Hello

We have planned a 4 city holiday from 15 - 28 Oct 2025. Landing in Budapest, 4 nights there, then 5 nights in Vienna, then 4 in Prague. We shall also do a day trip to Bratislava from Vienna.

We have 2 iphone 14's of the physical SIM variety. Is there a phone company that would cover all 13 nights of our trip across these 4 cities? 10GB data would be sufficient since we will use WiFi within hotels. Our itinerary relies heavily on google maps, so we will definitely need a mobile SIM for all days of our trip.

The arrival hall at Budapest Airport has a "Telekom" booth which has SIM cards for tourists: https://www.telekom.hu/lakossagi/eng...isitinghungary

Should I buy this or is there something cheaper available in the city?

Thanks and best regards,

MA

You can download google maps for the areas you plan to visit before your trip, or for that matter, during your trip at any point while you have wifi. If you use them to navigate, the maps won't be updated to reflect current road conditions, but I've generally found them more than adequate for my needs.

you do know that GPS does not require any data?
As kja says, just download the maps and thank the US military for their generosity

I get a data only eSIM from airalo when I travel. They have regional eSIMS as well as individual countries.


Even if you use data for real time traffic data/ maps there is no way you’ll use 10G. Only video streaming will chew up that much data.

The three countries are in the EU so fair-use free roaming applies, but only you know if you really need a sim card. I would only buy one and keep the other phone on it's own sim.
You don't need a sim for navigation but it can be useful to look things up along the way for instance. Choose the smallest GB bundle you can find.
If you get it at the airport you have it and are ready. It may cost a little more, it may not but is one less thing to worry about in the city.

For 13 nights and mainly for Google Maps, you'll use no more than 3 GB, therefore, a 5 GB data plan will be more than enough.

I cannot tell the cost of a 5GB SIM card from your link, but if it is about USD $20 or less, I'd recommend getting it done at the airport for immediate internet access, and one less thing to worry about in the city as hetismii2 said. Any potential savings in the city will be minimal compared to your overall travel expenses.

The iPhone 14 is dual SIM/eSIM compatible

A benefit of an eSIM is that you can install it ahead of time and it will activate when you land and connect to the local network.


When I get a data only eSIM I set the data eSIM as orimary for data, and my home SIM for voice and text. I turn off data for my hime SIM. These are toggled in the iphorne cellular settings.

I did not know this , thanks for informing me.

Is there any particular company who provides reliable e-SIMS?

yes, airalo privides data only eSIMS for countries and regions around the globe

I've found that I don't need data when I travel -- free wifi is widely available and for navigation, I use previously downloaded maps. The eSIMs I get are for text and voice only. I've had reasonably good success with Airalo and with Nomad.

Well noted. However live data will still be needed if I need to book an Uber etc right?

Maya eSIMs seem to get good reviews. Will check them out. Along with Airalo / Nomad etc.

Since e-sims are pretty cheap, I agree that is nice to have data. I have obtained e-sims from Ubigi and Maya.net. I've mostly used the latter (five or six trips) lately because they are easy to install and top off and the techinical support is pretty good and seems to be from native English speakers. You can check out if their "Europe +" plan covers the countries you are traveling to. I've checked out some of the other providers and Maya has tended to be cheapest for my needs.

I have never used more than 10G on a two to three week trip, with heavy navigation and similar uses. The price difference between 5G and 10G is usually negligable so I go with the higher amount. There are bigger plans and unliited too, but I never seem to need that much.