Pat_in_Mich

I'm considering GPS options for a trip to Germany. I could upgrade my 4 year old Garmin to have European maps for $99. I could buy a new Garmin with pre-loaded European maps for $175. Or I could take an unlocked Android smartphone I have, buy a German SIM card with data for it, and use Google maps for navigation. Does anyone have any experience with using Google for navigation in Germany?

What have your experiences been with buying SIM cards and using them for data? Is it easy to find one as soon as I land in Germany and what prices should I expect?"

logos999

How much data? Prices start from 7.99€ per month prepaid for 300mb max UMTS incl SIM card. No voip or vpn.

bqycc

THis is also information I appreciate, since I´m travelling to Prague, Munich and other German cities, and Switzerland.

Logos999, could you tell me about companies that offer those plans? Is it ok to buy it at one EU country and use it in the others? I will begin the trip in Prague, and will need aprox. 1-1.5 GB (only data)

GregY2

We were in Germany September last year.

We arrived via Frankfurt and I bought a Lebara SIM card from a small shop near the station.

From memory it cost 9,99€ (which was the opening amount of credit for calls) and I also bought 500mb of data with a life of 30 days for an additional 10,00€. That worked fine for us - we were in Germany for 5 weeks and I bought another 500mb of data in the second last week.

We did not make any calls so I don't know how long our credit would have lasted but the data worked really well. We used the data for some internet browaing & email but mainly for navigation using Google and it worked really well.

logos999

You have an endless number of cheap options. In Germany, at this moment the cheapest prepaid data SIM is sold at Netto supermarkets. That's the 8€ for 300mb. E-Plus network, not the best coverage.
Better Options are 2€ per day or 15€ per month , with a max of 500mb UMTS per day and 5GB UMTS per month and unlimited EDGE. Go to a Lidl Supermarket. http://www.lidl.de/de/Daten-Optionen

In CZ, buy a O2 sim at a Tesco or Kaufland store. http://www.o2.cz/osobni/en/ http://www.o2.cz/osobni/en/internet/..._v_mobilu.html
This can even be used for "voip-Data".

There is NO inexpensive roaming for data, you will need 2 SIMs at least

logos999

one SIM per country

bqycc

thanks for the info!
I think it´s going to be cheaper to buy SIM card and data than the GPS at the rental car agency.