Hi
we are traveling to germany and belgium with our ipad (from US) and would like to buy a prepaid SIM card for use while we are there. does anyone know of a provider that will sell a sim card without a contract? (we could only find one provider (Tre) that would do this while were in Italy last year. thanks!

There are many. Do you want unlimited data?

O2 sell USB stick plus 5 days unlimited surfing for 9.90€ but there are also flatrates 500mb per month for 10€ or 5gig for 20€ from Tchibo.
For 5 days, the stick is your best option, it can be unlocked for free and is included in the 9.90

we need a micro SIM card for use in an iPad, a USB stick won't work. we're not sure how much data we will need - we will use the iPad for email, web, maps etc, but will only be traveling for 11 days.

Take a pair of scissors with you or one of those "tools" from ebay. A prepaid micro SIM won't be easy to find. Of course you don't use the USB stick for surfing, it's just a basically FREE Huawai USB stick, (that ain't so bad?).
So it's either 5 days of your choice for 9.90 (at any Media Markt) or 2€ per calendar day or a flat.

fonic.de charges 10€ for the micro SIM and 2.50€ per day.

You can compare all iPad sim cards offered in Germany (in English) on this site, suggest you check it out http://mypad3g.com/germany. Unlike the US there are a many providers and plans to choose from...competition is definitely good thing!

Thanks for all your replies. It looks like the O2 offer with the included free USB stick for 5 days would be perfect for us. I guess your implying it's a regular sized SIM though and I'll need to cut it down myself--I've seen videos on that--I know some people share a SIM between there iPhone and their iPAD after cutting down there iPhone's SIM card into micro size and then using a micro to regular-size adapter in their iphone to accept the cut-down size.

Micro SIMs are difficult to get if you want prepaid and don't order online. Cutting down the SIM isn't difficult. If you need voice and want an extra SIM fast, either buy one at the checkout at a LIDL supermarket for 9.95€ with 10€ of airtime and 9ct/min to North America and Europe or at a Netto supermarket where the SIM costs 5€ with 5€ of airtime and 12ct for calls. All SIMs need to be activated either online or by phone.

You can get one from www.germansimcard.com for 30 € with 20 € credit. The daily flatrate is 2.50 €

To piggyback on this topic: So if I have a different type of tablet (Asus Transformer) and wifi only I should be fine for surfing the web via free wifi and hotspots, right? Wifi is the same in the US and internationally, right? My cell phone, however is not compatible because it's CDMA only so I won't be able to use it for phone calls. Wifi should work though, from what I understand.

Traveler_A

Yes. While free wifi exists, you often have to log in using details provided locally, and you may have difficulty with some staff who don't speak English, esp in smaller places.

Bookmarking.