had no clue of what to do other than basic troubleshooting. The rep referred me to the corporate office which is on the other side of town. Leaving tomorrow for Barcelona. Does anyone have an idea of how to fix this? I don’t speak French so using their web based support is no use to me.

You can use the phone for calls and data just no texting? Can you try texting with a third party app like WhatsApp?

The Holiday Orange SIM is 39.99 Euros, not dollars.

I bought one last year and it worked well. I’ll get one again for my trip in June.

Hello Andrew,

Yes, I can make calls,and use data. I can text with or without photos to my wife’s phone which has a US number on the AT&T passport plan. Although I couldn’t do that when I originally posted. This morning I could text to a friend at home then 5 minutes later I couldn’t. I haven’t tried to use whatsapp for texting because I keep trying to figure out why I can’t do it on the Orange SIM. My main purpose was to be able to use navigation and communicate with my wife via text and at the moment that seems to be working. It’s really strange.

If you can find a wifi spot, download Google Chrome onto your phone and use it to go to the help site. It does auto-translate for you through the search engine on the phone.

I bought this on Amazon two weeks ago but returned it. It ask you to fill out a form and include a copy of your passport and mail it to friends and wait for a response. Most Sim cards you can set up just before leaving or even on arrival in Europe.

Also I bought an orange Sim card in France four years ago and it worked OK but I often lost reception even in the middle of Paris. I even went into another orange store in Paris asked what was wrong- apparently the coverage was spotty

Instead I bought lime Sim card from Amazon that is highly reviewed so I’m gonna see how that works

I'm using my Dutch Vodafone from last year again right now in Portugal. Working great - I'm using it even though I just switched to Sprint at home - and they have free unlimited 2G roaming data here. Yes, indeed, Sprint works here too...but data is kind of slow, sometimes frustratingly so. I wanted to keep the Vodafone SIM alive anyway for future use (won't be with Sprint after my "free year offer" expires), but it is way faster than Sprint was. For all of 10 euros I got 2GB of data which is more than enough to last me for my short trip here.

We used the Orange chip in throughout France for a couple of weeks. The maps and calls to European numbers worked perfectly even in the most remote places or tight city centers. It started working the moment we turned the phone on. We used maps driving and walking quite often and we only used about 2GB. No one in the States was able to text or call the French number though. We had data and voice roaming on but no matter how the kids dialed us, +33, 01133, with the zero that begins the number, without the zero, it wouldn't connect. We have an i phone 7, does anyone have any insights on this?

Richard, obviously I would confirm that the phone number was correct. I'd start in the phone itself - it should have a way to tell you, "This is my phone number." It should match the one given on the SIM package itself, but who knows?

Well I just ordered one of these for a trip coming up end of June-mid-July. Basically, it looks pretty good for a trip of around 2 weeks (our trip is about 3 weeks but we shouldn't need it the first/last few days so we should be able to get by).

I'll come back and post about my experiences after I return.

I just received mine from Amazon today for my upcoming trip. Last year while in Italy I purchased the TIM sim card and it worked great. Unfortunately, the line at the kiosk at the airport on arrival was too long and I was delayed in getting it activated.

This year we are going to France so I ordered the Orange Holiday in advance so that I don't have to spend valuable vacation time waiting in a line at the airport after a long international flight. Same price, but I can do the registration online and set up my account for top-ups with a US credit card. I'll change my sim card on the flight over and it should activate on arrival.

Sounds good, Bruce. Please post back here later if you can to let people know how it worked for you!