Orange Holiday Sim Card – Pros & Cons For Travelers

If you’re trying to get a SIM card for European travel there’s a good chance that you’ll come across the Orange Holiday SIM card as a viable option. As with any regional SIM card on the market there are pros and cons to this particular option. Some of the benefits, and drawbacks are potentially things that most people don’t consider when making these types of purchases. For example there are actually at least different varieties of the Orange Holiday SIM card. We are not referring to the size of the SIM card, but the type of coverage that each card offers. The price tags on each option can vary. We say this to make people realize that buying one of these cards at a convenient store can be a true adventure. Particularly if you don’t know what you need, and what you’re buying. 

For the most part, the Orange Holiday SIM card is what we would call a regional SIM card. You can get coverage in multiple countries with the same card. There’s even a world version of the card that’s going to grant you coverage across different continents with the same card. The first thing that we want to do is look over the 3 main options that you could come across. As previously stated there are different versions of the Orange Holiday SIM card. While it generally provides decent coverage you want to make sure that you’re getting the right card for your needs. Also, we’re going to cover the pros and cons of getting a regional SIM card over just a local one. Having said this, let’s get going!  

Which Orange Holiday SIM Card Do You Need To Get?

We’re going to be talking about the different versions of the Orange Holiday SIM card in just a bit. Just so that you can be sure what you’re buying. Really, we are going to complain to Orange about this naming system because it can get really confusing when 3 different cards are essentially the Orange Holiday SIM card. Each card features coverage in different countries and different credit validity amongst other things. If they explain the names of the cards and what they offer in plain English or your native tongue it’s not that difficult to know which card is the one that you need to get. Why are we complaining then? Well because if you try to buy one of these cards in a language that is not your own in a country that you don’t know you could certainly end up making the wrong purchase.    

With those things in mind, it may be argued that the best thing that you can do is actually order the card online. In doing so you can be certain that you picked the right card for the countries that you’re going to travel to. At the same time you can insert the card from the moment that you land in the new country. That’s going to give you the opportunity to automatically make that call or send a text home to let your loved ones know that you’ve made it safely to the new location. If you have to go out and buy the card at a local store there are just more things that could happen. We’ll leave it at that!  

The Zen Card

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The Orange Holiday Zen Card is actually one of the best options out there, at least when it comes to what Orange offers. It gives users 15GB of data, and unlimited calls and texts. This particular card is meant to be used as a regional SIM card across Europe. With only Germany being a notable exception. You can get coverage though in France, Spain, Italy, and the UK. Along with Belgium, Portugal, The Netherlands, Croatia and other countries. Essentially it’s Germany that you won’t get coverage, and Russia and Ukraine are also currently off the list. The SIM card is going to cost around 30 US dollars coming with all of the features that we previously mentioned. 

If there’s one thing that we didn’t necessarily like about this card was the fact that the credit validity was only 15 days. If you’re only going to be staying in Europe for exactly two weeks you’re going to be fine because the amount of data that you get is enough to be able to last for 15 days and then some. The unlimited calls and texts is another feature that we really liked. What you have to be careful with though is the fact that the card has a French number. So the best coverage that you’ll get will be in France. Coverage speed though may drop off in some of the other countries that you visit.    

Holiday World

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We’ve actually talked about a world eSIM before, and we did mention this particular card. Getting a world SIM card seems like a great idea. You won’t have to worry about ever making a SIM switch no matter where it is that you’re going. There are a couple of things though that maybe, aren’t as they seem. For one the card is 50 dollars, and it’s data only. The amount of data that you get on the card though depends on where you travel. Zone 1, countries which basically covers all of Europe and North America you’ll have 10 GB of that you can spend for a 15-day period. In Zone 2 countries which basically consist of the entire central and South America region, you’ll only be given 5GB. Your data allowance drops off from there in many of the middle eastern countries that make up zone 3 and beyond. 

It may seem like it makes sense to have this card as a backup option, but you’d have to be a person who can sleep in Dubai, and wake up in Madrid just any day of the week for it to make sense to buy this card. Maybe if you’re regularly commuting from Europe to North America it would make sense to have this card. However, you could get more and better coverage having two cards in that scenario one for Europe and one for North America. You’d have to be dealing with the traditional SIM switch, but the price and the coverage seem to be well worth it to keep two cards at least, instead of this one. 

The Europe Version 

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Really the Europe Orange Holiday SIM card is an upgraded version of the Zen card. You get double the data, and you still get the unlimited calls and texts, but remember these are within the EU. Outside of the EU you have 1000 texts. So if you’re someone who really needs to text more, then this may be the better option for you. You’re going to have to pay 20 dollars more for this Europe version than you would for the Zen card. Really when you draw it up the price tag kind of makes it so that the card isn’t such a viable option. It may very well be one of those marketing tactics that want to push you to buy a particular product.  

If the credit validity was 30 days on this card then we may be having a different conversation for sure. The problem though is that at least for the ones that we’ve found on sale the credit validity is the same 14 days that you get with the Zen card. This means that you’re essentially spending almost double for more texts, and more data. Yet in 14 days are you really going to use up 30GB of data? That really depends on your cell phone usage, but for most people spending that amount of data in such a short period of time is not going to happen. For a month of coverage you can get two Zen cards, and almost pay the same as you would for one of the Europe versions.  

Is It A Good Idea To Get Regional SIM Cards Over Local Ones? 

There are pros and cons to this that we could talk over for hours. When you’re using a regular SIM card the problem with getting a new SIM card for every single place that you visit is that you may have to keep track of a new number, and of course make the SIM switch. From there you may have to keep track of the small SIM cards that you have if you return to a country on your trip. The positive thing though about getting a local SIM card for every country that you visit is that you’ll usually have better coverage. The Orange Holiday SIM card options come with French numbers so outside of France your coverage can slow down.  

Of course the good thing about a regional SIM card is that you don’t have to worry about changing your card every single time that you land in a new country. When you’re on a Euro trip or you’re in a place like the Caribbean it can really get tricky to keep track of these changes. The other thing that you can do is use eSIM technology. If you’re using eSIMs it’s just easier to change your coverage depending on the country that you’re in. The main issue with eSIMs is that they are usually a lot more expensive than these regional SIM cards. We warned you that there were a lot of pros and cons that you would have to weigh!  

Data Only or Minutes & Texts?

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We can’t really say that there’s one right answer here. It really comes down to what you’re looking for, and how you typically use your phone. Most people have gone more towards needing data than actual texts and minutes. You can text and call through apps these days, and that’s why for the most part, it’s actually more expensive to find coverage that will grant you large amounts of data. Going back to the Orange Holiday SIM card options regardless of how we feel about each option we do have to recognize that they’re pretty balanced. The European options do offer calls and texts if that’s something that you’re interested in.  

There’s literally an asterisk next to that line where it says that they offer unlimited calls and texts. That’s because they only offer unlimited calls and texts within the EU. If you’re getting one of these cards though there’s a pretty good chance that you’re trying to contact people outside the EU. In any case if you are someone who does a lot of traveling within the EU these cards can be a good option. Although we do have to say that the very short time frame of credit validity is an issue that you would have to contend with. Going back to minutes or data though, the real answer is, get what you need! Only you know what you really need in that department.  

Orange Holiday SIM Card – Conclusion 

The main point that we want to hit home with this article is that there are actually multiple Orange Holiday SIM card options. You want to make sure that you’re buying the one that matches your needs. If you’re taking a trip to a place where you don’t know the language it could be a good idea to get the card online and not have to deal with any issues. Other than that we do believe that across the board these SIM cards are rather good regional options. For the most part you get a good bang for your buck. 

If there’s one thing that kind of worries us is that coverage speeds are going to slow down considerably outside of France or wherever the main number is from. If you get one of these cards in another country in the EU there’s a good chance that they’ll have a Spanish or British number on them. The fact remains though that coverage speeds could drop off outside the main country. Speaking of speeds, the highest coverage speed that you can expect regardless of where you are is 4G. Make sure to take that into consideration.