Internet dongle (!?) for travel abroad

[user1471553350]

Hello
Could anyone talk me through what I need to buy in order to have Internet on an iPad when abroad (remote Greek island)
my youngest son and I are going away on a special holiday with the money my eldest son left us following his death last year. I am an absolute dunce at all this stuff and would really appreciate some clear,kind advice to help me know what I need to buy so we can use the iPad when away. no broadband where we are staying. Thanks so much.

Do you have a mobile phone? If so, you should be able to use that as a hotspot and connect your iPad to that.

Otherwise you're looking for something like this https://ee.co.uk/mobile/4gee-wifi-pay-as-you-go but you'll need to buy an add-on for data roaming, or there some other options like an eSIM (if you do have a mobile phone). Some info here: https://www.moneysavingexpert.com/mobiles/cheap-roaming-calls/#notonthree

I'm very sorry for your loss. Hope you and your DS have a lovely holiday.

You can do this through your phone

Speak to your network provider, perhaps pop into a branch if they are EE. You’d be able to buy this through your network’s app but I imagine you might need a bit more support based on what you have written.

You will buy a big data pack, probably be about 20 quid for a 100gb which should be sufficient. Explain you only need it for a month and don’t need an upsell for a bigger package each month.

The data is then on your phone which acts as the WiFi router, and you just turn on your ‘Personal Hotspot’ and your son joins like it’s a WiFi network.

What network and data plan is your phone on? My O2 package has unlimited data and that includes roaming so I don’t need to do anything when I am in Europe, yours may have the same.

Honestly, thank you so much for all this info, I really appreciate it 🙂 I hate feeling so inept !!

As per user name I am currently using an ESim for travel in Asia - might this work for you?

it has been brilliant for us in Singapore and Vietnam - £30 for 12 days unlimited data and it’s just a download rather than a physical accessory.

it means you don’t need wifi as it just connects to whatever works best in the area. Plenty of companies offer them - I’m using Holafly and very pleased with it. Will definitely use again.

Yeah it's not unlimited abroad. 02 stipulate a fair use cap of 25 gB when roaming in the EU so go over that and you will be charged. It's a fair amount but not unlimited.

You can test quite a lot of this out already before you leave. Find out how to set up your phone as a WiFi hotspot and connect the tablet to it while you are still on your UK data plan. Then when you arrive on holiday you can just add the local SIM card to your phone, activate the data on that, and then you've already done the rest of the drill.

Also be careful if your remote Greek island is close to Turkey (say within 10km). Back when free EU roaming was a thing, I left my data and hotspot switched on overnight in Rhodes. During the night the phone changed its roaming destination from Greece to Turkey (outside the EU) and my tablet, which was hotspotted to it, downloaded a ton of updates. The bill was eye-watering.