Visiting Portugal and looking for cheap prepaid mobile internet data and best mobile eSim? You’ve come to the right place. Whether you’re looking for the best deals on Vodafone Portugal SIM card ( Vodafone Go) or the best deals on MEO Sim Cards, I have all the information for you below. If you missed earlier, here are my two articles on best prepaid internet sim deals in Italy and Germany )
1 What is the best prepaid internet SIM card in Portugal?
You have a choice of three providers in Portugal when it comes to SIM cards- MEO, Vodafone and NOS. On all my trips, I have found MEO to have the best sim card-good speed and good coverage. They have the ‘Connected Holidays’ plan, with 30GB which I’ve covered below. Vodafone is just behind MEO when it comes to coverage and speed but is equally decent. Just like MEO, Vodafone have a brilliant offer of unlimited internet data for tourists under their ‘Vodafone Go’ banner-more details below. I have never used NOS but I’ve heard mixed reports about their service so I would recommend MEO or Vodafone.
2. Can I buy a SIM card at Lisbon or Porto airport?
3. Prepaid mobile internet package with MEO: 30GB for €15
MEO offers an excellent choice of portuguese sim cards for tourists under their long running Connected Holidays plans
A. Enjoy Portugal- 30GB for €15
SIM card costs 14.99 €, also valid for 15 days, and includes 30 GB mobile data.
MEO offers you the chance to top up another whopping 30 GB for another 15 days at 15 € which is a pretty good offer.
More details of the deal can be found here
B. Enjoy Europe- 15 GB for 30 days for €30
If you are planning a trip across Europe and visiting Germany, France, UK, Italy & Spain alongside Portugal, then this is a fantastic offer.
4. Best deal at the moment : eSim Card- Vodafone Unlimited data for €20!
The other alternative is to choose Vodafone Travellers eSim Card package where you get unlimited data for just €20 for 20 days and €35 for 35 days. The other alternative is an eSim package with 25 GB of data, 500 minutes phonecalls and 50 minutes to international numbers. More details are here
5. If your phone locked? Buy an unlocked mifi device
If your phone is locked to a network, I suggest buying an unlocked mifi device. I have a Huawei mifi device that has been great for me, compatible with 4G simcards and currently costs £79.99 at the Amazon store. It lasts upto 6 hours on full charge and you can connect 3 devices to the device.
6. Travel frequently and need data? Get the Skyroam Solis
If you are a frequent traveller and need data whenever you travel, I strongly recommend purchasing the Skyroam Solis– think of it as a mobile wifi device ( which you can share with upto 5 other people travelling with you ) + it also doubles up as a charger thanks to its 6000 MAh battery.
A really cool travel gadget to have and it works in over 100 countries across the world including Germany so it is a pretty neat gadget to have for any global traveller.
You can buy 1 GB of data ( unlimited, 4G speeds) for $9 a month and for extra GB of data, it costs $9.
The device itself costs $149.99 which is major upfront investment and on top of that you just pay for the data you use.
Is that a prepaid option or you have to cancel it afterwards? I’ll visit Portugal for 10 days, staying in various locations and I really need some cheap internet. The prepaid offers I could find are rather awful – 20 EUR gives you 250 MB and similar 🙁
Hi there!
This is a prepaid option so stops working after 30 days period so should be perfect for your 10 day trip. Tell me how it went for you!
Thanks for dropping by.
Best
Kash aka BudgetTraveller 🙂
I’ll be staying in a hostel. Will that be ok as a form of address?
…and do you know if you can tether on this package?
Thanks for the tip-off!
Charlie!
Thanks for dropping by! Should definitely work for you. I think there might be some restrictions. My portuguese is not the best so it’s a question you should ask when you buy- they speak excellent english in Portugal so should be no problems. Tell me how it went- best
Kash aka ‘BudgetTraveller’ 🙂
Thanks! This is very helpful. I should be in Portugal next summer and spent too much time looking for sim card deals this summer. This is going straight into my Evernote Portugal folder.
Josh! Thanks for dropping by.
This promotion is running till 30th September 2013 but hopefully there will be a similar deal running next year. I’ll do a new post with the best mobile internet deals across Europe, later this year 🙂
btw don’t you have to purchase a phone from the list in order to get the promotion?
Not that am aware of…I popped into my mifi device and it’s working fine so far.
Hey! I just stumpled upon this great tip of yours. I’ll be going to the Algarve from september 12th till the 20th, but I’ll be travelling around with a camper, so I don’t really have an address. Do you think I need to just give a random hostel address?
Another question, do they sell nano sim cards? As I am using an iPhone 5 I will be needing one.
Thanks!
Hey. They do have nano sims so should work. Good luck with the deal. I’ve had mixed reports about people getting the deal so fingers crossed.
Hey, I am going to Portugal from 30th sep to 7th oct, is the offer valid only until end of September?
Hi Kris
Have to amend this post-offer doesn’t work at the moment and been a lot of negative feedback…
Thanks for the hint! Unfortunately it does not work any more: I bought the SIM card on the 20th of September and went back to the store when I noticed that it was not activated. It was only then when they told me that TMN’s systems were down for maintenance from the 19th to the 23rd (!) so activation would only work on the 24th…
So I waited patiently but only to learn that the keyword NetVerao is “incorrect” 🙁
So I suppose the company stopped the promotion now…
I am going to amend the post. Heard mixed reports about this offer and had problems myself….thanks for the feedback!
Hey Dan
It never quite worked for me to be honest so best I take down this post…TMN have been a massive disappointment for me personally…
Sorry. Hope to have better advice for your next trip…
In defence of TMN’s honor I have to tell the world that it did work after all! We arrived yesterday in Coimbra in one of those rare hotels that want to charge you extra for Internet usage so I decided to try once more and it worked fine (today for the second day). Signal quality and speed is excellent. It might be that that “incorrect” message was because the keyword had been used before or that activation takes longer than expected. BTW, I’m using a portable router from TP-Link (TL-MR3020) to make the signal available to all gadgets (iPad, smartphones).
Hi,
It’s 2014. Can I still buy this magical simcard when in Portugal?
Thanks,
Oded.
I need to update the article. The best offer you can get now is 2GB prepaid internet only data simcard for €15 at Vodafone shop.
Hope this helps 🙂
Hey, im going to come to lisbon after one month and I really need internet, how can I buy this one?
Hi there
I recommend actually now visiting Vodafone who offer 2 GB of data for €15. Valid for 30 days. I will have to update the article asap
Great post – shame the offer is over (or is it?) 🙂
I am thinking about going over to Portugal for 6-7 months soon and am concerned about getting a good Internet connection (I will need it to make lots of Skype calls for work). I don’t really want to be locked into a 12 month broadband contract (or worse 24 months) and then have to leave having paid for 5-6 months (or more) that I will not use. I was considering the option of tethering from my unlocked 4G tablet with a (prepaid) mobile plan. Any thoughts?
Madeira also looks appealing, but the only option I was offered when I inquired was a broadband Internet connection on a 24 month contract with no cancel option, just a reduced fee for the remaining 1.6 years if I left after 6 months!
Keep up the good work Budget Traveller. You are a man after my own heart!
Hey Bob
Thanks for the kind words! I think the best deal you can get at moment is with Vodafone. They are offering 2GB of mobile internet for €15. Valid for 30 days. Hope this information helps. I am going to pop into my local Vodafone store to get the latest info and update this article.
Hi – I am going to be in the Algarve for three weeks and want to use my ipad to log into emails. Can I get a a pay as you go sim that will allow me cheap access when I am there? Is Vodaphone the best place to go for this? (apologies – I am not very technical on such things!!)
Hi Kimberley
Vodafone is the best deal at the moment- they are offering 2GB of mobile internet for €15 ( think they charge an extra €7-€10 for the simcard ) I will be updating the post soon so please pop back or subscribe to my monthly newsletter
You can now buy at http://www.portugalinternet.com a low cost data SIM card for 3, 8 or 31 days or rent a wifi / mifi hotspot, all with unlimited traffic.
Their offer is crazy now – 15 Euros for 30 GB. I wonder what is the quality of connection!!!
Really good. Using it now 🙂