I travel a lot and without internet I am completely useless abroad (and actually at home). I need maps so I don’t get lost and find my connections, I need to buy tickets along the way, I need to load up on what I want to see or taste on the train, and I feel more comfortable when I’m connected to the world. And since I also work while traveling, I want to be able to check my email even if I’m maybe heading on a trip and have some backup in case the wi-fi doesn’t work at my accommodation. But having internet available at all times is also an essential safety feature for me when traveling abroad.
How to be online abroad
If you travel to countries in the European Union, you automatically have internet on your mobile phone from your home tariff under the RLAH (Roam Like At Home) contract. After Brexit, operators usually offer the same principle for the UK and Gibraltar, so even if they’re not in the EU you can still get data from there on a tariff, not roaming.
However, in countries outside Europe or outside the EU (for example, Switzerland, Andorra or Albania), you can no longer use a domestic tariff and roam in either band 2 or 3. Either by paying some sort of roaming tariff or by directly pumping megabytes. This is already quite expensive and with limited data, so best to avoid it.
What are the other options?
- be offline,
- connect only to wi-fi at the hotel, restaurants or other public wi-fi,
- buy a local SIM card,
- buy an eSIM.
Being offline is something I’m not comfortable with, and this option doesn’t happen for me at all. I’ll settle for wi-fi-only availability only very rarely on very short visits to countries where I ideally know my way around a bit. But in the vast majority of cases I try to have non-stop internet access from my mobile.
Local SIM card
What I usually do is buy a local SIM card. Typically you can get one at the airport at the operator’s booth, otherwise somewhere in the centre. The way it usually works is that they have some data plans available for tourists for different numbers of days (like 7 or 30) with some data limit (what ever, sometimes pretty low and sometimes with unlimited data).
The price varies from country to country, but it’s often quite cheap, not infrequently cheaper per month than what you pay for a home tariff. This is especially true in Southeast Asia and South America, where it’s easily up to 12 EUR / 12 USD / 10 GBP per month for unlimited data.
Disadvantages of a local SIM card:
- It can take a while to get through the queue, and in some countries they will only issue you a SIM card against your passport,
- some operators have set restrictions that do not allow you to create a hotspot and share the internet (neither with friends’ mobiles nor with other devices such as a laptop), it rarely happens, but beware of it,
- If you’re not entering the country by air (you don’t buy a SIM card at the airport) or arriving late in the evening or early in the morning when shops and kiosks at the airport are still closed, you can’t get a SIM card as soon as you arrive and use it to navigate to your hotel or order an Uber.
Benefits of an eSIM card
The eSIM card is a virtual card that you load via a QR code, which has undeniable advantages:
- It doesn’t need a SIM card slot, so you don’t need a dual phone and you can still use 2 SIM cards, one physical, one eSIM,
- you can buy it online at any time and with a few clicks, so you save time in line and paperwork at your destination,
- you can buy it anywhere, even if you don’t enter the country through the airport where you can buy it, or maybe they don’t sell it there or they are closed (yet),
- You can also buy a regional eSIM, covering multiple countries, which is handy when you’re travelling from one country to another.
How Airalo’s data eSIM works
What I appreciate most about Airalo’s eSIM is its simplicity. I can get one for my chosen country in a minute or so, so even if I remember at the last minute, I can get it done while waiting for a flight and I don’t have to queue up or argue with anyone about what exactly the SIM offer does or doesn’t include.
The Airalo eSIM normally shares the internet to other devices, so you can create a hotspot for a friend and a hotspot for your laptop at work.
Airalo app
My screenshots are in Czech, but of course, the app is working in English and other languages as well.
To buy eSIMs, download the Airalo app on your mobile phone. The app itself is free, and within the app you choose the country or countries where you need a data eSIM.
For example, I’m going to Singapore and I want to be online, so:
- I search for Singapore in the app,
- Depending on the length of stay (I can choose 7 days, 15 days or 30 days) and the amount of data I want (for example, 3 GB, 5 GB, 10 GB or 20 GB for 30 days), I can choose what suits me,
- I click on “buy” and buy at the set price (which varies from country to country),
- I simply pay with Apple Pay or Google Pay,
- I have bought an eSIM, but it is not yet active, I simply click on “activate” when I need it, i.e. before the border of the country or boarding the plane or at the airport after arrival (just be careful, you need to be online to activate it),
- then I’m online and I can see how much data I’ve used up in the app, if I have a smaller package.
What Airalo can’t do
For the record, I’ll mention a few things to take into account so that it doesn’t surprise anyone:
- You need to check if your phone supports eSIM – but it’s not exactly new technology, so unless you have a really old phone, it should be able to do it.
- Airalo is a data-only eSIM, i.e. you can’t make calls through it. Which typically isn’t needed, because everyone abroad has WhatsApp just like here.
- For no plan has unlimited data, but unless one explicitly looks at the whole
From practice – in what situations I buy eSIM
Airalo builds its presentation on the premise that“don’t pay expensive roaming, buy a data eSIM“, which I don’t find a very convincing argument, because as I’ve written before, I usually buy a local SIM when I’m abroad, I need internet so often that I’m not crazy to even turn on roaming. So the roaming comparison seems a bit off to me. But at the same time, the ease and speed with which I’m online at my destination is a huge plus and has uses for me, typically:
- when I’m driving through multiple countries and moving around the country (I don’t have anywhere to buy a SIM right away across the border and I don’t want to be offline before I get to a city),
- short trips where I’m in the country for no more than a week and save time by avoiding the SIM card hassle,
- It’s brilliant for when I have a longer stopover somewhere and want to check out the city and don’t want to waste any time, but at the same time don’t want to get lost,
- when I arrive at my destination late in the evening (or even early in the morning) and I don’t expect to buy a SIM at the airport, but I want to be safely connected to the world on the way out of the airport,
- On an ocean cruise, when I enter another country by sea, I won’t have the opportunity (and time) to look for a SIM, but I want to be online just on board at the port,
- When there are more countries on the road or they are in the same region, it is worthwhile to have a regional eSIM that covers more countries or even a global eSIM that covers 124 countries,
- when I want a backup solution that allows me to have 2 different SIMs for mobile internet,
- whenever I see a price that is acceptable (or know that a physical SIM on site won’t be cheaper).
My setup is an iPhone with a Czech eSIM – yes, I work on a domestic eSIM plan and keep the physical SIM slot free for abroad. In this case, I can’t have two eSIMs active at the same time, so I turn off the Czech one, which doesn’t bother me much, because I also make the vast majority of my phone calls through an online app (WhatsApp, Viber, Facetime).