I am travelling often in Europe. The first time I had a very unpleasant surprise when I received my telephone bill because of the high roaming costs. Since then I have been researching the best options to keep my roaming costs down.
In principal there are always 3 options.
a) Add a package which covers the country of your destination to your current provider contract for a monthly fee.
b) Buy a prepaid sim card in the country of your destination
c) Use Wifi
Since I am a heavy user of the internet and I am not always where there is a Wifi I have found option b) to give me the lowest costs. Especially if you want to use an online map while navigating through Amsterland and the Netherlands or downloading and uploading pictures and videos while on the go I found option a) not sufficient.
Netherlands has three main networks: KPN, Vodafone and T-Mobile.
Option b: Prepaid Sim Card
KPN offers Lebara and Lycamobile Prepaid Sim Cards while Vodafone offers its own pre-paid card. I have no information on T-Mobile.
Usually I buy the Lebara Sim Card, but you can shop around because the providers sometimes offer special deals. Prices can fluctuate around 20 Euros with 1 GB of data transmission and 10 Euros for calls down to 5 Euros for 5GB of data transmission over 3G or 4G.
Of course you will find also deals on the internet where they offer you to preorder the sim card but it comes with a higher price and hardly any advantages.
As soon as you arrive you can already buy your prepaid sim card at the Schiphol Airport. If you come by train or car you can find it in small shops with a lebara, lycamobile, or Vodafone sign in the window.
At Schiphol Airport you have for example the Airport Telecom Shop. The location is between Arrival Halls 1 and 2. It is open from 7am till 10 pm. Outside of the opening hours there is no air traffic allowed.
They offer all types of prepaid sim cards. So you can choose the best option.
** Contact Details Airport Telecom Shop:**
Tel: +31 (0)20 653 0999
E-mail: [email protected]
Website: www.airporttelecom.nl
They will also give you guidance on how to setup the sim card so that you have internet access. You need to access the shop keeper for it. Sometimes they even do it for you.
In case you are not arriving at the Schiphol Airport there is for example a [Lebara Storefinder online].( http://www.lebara.nl/winkelzoeker)
And here you can find for example Vodafone shops in Amsterdam online.
And this is the store locator for lycamobile online.
One last point. I myself use a cheap smartphone as my wifi router. In my case it is a Huawei. I will use this smartphone with the prepaid sim card and then set it up as a wifi hotspot for my iPhone. I do not like to take out my existing sim card and put in a prepaid sim card while travelling abroad. This way I am sure not to lose my sim card and also to receive calls while outside of my country.
Hope I was helpful.
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