Hi! My wife and I are going to be in Italy for about 3 weeks and then Spain for a week in April and May. We both have iPhone SE (2022) and are planning to get eSIMs while we are traveling. I spent a little time looking but was dismayed at the prices I saw.

Looking for advice from folks that have done this.What did you get? What was the cost (roughly) and how was the service? Suggestions?

Thanks in advance!

I use data only esims from airalo. Upwards of a dozen today around the world and no issues.


I don’t need a voice plan / esim since I can make calls whenever I’m connected to the internet on wifi, and I use apps like whatsapp, fb messenger or apples own facetime features - all of which work fine with a data only sim/esim

you can get a Europe regional esim that covers Spain and Italy

I also have an iPhone SE 2022 and used an eSim from Airalo for France. It worked flawlessly and cost around $14 (if I remember correctly) for the amount of time and data I needed. The only thing it did not cover was regular phone calls (voice), but as noted above there are numerous workarounds.

I looked into getting an eSim with a plan that included voice calls but the cost was a LOT higher (from memory $50 or $60 I think). It just did not seem worth it to me. For the very few times I would be needing normal in-country voice calls (restaurant reservation, contacting rental apartment owners prior to arrival, …) I decided that I would just use my phone as I would back home. Of course I had to pay my service provider overseas rate, but despite this when my monthly bill came afterwards, it was showing less than $10 extra for a whole bunch of voice calls I made (to France already being in France).

This confirmed for me that there was no point in springing for the expensive eSim plans, at least in my situation.

It seems that iPhones have the advantage over Androids with tricks like getting your home cell to forward calls and SMS while you're on WiFi in Europe. It depends in part on your carrier in the US. Someone wrote extensively on Reddit about it, here's a link to the thread. I have to say it made my head hurt a little reading it, and ultimately I concluded that I won't be able to accomplish that with my Android phone and my cheap plan.

I'm currently shopping for eSims for a trip to Spain. Airalo is one of the more reasonable ones for data-only plans. We think we want to put voice minutes on one phone, which makes it quite a bit more expensive. I saw a plan on Orange that's good for 28 days and has substantial phone, text, and data allowances, and allows data tethering. When I found it by googling for data plans for Spain, the price shown was 40 euro, but last night an ad popped up on my Facebook for the same plan, but labeled for Europe rather than for Spain, for 5 euro less. Their data-only plans are competitive with Airalo, as I recall.

The points about data-only eSIM plans make a lot of sense if a WiFi connection is readily available when you need to make a phone call. But if your rental car breaks down on the side of the road and you need to call for help, your only way to do that would be to switch back to your home carrier and pay the fees for a local call in Europe. (This is pretty easy to do with eSIMS.) There may not be much of a charge for a couple of calls, as kanadajin (my fellow Canadian?) points out, above.

On our last few trips to Europe, we have been on multi-day self-guided walking trips and have had several occasions where we had to call our accommodation from some point on the trail; in other cases, we have had to call a pre-arranged taxi to confirm a precise pick-up time at a remote location. That made us want to have voice as well as data, as there wasn't going to be WiFi on the trail. We most recently used the Orange eSIM you were looking at, and it worked pretty well. We bought the 28-day 70 GB plan, which included unlimited calls and texts within Europe and 2 hours and 100 texts from Europe to the rest of the world. We just re-purchased it for our next trip, which is to France and Switzerland. One observation: we have also seen Orange promotions where they have dropped the price fro 40 euros to 35.

It should work for you in Spain, as it's one of the countries they specifically list in their T&Cs as being covered.

To my mind, the rub is not the absence of WiFi, if you can still hop on the internet via your data -- it's the need for the party you're calling to also be set up for VOIP calls, as in WhatsApp, etc. For all that people say everyone in Spain uses WhatsApp, I've already found that one of our hotels doesn't, and I'm still trying to find out from a couple of rental car offices. Your point about needing to reach someone in a pinch is exactly it -- unless you're prepared with the number and app by which you can reach your party via internet calling, you're sunk. I would not want to be stuck at the side of the road, or in a remote area, wishing I knew someone's WhatsApp contact number.

I did see that Spain is a covered country, I made sure to check on that. The price I saw last night (and again this evening) was 35. I wasn't sure if it might go lower if I held out, so thanks for confirming that this is the lowest you've seen. Think I'll go ahead and buy it now.

HellieF, you describe the problem far better than I did. I shouldn't try to post late at night!

When you purchase the Orange eSIM, they send you an email with a QR code that you have to scan to initiate the installation on your phone. They also include an attachment with instructions for both Android and iPhone. I use the latter, and found the installation straightforward. You install it before you travel, and then activate it via a four-digit code when you land in Europe. That triggers the 28-day clock to start.

One thing I should mention: we had a couple of occasions in Italy where I lost our connection to the cellular network, When that happened, I turned off the eSIM and then restarted it; I then had to re-input the four-digit activation code, but that solved the problem.

For those instances when I might have needed to make cell phone call I have the option to just use my US service in roaming mode. I normally disable the SIM in cellular settings on my phone, but can easily turn it back on in a pinch. My US plan only charges for calls made, not any daily access fee just to connect to a tower. Data charges are higher which is why i get a data sim.

if your home plan charges you those daily roaming fees or the roaming plan is expensive then a voice sim can make sense.

Thanks everyone. Lots of good suggestions here. I’ll continue to watch the thread for more but now I have a better idea of what to look for and where. Thanks again!

If I understand this right, if I purchase a data only ESim it does not change my actual US phone number but allows me to use map features, pull up my train tickets, search for local restaurants, etc. And then I can use WhatsApp for calls.and messaging? My local US carrier does not offer international service so trying to figure out my best option. I have a Samsung Galaxy S23 and will be traveling to Italy for 2 weeks in May 2025.

you understand it right.

with WhatsApp both users need to be in that app. Ditto for facebook messenger which has similar features.

For map features you dont actually need any data access / sim. You can download offline google maps, and as long as your phone can see the sky above - and thats anywhere except in tunnels…. Your phone / gps will work just like the in-car gps units from 20 years ago.

other uses that require an internet connection work with an esim

Thank you so much! What is involved in switching between my physical sim to the new eSIM and vice versa?

You'll get instructions for activating the eSim when you purchase it. Your physical SIM will stop working, once you get out of range.

Like you, my home cell plan doesn't include international roaming, so I don't have the option to use my US cell number to make calls when I'm in Europe. As you probably saw in my posts above, I'm concerned about what would happen if I urgently needed to reach a number that is not available via app calling, so I'm biting the bullet and getting an eSim that includes cellular minutes and texts. However if you're confident that every number you'll need to reach during your trip will be available via internet calling (WhatsApp or similar), then you should be fine with data-only.

If you are worried about making calls when you can use VOIP then buy a European Sim when you get there and use that. Covers all the EU, data and calls, and cheaper than anything from the US.

Activating a new sim is simple - you'll get instructions as noted. If you get one from airalo you can also activate it from the app which you can download.

As for your existing sim, you do need to be careful about this. If your home cell phone service indeed has no international roaming ability, period, then that is correct - once you're out of the service area the existing SIM will stop working....

BUT, and this is where you need to be careful...... If roaming is even remotely possible, you will want to disable roaming on your sim so you don't get socked with roaing fees. You can do that once you are sure you don't need it like once the plane takes off.

You can do that in your celluar or network settings on your phone... I toggle the sim itself to "OFF".... Your cell phone carrier can show you how to turn it off - if they have a storefront nearby that can show you in person even better.

If you don't disable roaming, or turn off the sim, you may be subject to roaming fees from your carrier, and you wouldn't even know it until you got your next bill.....

Thank you so much. I will be traveling with others who will have the ability to make calls if need be so feel I will be ok with just a data eSIM.

Ok thank you for the info. I will double check on the roaming!

I found an Airalo SIM on my Android to be a game changer, after initial frustration getting it activated while sleep deprived after a flight

I finally watched a tutorial, learned that I could install and activate it at home so it was ready to go on arrival. That would have helped a lot.

I did make sure to turn off my US Sim, then briefly on to make a call or sent a text.

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Thanks stokebailey. Any chance you can post a link for that tutorial/video? Or at least point us in the right direction? Thanks in advance.

https://youtu.be/O2hGwPV4K_s?si=9SOmeSMsXx_Bs150

Try this?​​​​​