1GB per Day 3G Mobile Prepay Internet Access in Croatia
We’re in Croatia for few weeks, travelling from Split northwards in our motorhome. We like blogging our way along, and usually pop something up onto the Internet every few days. Or every day when we’re moving fast enough, so we prefer having frequent Internet access. As we’re from the UK, we were using Three’s Feel at Home SIM as we travelled south into Italy, which seems the best multi-country deal currently available in the UK. However, the Three offer only covers a few countries in Europe (as of April 2016), and Croatia isn’t one of them. So we needed another solution. In fact, we needed two.
Solution number 1 is WiFi. The campsites we’ve stayed on to date (free camping is actively discouraged in Croatia and we’ve not dared try it) have thrown in WiFi with the deal. Using a directional booster antenna, we’ve managed with this for the past three weeks. Having spent a couple of decades working in IT, my patience for telecommunications technology is non-existent, and campsite WiFi is, ah, a bit flaky from time to time. That said, you can’t beat WiFi for providing all-you-can-eat data. No worrying about using all your data by tea time, allowing Skype calls and listening to Chris Evans on Internet Radio 2 while sat alongside a foreign beach, sweet.
Solution number 2 is Cellular Internet. For this we have a MiFi which sits in a cupboard, connected all the time to an omnidirectional antenna fixed on the roof, and plugged into the van’s 12V supply (more info here). Using this system, we’ve had decent Internet access almost everywhere we’ve been, no hassle, but limited data depending on the SIM it has in it and the associated deal. To get this working here in Croatia, we’ve nipped to a post office and picked up a Vipme Internet pre-paid SIM, like this:
Vipme Prepay Internet Data SIM in Croatia
The deal with this is:
- It cost us 85 Kuna (£9) for the SIM, pre-loaded with 10 day’s data. Weirdly this gives you 100 Kuna’s credit on the SIM (we didn’t question the lower price…)
- No ID needed, no address, no credit card. We handed over cash, and the post office lass handed over the SIM, all the while speaking perfect English, one of the easiest SIMs we’ve ever bought
- The data is actually ten 24 hour periods, so if we don’t use the SIM for a few days (when we can get decent WiFi), we don’t pay for them
- You get 1GB per 24 hour period. If you hit this limit you can still access the Internet but only at 64Kbps (which is going to feel a bit on the slow side, like the good old modem dial-up days)
- As far as we can tell, we can recharge the SIM online at www.vipnet.hr/internet, but we don’t know yet – we’ll update this page if/when we try it
Croatian Vipme Internet SIM Terms and Conditions
We popped the SIM into our MiFi, connected a laptop to the MiFi admin page on our device), logged in and it prompted us for a PIN. This four digit number is on the plastic card the SIM came in. Popping this in, we waited a minute or two and voilà, we’re on the Internet. The APN is data.vip.hr, but the MiFi picked it up automatically.
MiFi Admin Screen Connected to Croatia Internet using a Vipme SIM
As you can see above, we’re on a 3G network, although the MiFi and antenna are both 4G-capable. The MiFi can see a VIP 4G signal where we are (see below), but refuses to connect to it, so it appears the Vipme SIM is 3G-only. Ah well, it’s easily fast enough for us.
No joy connecting to the HR VIP 4G network, only the 3G network connects.
Please note: we picked this SIM after a brief Internet search while in Italy as it looked easy to get, and easy to use. It may not be the best deal, so if you’ve any better information, please could you share it in the comments section below?
Ta! Jay
That’s a good find (I’ve made a note of it) and seems like a good deal.
Could you tell me how long would 1gb last listening to radio 2 ? Could you listen while driving along if so would it be possible to Bluetooth it to a speaker or the vans head set if that was bluetooth
If so it could be the answer to our listening needs for our France holidays this year
Hi John
Using this calculator:
https://www.internet-radio.com/servers/tools/bandwidth/
10 hours of listening would use (roughly) 0.5GB bandwidth.
Have fun in France.
Cheers! Jay
I find these posts very valuable as we make plans for our future trips. Internet connection is something in our current normal lives we would struggle to live without.
You can read all the product literature, which lets face it makes everything sound wonderful. Posts like this are the real deal and carry far more credibility.
I look forward to updates.
Richard
Great information……we should be in Croatia in a couple of weeks. Thanks!! Leaving Sauvagnac tomorrow for a slow trip across Italy and France.
Safe and enjoyable trip guys. We’re heading north but I reckon we’ll still be in Croatia in a couple of weeks – keep in touch if you fancy a catch up on t’road? Cheers! Jay
Company in france Free.fr 50gb Data per month and Free calls, all inclusive €19 per month, i think 16 Countries it works in ,,, try it out. get the sim sent to france address , You can cancel when you wish.
Good Luck
Thanks Dennis, that looks like the best deal I’ve seen to date, seems to cover 100+ countries. My French is a bit rusty (ahem) so will get a Google Translate to help and work out the details. Thanks again for the info, cheers, Jay
Hmmm, had a look at the Ts and Cs and seems to allow a max of 35 days per year outside France?
“Depuis l’Union Européenne, Etats-Unis, DOM, Canada et Israël 35 jours/an : appels, SMS/MMS illimités par destination & Internet 3Go (décompté du forfait) en 3G”
Too good to be true maybe? Jay
Like yourselves we really need Internet access to update the blog, keep in touch with friends and family and plan routes and trips. Like you, also we’ve got the Motorhome WiFi Omni directional system for picking up WiFi but for 3G we are still using the Europa SIM card with “smart passport” in a MiFi device. This gives us 500gb for €3 on the days we use it, if we exceed that allowance it throttles us down to 32kbs. It’s a Vodafone Italy card and it’s always worked well for us. Unfortunately from 21st June it will only give us 200gb per day which isn’t really enough. I’ve been in touch with the guy from Europa SIM and he says he’s looking at a card from Vodafone Ukraine which may be a better option. The 3 “feel at home” deal is ok but not much good to us as we are out of the U.K. for too long a period. I suspect the EU ruling on data roaming charges is having an unexpected adverse affect for us European, long term travellers.
Thanks Pat. We have a few of the Three SIMs and rotate them, to help avoid fall foul of the time limitations. We had EuropaSIM off in the past, which was a fab deal. Always ‘fun’ getting a decent deal, with any luck the UK will stay in the EU and we’ll benefit from the end of roaming charges, when it finally happens! Cheers, happy travelling, Jay
Hi Jay and Ju, love the blog and it’s finally pushed us over the edge to stop working (4 weeks to go and counting). ID by carphone warehouse have a new product – SIM only or phone ‘takeaway’ deals which allow the full UK data, text and phone allowance to be used across 29 countries. With the biggest data package being 20GB. Most other providers only allow roaming for voice and text with data being charged extra at £3+ a day. Vodafone will allow you to use some of your data allowance but to a max of 4GB roaming in Europe. I don’t claim to be an expert but I have spent far too long trying to find the right answer for us and I think this will work for us and seems to be a market leader – at least until roaming charges are abolished June 2017, assuming we are still in the EU but let’s not get political! Keep up the good work – you cheer us up when skies are grey as they are today in County Durham! Hope you are still enjoying your travels Karen
Thanks Karen – looks like a cracking new offer and I can’t find any mention of limitations for the number of days abroad you can use the SIM (Three’s is officially 60 days a year now I think – although we have 3 of the SIMs to help work around it). ID’s SIM doesn’t cover Norway, but Three’s does, so we’ll probably mix it up. Getting a SIM which just works as you shift between countries is worth a lot – the Virgin SIM we’ve got going here in Poland was a wee bit awkward to buy and activate! Cheers for the info and for following us, and congratulations on your upcoming adventures! Jay
Update: just checked with the expert – Adam at motorhomewifi.com. He’s confirmed the SIM can only be used in a phone (not a dongle or mifi) and can’t be tethered. No-go for us, we’ll keep on hoping for a decent roaming SIM but until then make do with the Three ones, plus local SIMs and WiFi. Thanks again for the info, Jay
Hi Jay we are in Croatia now and using T mobile / Croatian telecom 4G sim. 85 kuna buys unlimited data for 7 days. You can tether to an iPhone. It’s fast 15mbit/sec download. We use our wifi system to link to the iPhone.
Ps: love reading your blogs.
Sounds good Ant, cellular’s getting cheaper and faster all the time, crackin! Cheers, Jay
Hi, I was wondering if you have updated your European travel SIM card advice since a lot of the providers are now charging for data in the EU. Thanks, Brian
Hi Brian – we’ve updated The Motorhome Touring Handbook with our latest thoughts. There are still UK providers who don’t charge to use your data abroad, but they all have an EU roaming data cap. We’ve not been able to find any which offer unlimited data abroad. We’re back to the days of monitoring carefully how much days we use, although there remains the option to get a pay as you go data SIM abroad of we plan to be in a specific country for a few weeks or more. This website confines to have lots of useful information: https://prepaid-data-sim-card.fandom.com/wiki/Prepaid_SIM_with_data. cheers, Jay
Should have added, the best I can find is ASDA Mobile, they have a 25Gb for £15 sim and a fair use policy of 25Gb data in Europe
Sounds like a decent offer Brian, thanks for the info, happy travels, Jay