iPad in Europe without EuroSIM - Great!

[Scott6666]

I'm travelling in England and France with my iPad and it has been a great companion. I haven't bothered to try to get a euro 3G sim which I understand is not possible in France anyway but it hasn't been much of a big deal.

Maps seems to cache a fair amount and the GPS positioning works without a euro-sim. I load up the maps with the hotel wifi the night before by scrolling and zooming to the places I'm going and they are still there when we're on the road. The gps tracks us as we go along so we never get lost.

I also load up a wikipedia reader with the next days sights and we have a built in tour guide.

Buy the Apple international charger and don't worry about the rest...

 

[leons]

Isn't the regular charger "international", only needing a location specific plug adaptor?

 

[emuyshondt]

You might already know this, but for others reading, make sure you turn off data roaming. You might be surprised if you get away from the WiFi site and somehow it decides to use the data connection to download what it needs! At almost $0.02/kB (over $20/MB), data is outrageously expensive when roaming outside the US. I have Navigon for navigating in Europe. It works great and doesn't need to download maps.

 

[Scott6666]

Isn't the regular charger "international", only needing a location specific plug adaptor?

Yes that's true. The international kit does give you an extra charger for later which for me justified the purchase. I thought it would just be adaptor plugs but you get a charger as well.

 

[Scott6666]

You might already know this, but for others reading, make sure you turn off data roaming. You might be surprised if you get away from the WiFi site and somehow it decides to use the data connection to download what it needs! At almost $0.02/kB (over $20/MB), data is outrageously expensive when roaming outside the US. I have Navigon for navigating in Europe. It works great and doesn't need to download maps.

I turned off celullar completely just to be sure - and maybe save power.

 

[leons]

For a test, I just tried my Navigon program (in the US) with airplane mode on. It couldn't get a GPS lock to do directions. So other programs are better at this?

 

[Zcott]

FYI, it is possible to get a 3G MicroSIM in France; just pop into an Orange shop.

 

[poloponies]

FYI, it is possible to get a 3G MicroSIM in France; just pop into an Orange shop.

Having just done a quick 6-country tour it's all "easier said than done." Even in Austria where they've officially released the iPad it's still a bit of a challenge. Other non-iPad countries can do it but it's still about 6 months away from straightforward. I'm hoping the next time I visit it will be more seamless.

 

[emuyshondt]

For a test, I just tried my Navigon program (in the US) with airplane mode on. It couldn't get a GPS lock to do directions. So other programs are better at this?

Airplane mode turns off the GPS and all other radios. You should just turn off data roaming, not put the iPad in airplane mode.