Cell phone rental options in Germany and Switzerland
Apr 13, 2006, 5:58 am
#1
Original Poster
Join Date: Oct 2000
Location: From and of Boston.
Posts: 4,973
Cell phone rental options in Germany and Switzerland
A friend's family is heading over to travel in Switzerland and Germany for a few weeks, and they'd like to rent cell phones. 2 adults and 2 teenage kids are going; they'll probably want to have 2 or 3 phones, and they'd be using the phones both to contact each other during the day and to call people elsewhere in CH and DE.
They'll be arriving in Zurich. What are the better options that they'll have for renting phones, either at ZRH or a reasonably convenient location in the city?
They'll be arriving in Zurich. What are the better options that they'll have for renting phones, either at ZRH or a reasonably convenient location in the city?
Apr 14, 2006, 6:06 am
#2
Join Date: Aug 2000
Location: ZRH / YUL
Programs: UA, TK, Starwood > Marriott, Hilton, Accor
Posts: 7,355
Their best and cheapest bet might be to just buy a few pre-pay phones. Swiss network operator sunrise has a store at ZRH airport and sells packages from CHF80 or so. These include a cell phone with basic functionality, a local SIM card and approx. CHF20 call credit. Additional credit can be added using scratch cards that come in CHF30, CHF50 or CHF100 denomination. The credit can also be topped up via credit card. The phones work internationally and your credit remains valid as long as you use your phone at least once every 12 months. So when the trip is over, as long as they send a text message from the US once per year, their accounts remain active.
Apr 14, 2006, 2:53 pm
#4
Join Date: Dec 2004
Location: JUB
Programs: UA, NW
Posts: 166
Most European airports have some sort of cell phone rental kiosk in the arrivals area. I haven't tried them, but some colleagues have (in Germany) and reported that it wasn't very pricey and they worked fine.