eSIMs: The Easy Way to Stay Connected When You Travel

Without doubt, the single greatest tool to emerge for travelers in the last few decades is the smartphone. Today, we hold incredible power in the palms of our hands. We can navigate foreign cities, store boarding passes and tickets, search for local sites, book travel and hotels, take pictures and videos, and do so much more… all from one portable device.

However, to take full advantage of your phone, you need to have a data connection.

When traveling, this used to mean you had three options: use your phone only in WiFi hotspots; pay high roaming fees to your home-based carrier; or swap out your SIM card for a local SIM.

For years, the latter was the best option. Most countries have kiosks in their airports that sell local SIM cards and calling plans, and usually at affordable rates. The downside is that swapping out the SIM card can be a hassle. It can be fiddly trying to open the SIM holder on your phone… and you have to make sure you don’t lose your original SIM.

Fortunately, now there is a better option. Most newer phones (iPhone 11 and up, Samsung Galaxy Z Fold and up) come equipped with eSIM capability. The “e” stands for “embedded”; inside your phone is a chip that can be programmed remotely. This means you can add a data plan for a foreign country or region simply by pointing your phone at a QR code and following the prompts.

Best of all, you can do this before you leave your home country. Simply go to your phone’s properties screen and select the new data plan, and you are all set. If you’re already an expat, eSIMs can still be very useful. They mean you won’t need to maintain a cellular account in your native country to use when visiting family and friends. Just purchase a data package for your adopted home country or region for the length of your stay, and you are ready to go as soon as your plane touches down.

Is My Phone eSIM Compatible?

There are some caveats, of course. First, your phone must be eSIM capable. An easy way to check is to go to your phone screen and dial ^∗#06#. You will get a screen with data about your phone. If the first line says “EID Number,” then your phone can handle it.

Second, your phone must be “unlocked.” This means you are not tied to a particular cellular provider or network. A simple test is to borrow a friend’s SIM from a different carrier and swap it out. If your phone doesn’t work with the alien SIM, you can call your cell provider and ask them to unlock your phone. Otherwise, you can only use eSIMs from that provider, which are probably not available overseas.

Lastly, keep in mind this does NOT give you a foreign phone number; the plans offer you access to the cellular network for data only. You can, however, still text and use popular apps like WhatsApp and Messenger to make calls or message. Email, your browser, Google Maps, and so on will of course work just fine.

You can order eSIMs online from a number of vendors. Most offer plans for whole regions, like Europe or Latin America, as well as individual countries. If your travel plans include multiple areas not covered by one plan, don’t worry… your phone can hold several eSIMs at the same time (the iPhone can currently support up to 14 eSIMs).

Some of the more popular providers are Holafly, Airalo, Nomad, and Airhub.

Read the data plans offered carefully. There is a lot of variation depending on coverage areas, the amount of data you need, and length of the term. For example, Nomad offers a 20GB package that is good for 30 days in 30 European countries for $35. If your data needs are less or your stay is shorter, you can go as low as 1GB for seven days for $7. Most plans also allow you to “top up” or add more data if you run low.

How Much Data Do I Need?

How much data you need can be a tricky thing to judge. Mostly, it depends on how you’re using your phone. Let’s look at how much data per hour some typical apps use.

The average North American uses about 11.1 gigabytes (GB) per month (2.8GB per week) according to industry experts. But your usage while abroad will be different from your usage at home. You will spend a lot less time perhaps listening to music or watching videos, and more time using navigation apps and your browser.

Google Maps uses only about five megabytes (MB) per hour of use. That means you could use it for 200 hours with 1GB. Typically, of course, you would only use it for a few minutes at a time.

Web browsing will eat data at about 60MB an hour, and Facebook uses 80MB an hour. Watch out for apps you may use often at home—YouTube jumps up to 300MB an hour, Instagram 720MB, and TikTok gobbles up to 840MB for every hour used!

Your best bet is to only use the big data hogs when you are in WiFi spots and are bypassing your data plan. In other words, wait until you are back in your hotel before you post those pictures on Facebook and Instagram.

Generally speaking, most users could get by with a 10GB or 15GB 30-day plan, and as little as 3GB for a one- to two-week trip overseas.