Europe is where regional plans earn their keep, because a single trip often crosses three or four countries in two weeks.
What a regional plan covers
A Europe plan covers most European Union countries plus some neighbours. Each plan page lists exactly which countries it works in — read that list rather than guessing.
The number in the plan name is the real country count, taken from the coverage list.
Countries people wrongly assume are included
This is where trips go wrong:
- Switzerland is not in the EU. Many Europe plans exclude it. If your itinerary includes Zurich or Interlaken, check carefully.
- The United Kingdom is no longer automatically part of EU plans after Brexit. Some include it, some do not.
- Norway and Iceland vary by plan.
- Turkey is usually not part of a Europe plan.
- Russia is in no European plan.
When a regional plan is cheaper
Quick arithmetic: divide the regional plan price by the number of countries you will actually visit. Compare that with the single-country plans added together.
- One country: a single-country plan almost always wins.
- Two countries: usually about even, depending which ones.
- Three or more: the regional plan wins clearly.
But do not count only money. A regional plan also saves effort: install once, no switching mid-trip, no gap without data while crossing a border.
How much data for Europe
People use more data in Europe than in Asia, for three reasons: more travel between cities means constant map use, frequent train-time lookups, and café wifi in Europe is often slower than in Asia.
- Ordinary sightseeing: 2 GB per day.
- Several cities, lots of maps and timetables: 3 GB per day.
- Working remotely: 5 GB per day or more.
Cross-border trains
On trains between countries, your phone switches networks at the border. That changeover can take a few minutes with no signal. It is normal, not a fault. If you still have nothing after ten minutes, toggle airplane mode once.