Madrid Travel Forum

What is the electricity requirement for US laptop and cell phone in Madrid? Do I need an adopter and transformer to recharge them? Also, where can I buy cell phone sim cards?

Most laptops and phones will work anywhere - just look on the power unit for each one and it should the operating voltage of 110-250 volts (or very close to that). The only issue is that whereas the US sockets are flat pins, those in Spain and for most of mainland Europe are round pin - you only need an adaptor plug, not a transfromer.

Regards

John

you can buy a sim card, but thats almost as expensive as buying a cell phone with its own sim card. you can get a cell phone with spanish number and prepaid card for 40-50€, or almost for free with a contract.
you can get either at movistar, vodafone or orange shops (those are mobile phone companies). The Phone House are shops where they sell products of all the three companies. You can also buy prepaid phones in big stores (El corte inglés, Carrefour, Fnac, etc...) although im not sure whether they also have sim cards alone.
as for the plugs, the message above is right. you only need an adaptor.
good luck!

Thank you John & Jezzable, your information is very helpful.