Pros & Cons

How I was looking for a SIM card for travel

For me personally, mobile Internet in travel is a necessity, not just convenience. Yes, you can go online via wi-fi from hotels and public places. But, according to the law of meanness, the Internet is often needed exactly where there is no Wi-Fi. For example, when you urgently need to book a room, or find some place on Google maps, or call someone through a messenger. Now I can not imagine a trip without the ability to go online when needed.

Then I looked for SIM cards of local operators in the host country. In Italy, for example, it was easy, all Italian operators (Tim, Wind, Vodafone) easily sell prepaid SIM cards to tourists, and it costs tolerable money - 15-20 euros. But in neighboring France, for example, this could not be done: either they did not sell, or they asked for a too high price. In addition, local SIM cards are inconvenient because they stopped working after crossing the border with other countries, and in Europe I did this often. Yes, with the cancellation of roaming within the European Union, this has become irrelevant, but even despite this, there are enough inconveniences.

An excellent solution was the SIM card of the Spanish operator Orange with the GoEurope tariff option, which worked in a good half of European countries. It made it possible to access the Internet for 1 euro per day with a limit of 100 megabytes. Moreover, the money was debited only at the time of going online. I used this SIM card in Europe for two years and was happy, until in July 2017 the European Union canceled roaming and the Spaniards canceled this convenient tariff option. Now Orange has another option for traveling in Europe, but I didn't like a few more things with this operator: a brake site, an inconvenient balance replenishment, works only in EU countries, and so on.

An excellent solution was the SIM card of the Spanish operator Orange with the GoEurope tariff option, which worked in a good half of European countries. It made it possible to access the Internet for 1 euro per day with a limit of 100 megabytes. Moreover, the money was debited only at the time of going online. I used this SIM card in Europe for two years and was happy, until in July 2017 the European Union canceled roaming and the Spaniards canceled this convenient tariff option. Now Orange has another option for traveling in Europe, but I didn't like a few more things with this operator: a brake site, an inconvenient balance replenishment, works only in EU countries, and so on.

In search of other options, I came across DrimSim several times, my colleagues - journalists and bloggers wrote about it. It is a virtual operator with special SIM cards for travelers. One SIM card with one balance for all countries (not quite all, of course, there are more than 190 countries in the world). I decided to try it and understand how it works. Looking ahead, I can say that it works very well and this SIM card can be safely recommended to those who are looking for a solution to access the Internet while traveling.

Order DrimSim-50% OFF Today!

To start using a SIM card, you need to order it. This can be done on the official website. Click on the button "Order a SIM card". There you need to fill out a short form with your first name, last name, phone number and email:

After that, another small form will be loaded, where you need to select the number of SIM cards. One SIM card costs 10 euros. For owners of the latest iPhones, an eSIM order is available:

The next step is to write the delivery address: country, city, street and house. There will also be an opportunity to enter your comment, for example, by the date and time of delivery. Simka is usually brought directly to the apartment from 10 to 18 hours. In St. Petersburg, Minsk, Almaty, Kiev, the SIM card is delivered more often the next day, in the regions it is sent by mail.

After entering the address, the form will show several options for the delivery of the SIM card. In St. Petersburg, there are 3 options: courier delivery for 5 euros (from 1 day), mail delivery for 4 euros (from 7 days) and self-pickup for 4 euros (the period depends on the region).

After filling out the form with the address and delivery, the site will display a bank card payment page. There, too, everything is simple, enter your bank card details and click to pay.

My SIM card was brought to the St. Petersburg address the next day after payment. The cheerful courier handed me the following envelope:

Inside there was a color booklet with instructions for activating and using the SIM card, the SIM card itself and a sticker with the Dreamsim logo:

Simka in three different form factors at once: regular, mini-sim and micro-sim for iPhones. On the back of the plastic with a SIM card, the SIM card number, PIN and PUK codes are printed. New sim cards are already branded, not so white.

Immediately after receiving the SIM card, you need to activate it in the DrimSim application.

UPDATE from December 2018: Dreamsim has changed the balance replenishment rules. Now the minimum top-up amount is 25 euros.

Dreamsim application

The application only works when there is an internet connection. The interface of the program is very simple and intuitive, except that sometimes it takes a long time to load data. The application start screen displays the following data (top to bottom):

a phone number associated with a SIM card (judging by the code +44 this is a British operator);    SIM card balance in Euro;

available number of minutes and megabytes for the available money on the balance;    host country;    the cost of a minute of conversation and one megabyte of traffic in the country;   fragment of a Google map with location.⭐

It is very convenient that the balance is displayed in real time. "Ate" 100 megabytes - and the balance is reduced by the corresponding amount. The exact cost of calls and traffic is displayed here. Everything is clear and honest, it captivates.

And the price for traffic is very nice, at least in the EU countries. The same money as Orange - 1 euro per 100 megabytes, only byte payment and no time limit. But what is inconvenient in the application is the cost details. I would like to see how much I spent in total megabytes and euros during the day, week and month. And the application has the ability to view only charges for communication sessions. An absolutely useless feature.

Best eSIM Drimsim Promo Code:

Get verified Drimsim Coupons, Drimsim Promo Code, and up to 50% off Deals with Drimsim Coupon Code 

Save up to 50% drimsim

The first communication test took place in Poland. At first, not everything was smooth. Simka stubbornly refused to catch the net. I found an alternative way to go online and asked the tech support question through the application. It turned out that it is for Poland (and a couple of other countries) that you need to apply a couple of unique settings in the phone. And these settings were spelled out in the application help, in vain the support tugged. Read the help, in general

After that, the use of the SIM card was almost only positive. The cost of traffic in Poland and in almost all European countries was about the same as for Orange - 1 euro per 100 megabytes of traffic, only payment by bytes. It turned out even more profitable, given that Orange immediately debited 1 euro for 100 megabytes per day, and DrimSim debits only for actually consumed traffic, the money is on the account and does not burn out. This is very valuable. In addition, Orange was focused only on the countries of the European Union, while Dreamsim can work almost everywhere. Today Dreamsim covers more than 190 countries of the world.

Then there were trips to Finland, Estonia, Sweden, Germany, Armenia, Turkey, Hungary, Slovakia, France, Italy, Slovenia, Czech Republic, Norway. At the beginning of October 2018, there was a great road trip through Spain, the south of France, Italy, Slovenia, the Czech Republic and Germany. And then I rode around Montenegro and Albania. In winter I rode around Morocco and flew to Tenerife for 4 days. And here are the statistics for these countries.

In Finland, there were no problems at all, except for the first time the network did not pick up immediately, but 5-10 minutes after turning on the phone with a SIM card. In Germany a couple of times the SIM card briefly lost its connection to the Internet, but here, in theory, the SIM card is not to blame, it is something with the local operator or roaming. In Armenia, the SIM card hooked up to the Armenian Beeline and worked without problems, the price of a megabyte was 1.5 euro cents, in Germany and Finland - 1 euro cent. In Hungary, too, no problems, but in Slovakia, there were incomprehensible Internet connections. It was treated by jerking modes 4g to 3g and vice versa. I reported to technical support, they promised to figure it out. But I had to spend half a day without the Internet there. It's good that in Slovakia itself we had to stay for about a day.

There are losses of communication with operators when crossing borders between countries, usually it is treated by rebooting the phone or checking country profiles in the SIM-menu settings. In the Czech Republic, outside the big cities, there was connection to the Internet, but on EDGE and very slow. Everything was fine in Czech cities. In Albania, there were also problems, I picked up the operator, but there was no Internet. After 15 minutes of shamanism, I found out that the Internet works through another, backup APN (not chili, but orange). I wrote to technical support, they promised to add it to the FAQ.

In Morocco, you shouldn't use Dreamsim, the cost of roaming from local operators is too high, and local SIM cards can be bought easily for 5 euros right at the airport, and they are enough for a week for sure. For two weeks in Israel everything worked fine, only a couple of times the connection was lost, it was treated by restarting the smartphone. Cyprus is in complete order.

Conclusions on the sim card

As my experience has shown, SIM card is quite an excellent option for short-term travel. For example, if you travel to several European countries at once, and you do not plan to stay in them for more than a week. Or if you need internet for small amounts of data. If you are going to stay in one country for a long time, then it may be more profitable to buy a local SIM card, if the operators allow it. In some countries, the SIM card works, but it is generally unprofitable, as in Morocco. It's easier and cheaper to buy a local SIM card there. In other countries, everything worked immediately and without question, and the price for traffic is very pleasant. So I recommend buying.

Answers to frequently asked questions about Dreamsim

How much will internet and calls to Germany / Georgia / Thailand cost ...?

On the official website, in the RATES section, prices for calls and mobile Internet are indicated in almost 190 countries of the world. In the countries of central and southern Europe, a megabyte of traffic costs generally ridiculous money (about 1 euro per 100 megabytes or 10 euros per gigabyte), you don't even have to turn off the Internet while traveling.

Is it possible to distribute the Internet with a Dreamsim SIM card?

Yes, you can. So your fellow travelers will also be able to use the Internet access through your SIM card if you turn on the router mode in the smartphone.

Does the SIM card have an expiration date?

The SIM card will be ready to work even if it has not been used for a very long time, provided that the balance is not zero and you use the SIM card at least once a year. Otherwise, after 360 days of inactivity, the operator will start withdrawing a monthly commission of 0.5 euros from the balance in order to keep the number. If the balance becomes zero, then after another month the operator will block the number. To keep your SIM card for yourself, you just need to insert the SIM card and perform some action: call, SMS or go online.

How to top up the balance of Drimsim SIM card?

In the native application of Dreamsim there is a corresponding section. The balance is replenished through bank cards. There you drive in the card number, the required amount and forward