I'll be traveling to Austria and then to Switzerland. I'm planning to get a Data plan or roaming wifi where I can just used to surf the net. Not for calls. 1-2G data my two weeks would be enough

Any recommendation??

Hi,

I know there are many companies in Europe offering WiFi rental service (like http://polishwifi.com/ in my country). I know there are e.g. FLINK and X-Com Global in Austria and also Tep Wireless (which is global wide i think). Maybe that info could be useful.

Greetings!

Hi Ken, When will you be travelling? New laws come into force on June 15th which will make it much easier to use one SIM for the whole of Europe.

Ken's post is from April - he may have gone to Europe and returned home by now.

I've been using my Android phone's hotspot with a Vodafone NL SIM with 3GB of data to provide mobile WiFi for my laptop and tablet in Europe. SIM cost $7 USD on eBay, and 3GB of data for a month cost 20 Euros.

Dublin_Globey: does that include UK in the one-sim scheme (they have a reputation for being a little "separate" from Europe)?

Mobile wifi units are obsolete. Any cheap Android phone can serve as a mobile wifi unit.

Hi BigRuss, for the moment, yes, that will include the UK. In two years time - who knows? It's mandated by the EU Commission.

Get WhatsApp on your phone and have whoever you want to text or call has it. It's free when you are connected to wifi. We have been using this in Iceland.
Got an international plan from Verizon but only the texting has worked. This was to stay in touch with my mom and she had an old flip phone.
The rest of have communicated through the WhatsApp

If you want to call mom on the flip phone for free, use Google Hangouts.

Thanks Andrew! Should have consulted with you here first! Next trip!