Visiting Italy and flying to Venice and wondering what is the best way to stay connected? This is your complete guide for buying a prepaid sim card for Italy. Don get stuck with high roaming charges or slow overseas data plans. I will show you where to buy a sim card, give you up to date prices as per July 2022, my recommendations and experiences and even you can even find info about international and e-sim cards for Italy
Buying a sim card for Italy is the best way to avoid high roaming charges. Buying a prepaid sim card is the first thing I do when arriving to a new country. Although I learned that sim cards at airports are often overpriced, especially in Europe. Because I am also on a quest to travel to every country in the world you can already find more than 150 prepaid sim card guides on Traveltomtom from all over the world: Copenhagen, Lisbon, Ireland, Milan, Rome, London Heathrow, Paris, Barcelona, etc. But also from outside of Europe: Malaysia, Vietnam, South Africa, Cameroon, USA, New York, Colombia, Panama and many more.
So next time you are planning your next adventure abroad come check out Traveltomtom for the latest prepaid sim card advice for your destination. Bookmark this website!
RELATED: Buying a Sim Card in Italy in 2022!
My recommendation
Traveltomtom recommends to NOT buy a sim card at Venice Airport. The tourist sim card deals are some of the worst sim card offers I have ever seen, basically a tourist trap. Wait till you get to Venice and hop into a TIM store. They have the great Italy sim card deals for tourists: €20 can get you 40 GB!
The easiest way to stay connected when traveling in 2022 is an e-sim card for Italy. No need to swap physical sim cards anymore. Scroll down for more info or one directly in the link above. Another way of not swapping physical sim cards is a so called portable WiFi device, but I am personally not much of a fan! Too old skool.
Another great alternative though is a travel sim card with global coverage. Although slightly more expensive they have a lot of advantages. Check out my comparison of the best international sim cards for traveling in 2022.
E-sim cards for Italy (cheapest)
If buying a sim card at Venice Airport is too much hassle then an e-sim card might be the solution. In short: you order an e-sim card online, receive a code, you enter this code on your mobile and you will get access to a network provider in Italy. It can be done from anywhere in the world. No more physically sim cards. Check out the following Italy e-sim card deals:
- 1 GB data for 7 days = $4.5 USD
- 3 GB data for 30 days = $7 USD
- 5 GB data for 30 days = $10.5 USD
- 10 GB data for 30 days = $16 USD
You can order one of the above e-sim cards for Italy directly online or find more info about it. With an e-sim card you keep your own phone number from home.
You can also consider buying a physical sim card and order an Italy sim card through the Simoptions website? Click on the link to find out more about the Orange sim card with 20GB data and 200 international minutes or click on the banner below and get it shipped to your home.
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Venice Airport Marco Polo - VCE
Marco Polo Airport is a relatively small airport and there is only one Arrival Hall. When walking through baggage check you can either go left around or right around but you will end up in the same Arrival Hall. The small airport made it easy for me to find out everything about buying a sim card at Venice Airport.
Where to buy an Italy sim card at Venice Airport
I did my best for you to find all the shops where they sold Italy sim cards for tourists, but there literally is only ONE place where they sell them! When you walk out into the arrival hall and you choose to take the left exit you literally walk straight into the shop. See the photo above!
You can’t miss it either as there are huge Italy sim cards signs and the red Vodafone logo. It is also right next to where they sell public transportation tickets to go from Marco Polo Airport to Venice. More tips about that later.
Prices Italy sim cards Venice Airport
For my research finding the best Italy sim card at Venice Airport I did not really need to search long. I asked the lady which prepaid sim cards for Italy she was selling and she showed me the following.
Vodafone Italy sim cards
Price: €45 - valid 30 days
- Free Chat Apps (Whatsapp, Messenger, Viber)
- Free Google Maps, Facebook, Instagram, Snapchat, Facetime.
- 500 minutes local calls
- 300 minutes international calls
- 18 GB data
- EU data limited till 3.6GB
Price: €50 - valid 30 days
- 500 minutes local calls
- 300 minutes international calls
- 28 GB data
- EU data limited till 3.7 GB
Both Vodafone Italy sim cards are kind of similar. Which one is better depends on how much you use the apps that are free. YouTube is NOT one of the free apps for the record.
Sadly enough though they charge a €20 service fee for activating the sim card. I call that: A TOURIST TRAP. Don't get ripped off, this is ridiculous!
Tutto Communications
When I was doing my research for buying a sim card at Milan Airport I stumbled upon Tutto Communications for the first time. In that article I named everyone who would buy a sim card from them stupid! I don’t want to be rude but why the hell in the world would you buy a sim card with only 3 GB data for €69? At the same shop they sell the above Vodafone Italy sim cards with almost 10 times as much data and those are even cheaper!
I know the girl working is just a messenger, but when I asked her about it she came up with a lie to make Tutto Communications more attractive to buy! She said that the packages from Tutto Communication, which btw are sim cards from WindTre Italy are activated immediately and that the Vodafone Italy sim cards take 1 hour to be activated!
THAT IS A FREAKING LIE!!!! If you fall for this then you got scammed straight upon arrival into Venice. Please do not believe this! Vodafone sim cards are activated on the spot as well!
The reason why I write these sim card for tourists articles is that I want people to not waste money while traveling the world. This way you are able to travel more . As a professional travel blogger I aspire to inspire people to travel the world and show them that traveling does NOT have to be expensive! Click on the link to read how I travel the world continuously since 2012.
Best Italy sim card Venice Airport
Of course the WindTre Italy sim cards from Tutto Communications are a NO-GO! Please don't even think about it...
The Vodafone Italy sim cards sold at Venice Airport are a very bad deal either, especially if you know what they sell in officials Vodafone stores in Venice and around Italy.
My conclusion: do NOT buy an Italy sim card at Venice Airport! SCAM ALERT!
So where to buy a sim card in Venice?
Wait till you get to Venice city center! All the mobile internet providers in Italy have phone shops in Venice city center: TIM, Vodafone, WindTre and Iliad. Their stores are centrally located close to Grand Canal.
Click here for the up to date prices for Italy sim card in 2022 and I tell you exactly which is the best for tourists. What about 50 GB data on a 5G network for just €30? :)
Order a sim card for Italy online
Don't forget to you can save all this hassle by simply ordering a sim card for Italy online and there are many great options available. Simple, easy and convenient! Check out the below European sim card deals that of course also work perfectly for Italy.
1. Orange Holiday ZEN - $29.90
- 8 GB data
- Unlimited calls/sms in Europe
- 30 minutes worldwide
- 200 sms worldwide
- Valid 14 days
2. Three PAYG AIO15 - $29.90
- 5 GB data
- Unlimited calls/sms in Europe
- Valid 30 days
3. Three PAYG AIO20 - $39.90
- 12 GB data
- Unlimited calls/sms in Europe
- Valid 30 days
4. Orange Holiday Europe - $49.90
- 20 GB data
- Unlimited calls/sms in Europe
- 120 minutes worldwide
- 1,000 sms worldwide
- Valid 14 days
Click here to directly order one of the above prepaid sim card deals for Italy.
These international sim cards will be send to your home address and are pre-activated. Personally I would recommend the last two sim cards for Europe: Three and Orange. Also another reminder that e-sim cards for traveling to Italy are another great option! Check the link for the latest deals.
Italy sim cards and traveling in Europe
Italy sim cards are actually great deals for traveling in Europe. But you have to be careful, some providers have limited their big data bundles outside of Italy. Always ask your provider if free EU roaming is included before buying a sim card in Italy.
Sim cards in Germany, Netherlands, Spain and France have NO LIMITS on EU data roaming, but are those great sim cards for traveling in Europe? Check out the link for a list of the best Europe sim cards in 2022!
Click here for a complete guide for buying a local sim card in Europe with a breakdown of the best tourist sim card per country.
How to get from Venice Airport to Venice
There are two ways to get to Venice from Marco Polo Airport. As you might know there are no cars in Venice and the only mode of transport is either a boat or on foot. From Venice Airport there is a direct boat to the city and vice versa but I would recommend you to take a bus. Busses run much more frequent and take only like 15 minutes or so. A one-way ticket costs €8. You can then walk to your hotel or take a water taxi. Water taxis are €7,50 one-way or you can buy a (multi) day pass.
I hope all the above tips for buying an Italy sim card at Venice Airport were helpful. Let me know if you have any additional questions and I am happy to help wherever I can, please leave me a comment below.
Visiting Venice is amazing and I have been a couple times myself, but the world is so big and so fantastic! As of July 2022 I have visited more than 135 countries and I keep on going. Check out my Instagram profile @traveltomtom or read my travel stories about visiting every country in the world.
Enjoy your trip to Venice!
