Mobile phones in Croatia are very common and popular – you’ll often see locals with a mobile glued to their ear – their beloved “mobitel” (as they’re called in Croatian).
Read on for more details of mobile phone usage in Croatia, what you can do to save money when using your phone in the country, and details of telephone usage.
Mobile Phones in Croatia
The three mobile phone networks in Croatia are Hrvatski Telecom, A1 and Telemach. If you are bringing your handset from home, you will find it will automatically hook up to one of these networks.
You also come across Tomato and BonBon, although both of these are owned by one of the main mobile companies, and are not really separate networks in their own right.
Mobile Phone Charges in Croatia
On the 15th June 2017, EU mobile roaming charges were scrapped meaning any calls you make, texts you send and data you use come out of your normal monthly allowance – just as if you were at home. (Assuming ‘home’ is another EU country!)
Some travel advice websites have said that mobile phone operators may still enforce some kind of fair use policy on data for heavy users – so just keep this in mind before you start downloading movies on your smartphone while lying on the beach. Instagramming your holiday should be fine, however…
For travellers arriving from outside the EU – such as travellers from the UK – you would need to check with your home mobile provider as to what charges in the EU will be. They may be able to provide you with a temporary ‘travel’ package for your plan for an additional fee. In our experience, this is best purchased before you travel.
If you think you’ll be using your mobile phone a reasonable amount to either make phone calls within Croatia or text and call home, as well as using data, you should consider purchasing a pre-paid SIM card. You can buy SIMs at some newspaper kiosks and other stores/mobile phone stores, but there are also details of temporary SIMs from the mobile networks:
You may need to call your home mobile phone operator before travelling to make sure that roaming is enabled. Alternatively, you may want to switch off data roaming if you have a smartphone (if your home country is outside of the EU), so you don’t rack up crazy data charges.
Do also take a look at some additional advice on mobile phone data usage (and how to save on using it) on our Internet in Croatia page.
Telephones in Croatia
Should you wish to go ‘old school’, public telephones or payphones appear pretty much everywhere. Buy a telephone card from a newspaper kiosk for easy use – these come in various denominations.
The country access code for calling Croatia is +385.
