Gear

The eSIM I Actually Use in Every Country Now

I used to land in a new country and walk straight to the kiosk in the arrivals hall. SIM card, cash, ten minutes of broken English with someone who’d done it a thousand times that day. It was fine. It also meant I’d be without internet for the first hour or two — through immigration, bag claim, and the cab ride into town. The hour I most needed a map.

Then eSIMs got good. And now I don’t go to the kiosk anymore.

This isn’t a sponsored post. I’ve tried six or seven eSIM providers over the last two years — I’ll name them at the bottom — and one of them has quietly become the default. That one is Airalo.

What I actually use

For most trips under two weeks, I buy a regional plan before I land:

• Asia — Asialink, 5GB / 30 days, ~$18
• Europe — Eurolink, 5GB / 30 days, ~$20
• Latin America — Cambiar, 5GB / 30 days, ~$22

The regional plans cover most of where I go. When they don’t, the country-specific plans are usually cheaper than the regional one anyway. Vietnam’s local plan was $5 for 3GB. Portugal’s was $4.50.

The way it works is boring, which is the highest compliment I can give a piece of travel infrastructure. Buy the plan in the app on the plane (free Wi-Fi, last 20 minutes of the flight). Tap “install eSIM.” Land. Toggle data to the new line. Go.

I have never not had data the second I stepped off a plane in the last 18 months.

What I paid this trip

Last month I went through seven countries on one trip — Vietnam, Cambodia, Thailand, Malaysia, Singapore, Indonesia, Philippines. Here’s what I actually spent:

Total: $23, plus the regional Asialink plan at $18. Forty-one dollars for a month of data across seven countries, no kiosk lines, no cash exchanges, no Sim card in my wallet that I’ll find six months later in a pair of jeans.

The thing nobody warns you about

eSIMs are data only. No phone number, no SMS.

The first time this mattered to me was in Mexico City. I’d booked an Airbnb. The host needed to send me a code over SMS to confirm the reservation. My eSIM couldn’t receive it. My home number could, but my home phone was on airplane mode and roaming was off.

The fix is simple but you have to know it in advance: keep your home line active for SMS only. On an iPhone, that means going into Cellular settings, leaving your primary line on, but turning off “Cellular Data” for it. SMS stays free in most plans. Data stays on the eSIM. You’ll get the verification codes; you won’t get a $400 roaming bill.

For phone calls, I use WhatsApp or FaceTime over the eSIM data. I haven’t actually made a real phone call abroad in maybe two years.

The other ones I tried

In rough order of how much I liked them:

• Airalo — what I use. Cheapest regional plans, app works, never had a connection issue.
• Holafly — simpler (unlimited data plans, no GB tracking) but more expensive. Good if you want to stop thinking about it.
• Saily — fine. Slightly cheaper in some countries. App is rougher.
• Nomad — good prices. Smaller country list.
• Local carrier eSIMs (Singtel, etc.) — sometimes cheapest, but the activation process is brutal. Avoid unless you’re staying in one country for a month+.
• Airport kiosk SIM — still the cheapest if you’re staying somewhere for a long time. But you lose the first hour, and on a short trip that’s a lot of the trip.

When I still use a physical SIM

Two cases.

One: I’m staying in a country for over a month. Local SIMs are 30-60% cheaper if you’re patient enough to find a carrier shop on day two.

Two: I’m somewhere with bad eSIM coverage. Airalo’s coverage is 95% of where most people travel, but I had a frustrating week in rural Laos where the data plan I bought just didn’t connect. A local SIM from a kiosk in Vientiane fixed it in five minutes.

That’s it. For everything else: install before you land, toggle when you arrive, forget about it.