Phones while touring in France

[Simon_m]

Hi there, just a quick question. We have holidayed in France a fair few times, but not used the phone much due to high charges. We are touring next year for 3weeks and expect to be using the phone more than usual for calls & texts. Where wifi isn't available we will have to use 3g/4g etc for heavy use like mapping. So.... From experience, what have you used which have worked well?
New French Sim?
Buy data package before leaving?
New French phone?
iPad and iPhone
Thanks

 

[robgul]

Do you need to do that much online stuff with maps? (serious comment)

France is very, very well signposted when compared with anywhere else I've ever been and the reasonably price Michelin maps from any hypermarket are cheap enough to use and throw away if you don't want to add them to your luggage when you've ridden across them.

There are also numerous free maps of the whole of Europe that you can load in a phone (both flavours) and use offline (i.e. with no connection required other than to download which you do at home before you go over WiFi)

My guess on the answer to the phone question is to get the add-on package from your phone provider network.

Rob

 

[Dave Davenport]

Depends on your provider but we paid £2 per day (when used) to use our standard UK allowances with Vodafone in Europe last year.

 

[Dave Davenport]

By the way, we use pages torn out of a road atlas for navigation and mainly used (mrs d's) smart phone to check for camp site locations along the way.

 

[Simon_m]

Do you need to do that much online stuff with maps? (serious comment)

France is very, very well signposted when compared with anywhere else I've ever been and the reasonably price Michelin maps from any hypermarket are cheap enough to use and throw away if you don't want to add them to your luggage when you've ridden across them.

There are also numerous free maps of the whole of Europe that you can load in a phone (both flavours) and use offline (i.e. with no connection required other than to download which you do at home before you go over WiFi)

My guess on the answer to the phone question is to get the add-on package from your phone provider network.

Rob

Yes Rob, otherwise I would not be asking. We are cycling the length of the country and there are some roads which are tricky, tourists spots, chateaus etc which I want the other riders on my group to check out. Map reading each night over the 3weeks. Hope that helps give a more clearer insight and answer

£2 a day is good, is that unlimited? I am with Orange, or whatever they are now, EE?

 

[Simon_m]

ps also need it for the riders who get lost, mechanical problems, contacting support van, rally points ie towns/villages for lunch, that kinda thing

 

[Hill Wimp]

Myself and @hopless500 will be touring Holland, Belgium and France for 4 weeks in July. We will be using downloaded maps backed up by Michelin maps to keep the costs down. The downloaded maps are superb. Im using maps.me.

 

[xilios]

Myself and @hopless500 will be touring Holland, Belgium and France for 4 weeks in July. We will be using downloaded maps backed up by Michelin maps to keep the costs down. The downloaded maps are superb. Im using maps.me.

I'll second the downloaded offline maps with maps.me. They are very accurate and show even the smallest of dirt tracks.

 

[Dave Davenport]

£2 a day is good, is that unlimited? I am with Orange, or whatever they are now, EE?

It's whatever your UK contract is, it's normally £3 a day with Vodafone but they reduced it to £2 last summer. Hopefully they will this year as we'll be away for 33 days.

 

[Big T]

I'm pretty sure it's free on the 3 network, or rather it costs the same as it does at home.

 

[robing]

+1 for Three. France is one of their feel at home countries.

 

[Dogtrousers]

Talk to your service provider. This is probably the best way.

As mentioned above, mapping doesn't have to be data-heavy. For example the maps on my Lumia phone are all downloadable offline. Surely you can get similar maps for your i-gadgets, leaving roaming charges only for making/receiving voice calls, sending texts, and light data usage like email.

 

[robgul]

Yes Rob, otherwise I would not be asking. We are cycling the length of the country and there are some roads which are tricky, tourists spots, chateaus etc which I want the other riders on my group to check out. Map reading each night over the 3weeks. Hope that helps give a more clearer insight and answer

£2 a day is good, is that unlimited? I am with Orange, or whatever they are now, EE?

My point related to using the data allowance (which is expensive) for the "heavy use" mapping and navigation mentioned in your OP - NOT the voice/text aspect which is now, almost, as cheap as chips with the EU rulings on roaming (which are reducing costs progressively)

For mapping on tours I've now bought a cheapie TESCO HUDL2 tablet and loaded the whole of Europe at street name level (all available free from a number of sources, using OSM) - and routes etc can be overlaid - and of course the GPS will pinpoint where you are if you're lost (just keep the GPS switched off when not needing it to save battery)

Rob

 

[Simon_m]

Everyone seems to be either missing the point, or not understanding. I have my garmin for the maps and route, we will have the route printed on to maps too etc, we know about downloadable maps thanks. What i am trying to find out is... what advice or experience you have had with buying new sim cards bought in france, or phones bought out there? Are they cheap like in the States or is it the same here?

It will be data heavy as each evening we will be going over google earth and possibly street view to view our route, and where certain problems or issues will come up en route. Also where Le Tour route is in conjunction with our daily ride, and where best to view it from.
I will have to speak to EE I guess and see what call plans they do for text and calls abroad. I expect their data charges to be very heavy.

ok Rob that sounds helpfull and an option, although with google earth, i can zoom in on the photo icon and show what to look out for. Can it import the google earth routes, I think they are GPX?
thanks

 

[HovR]

I'm also on T-Mobile/EE. During my Roscoff to Paris trip I paid £12 for 200MB of data which lasts up to 7 days. Think I used it up in about 6 with some pretty heavy usage including Facebook, Strava, googling for camp sites, restaurants etc, and a bit of re-routing part way through the trip.

It will be data heavy as each evening we will be going over google earth and possibly street view to view our route

Why not review the maps offline using the MAPS.ME or OsmAnd app? The maps are just as detailed as Google Earth, but you won't destroy your data. I'm not really sure regular use of street view is needed. With both these apps you can overlay the route making on-the-fly navigation easy.