Tips on mobile phones travelling overseas: Which SIM cards are the best to use in the UAE

We are a family of four travelling to the UAE (including Oman) and India. we would like to have two phones with SIM cards to be able to communicate with each other and our tour guides and hotels. Which SIM cards would you recommend and is there one that covers all these regions?

J. JANE, MAITLAND

There are several prepaid SIM cards that give you virtually worldwide coverage such as go-sim (gosim.com), travel sim (travelsim.com) and world sim (worldsim.com).

Provided your phones are unlocked, any one of these will do the job.

Depending on your Australian service provider, another option is to buy a travel package that will give you phone and some data coverage in all the places you'll be visiting.

These travel plans are charged on a per-day basis and the rate is fairly reasonable.

You can find out more by visiting your telco's homepage.

There is also a third option that costs less and which might work for you.

Even with your regular SIM card installed in your phones, as long as your phones are activated for use overseas you should be able to connect with a local network and message one another and anyone else you need to contact.

The rate you'll be charged is usually just 50 cents to send a message, free for the receiver, which makes this a cost effective way to stay in touch.

Don't forget to turn off data services on your phones, the cost for global roaming is one of the all-time travel rip-offs.

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