Wi-fi Dongle recommendations

Hardware
,
1

We’re going on holiday in a couple of weeks to a country not supported on our mobile plan.

We’re planning to get a dongle so the family can all connect to one device for internet while we are away (most just navigation and translation) rather than getting a SIM card each.

It feels like a good idea in principle, but are there any drawbacks to this compared to getting SIM cards in each of our phones (and losing our number temporarily). Note we already have a UK SIM card installed and an e-sim from Australia, and we need both active most of the time for family reasons.

If a dongle wouldn’t be a complete disaster, are there any drawbacks to cheaper dongles for short-term occasional use?

2

Do you plan for your family to stay together 100% of the time and never split up?

If you go with the concept of sharing one Internet source, then you lose the option of texting one another if someone gets lost or if one of you breaks away from the rest and then wants to rejoin.

3

Yeah we’ll be together the whole time. We’ll still have SMS if we get split up.

4

Do you mean a MiFi / Local WiFi Hotspot with a SIM card in it?

Could you just hotspot from one of the phones? Do you have an old iPhone hanging about? It could save you spending some money on dedicated hardware.

If you all got temporary sims and are on iPhones, your Numbers would still work with (i)Messages, just not for phone calls.

5

In 2019 we went to Iceland and the car rental agency offered WiFi hotspots. that might be an option to consider.