Plugs and voltage in San Marino, and which adapter to pack

It’s the question that turns up halfway through packing, and the answer is short. You’ll need an adapter, you won’t need a converter, and it pays to pick the right adapter. Here’s which sockets you’ll find in San Marino and the one mismatch that catches people out.

Which plugs does San Marino use?

Three types, C, F and L, exactly as in Italy. That comes from the world plugs guide of the International Electrotechnical Commission (IEC), the body that sets international electrical standards. The IEC has since taken its interactive guide offline, so I’ve checked it in the December 2023 copy kept by the Internet Archive, which matches the older 2020 list. I haven’t found a Sammarinese source that says the same, but for this the IEC is the reference.

Type C is the Europlug, the slim two-pin plug you’ll recognise from almost every European phone charger. Type F is the Schuko, round with earth clips on the sides, standard in Germany and Spain. Type L is the Italian design, three round pins in a row with the earth in the middle. It makes sense that San Marino shares Italy’s sockets, surrounded as it is on every side. AASS, the state utility, explains that power comes in on four 132,000-volt lines to substations at Cailungo and Rovereta before being stepped down for homes and hotels.

What voltage is it?

230V at 50Hz, the same as the UK, according to the same IEC table. That’s the reassuring bit. Your hairdryer, straighteners, laptop and electric toothbrush will all work without a voltage converter. The only thing that doesn’t match is the shape of the pins.

Do you need an adapter from the UK?

Yes, always. The UK uses type G, three rectangular pins with a fuse in the plug, and it doesn’t fit any socket in San Marino. The question is which adapter to buy, and here the detail matters.

The IEC explains that Italy uses what it calls a universal socket, combining a Schuko socket that takes C, E, F and L plugs with a bipasso one that takes only L and C. A slim type C adapter goes into all of them. A chunky Schuko-style adapter, the round one with earth clips, fits the universal socket but not a bipasso on its own. No hotel publishes which sockets it has, so I can’t tell you what you’ll find. My answer is to buy slim type C adapters and not worry about it, unless you’re bringing something that really needs an earth, in which case I’d ask the hotel before booking.

Type L, in case you meet one

The IEC describes two versions of the Italian plug. The 10-amp one has 4mm pins 5.5mm apart, and the 16-amp one has 5mm pins 8mm apart, both with the earth pin in the centre. The smaller one looks like a Europlug with a third pin added, and the larger is for power-hungry appliances. You don’t need to memorise any of that. If you see three holes in a row, your slim type C adapter will go in, because the IEC lists type C among the plugs that socket accepts.

If San Marino is one stop on a longer trip

This is where the slim type C adapter really earns its place. The IEC says the Europlug fits any socket that takes round contacts of 4.0 to 4.8mm on 19mm centres, and that it works with type E, F, J, K and N sockets as well as the Italian ones. In practice that covers France, Germany, Switzerland and most of mainland Europe. So if you’re combining San Marino with Rimini, Bologna or a longer rail trip, one small bag of type C adapters does the whole journey. The European exceptions the IEC names are Ireland, Cyprus and Malta, which use the same type G plug as home.

A couple of things more likely to catch you out

Honestly, the plug is the easy part. The bigger risk to your budget is your phone, because UK networks decide their own roaming terms for San Marino, which I unpick in San Marino roaming for UK phones. For the rest of the practical checklist, whether you can drink from the tap is covered in is tap water safe in San Marino? and passports in San Marino entry requirements.