Prepaid SIM card in Portugal: calling and surfing abroad

Many campers escape from winter and spend the cold months in beautiful Portugal. Due to the proximity to Africa, this country is perfect for it! And not only the warmth during the winter months and the impressive landscape are incentives to spend some time in Portugal. Especially for online working people there is a huge advantage here: mobile internet.

Lots of data volume at very moderate prices. Even for a shorter stay, it can be worthwhile to buy a Portuguese prepaid card, because some of the offers are extremely inexpensive and provide large data volumes. To help you find the right provider and rate for you, I’ve picked out a few options for you. Let’s go!

Portuguese prepaid SIM cards at a glance

There are three major mobile operators in Portugal: Vodafone, MEO and NOS. All three providers have interesting offers up their sleeves. I don’t speak Portuguese, but I found almost all the important details about the best deals and compiled them in this article.

NOS

I’ll start with an interesting offer, the Kanguru Livre XL prepaid plan from the provider NOS. The starter package costs 15,00 €. This package includes the SIM card and a real internet flat rate for 8 days.

Kanguru Livre XL 1 Semana

• Price: 15,00 €
• Tariff duration: 8 days
• Included data volume: unlimited
• Calls/ SMS: not available

Kanguru Livre XL 1 Mês

• Price: 40,00 €
• Tariff duration: 30 days
• Included data volume: unlimited
• Calls/ SMS: not available

The prepaid SIM card is available in NOS stores, which are to be found in every major city. If you know Portuguese, you can get all the information about the tariff on the NOS website.

Disadvantage of NOS

In my opinion, the biggest shortcoming is NOS’s Internet presence. This one is anything but tourist friendly and almost pushed me to my limits when researching it. Furthermore, the “Kanguru Livre XL” tariff is a data-only tariff. This means that neither calls nor SMS are included in the tariff. If you need to make phone calls or send SMS during your stay in Portugal, there is another provider with a suitable offer. And this is what I am coming to now:

Vodafone

Global mobile operator Vodafone has a tariff tailored to all visitors to Portugal. The tariff is listed under the name Travellers. It doesn’t offer too much data volume, so it’s not necessarily suitable for frequent surfers and long-term travelers, but it does have some inclusive minutes and free SMS, unlike most other Portuguese plans.

For €24.99 you get, for the period of 30 days, 10 GB of data volume, 500 free minutes for domestic calls and calls made within the EEA (European Economic Area) and 30 international free minutes / free SMS. A list of EEA member countries can be found here.

Travellers

• Price: 24,99 €
• Tariff duration: 30 days
• Included data volume: 10 GB
• Calls/ SMS: 530
• EU roaming: in the EEA
• eSIM: available

More detailed information can be found in English, here.

Vodafone also offers a data-only rate. This is called Vodafone GO Total and has the following conditions:

Vodafone GO Total

• Price: 34,99 €
• Tariff duration: 30 days
• Included data volume: unlimited
• EU roaming: not available
• eSIM: available

You can extend the Vodafone GO tariff as required after the 30 days if you are staying longer. These prices are valid in case of extension:

• 5 days: 10 €
• 10 days: 15 €
• 15 days: 20 €
• 20 days: 30 €

MEO

Lastly, I take a closer look at the provider MEO. This is a subsidiary of Altice Portugal. This is one of the largest mobile providers in Portugal and thus has a very well-developed network.

MEO has the Internet Móvel Enjoy tariff on offer. Once again, a data-only rate with no inclusive minutes or free SMS. This costs 15 € including the SIM card for the period of 8 days.

Internet Móvel Enjoy

• Price: 15 €
• Tariff duration: 8 days
• Included data volume: unlimited
• EU roaming: not available

These options also exist:

• 3 days: 10 €
• 15 days: 20 €
• 22 days: 30 €
• 30 days: 40 €

General information about prepaid SIM cards in Portugal

The loading of your credit is regulated relatively uniformly in Portugal. For all three providers you can get credit cards either in the stores of the providers directly or in the so-called Payshops. You can find them in many gas stations, kiosks and supermarkets.

Furthermore, you can top up your credit at local post offices, just like in the Payshop. To do this, simply enter your mobile number and select the amount you want to be credited to your SIM card. After that, all you have to do is book your desired rate and that’s it. Personally, I like to get help in the store, since booking is often only possible in the local language.

Buy a prepaid SIM card in Portugal

There is no SIM registration requirement in Portugal. This means that you don’t have to provide your details or show your ID or passport either when you buy or afterwards. Simply go into the store, choose your SIM card or rate plan, put your money on the counter, and you’re done.

The network coverage

I’m sorry to disappoint you here. Not because the network coverage is poor with all providers, but because I couldn ‘t find any official information. It may be that, assuming you speak Portuguese, you can find out what data speeds are available. However, it was unfortunately only possible for me to determine whether LTE is available or not. The upload speeds kept themselves hidden.

As a result, I naturally investigated unofficial sources. According to this, network coverage is good to very good at all three providers. There are hardly any network problems, especially with MEO and Vodafone. NEO seems to be a very popular provider among YouTube and Netflix fans. In the evening, there are occasionally strong fluctuations in the Internet connection. Apart from that, however, they only speak well of the provider and the tariff. But of course there is no guarantee for this info, because it is not verified.

For a rough overview, you can look at the network coverage map at nPerf. However, this is not official information, but data collected from app user tests.

Conclusion

In this case, it is really not easy for me to draw a conclusion. Because the offers that are available in Portugal are really not bad and are also very close in price.

Personally, I would go back to my German Aldi Talk SIM with a combo rate, since the price is very similar and I can also use my voice and SMS flat rate in Portugal thanks to the 2017 EU roaming regulation.

So I wouldn’t be tied to free minutes and free SMS, but can make calls as much and as long as I want. However, since you can now also communicate wonderfully via Whatsapp and the like, and I personally rely on quite a lot of data volume on a permanent basis, a pure data plan is sufficient for me.

I hope I could help you a little bit with your decision and wish you a great stay in sunny Portugal and a good trip.

More information

The Netgear Nighthawk M1 is particularly recommended as a WLAN router, and there is also a more detailed article on it: Internet in the camper: Netgear Nighthawk M1 in long-term test

Those who do not necessarily care about the speed can also reach for these much cheaper devices:

Everything you need to know about mobile communications and the Internet while traveling can be found in the following articles:

• Internet in the motorhome and caravan – the guidebook
• Strengthen WLAN on the campsite
• Internet reception while camping – these routers ensure a stable connection while traveling
• Podcast: Internet on the move

Status (September 2023), as prices and conditions are constantly changing, we do not guarantee that the offers are still available.

Cover image (montage): © CamperStyle
Flag: © daboost – depositphotos.com
SIM cards: © serezniy – depositphotos.com

Letzte Aktualisierung der Preise am 2025-09-12 / Affiliate Links / Bilder von der Amazon Product Advertising API