Please sign in to post.

Orange Travel eSIM vs Airalo/Saily. Any issues for Navigo Pass Activation?

Hello everyone,

We are traveling to France for 15 days (including 6 days in Paris). Flying into Nice, making our way up to Paris, and then flying out from there. I had a question about eSIM choices and the Navigo weekly pass.

We planned to go with a data-only eSIM like Airalo or Saily. But while looking into using public transport in Paris, I came across mentions that the IDF Mobilités app / Navigo Semaine pass requires SMS verification.

Because of that, we are now considering the Orange Holiday (Orange Travel) eSIM, since it includes a French number along with data, and costs roughly the same as the data-only options. We are now leaning toward getting the Orange eSIM so we can receive SMS verification and register for the Navigo weekly pass. The weekly pass timing also aligns perfectly with our days in Paris.

Has anyone run into any issues using Orange Travel eSIM compared to Airalo/Saily? Does the Orange eSIM reliably work for receiving SMS verification codes (specifically for IDF Mobilités / Navigo)? Has anyone successfully used it to sign up for the Navigo Semaine pass?

Would love to hear your experiences or any gotchas we should be aware of. Appreciate any recent experiences or tips.

Thanks in advance.

Posted by
9691 posts

just get Navigo Decouverte cards and you don't have to worry about phones and whether they will work with whatever pass. They are stable and easy to use and you aren't the person holding up a line while faffing with your phone -- and you can get whatever esim system works well for you otherwise.

Posted by
2 posts

@janettravels44: Navigo Decouverte cards requite that I bring a physical passport size photo and assemble the whole pass. In addition, there is a 5 Euro charge. Probably not worth it for someone who is only going to use it once.

Posted by
701 posts

Yes, I successfully used an Orange eSim in Sept 2025 to do just what you describe. We bought two of the weekly digital Navigo passes using the same French phone number for verification.

Having the weekly pass was so nice!