eSIM vs international plan

Might depend on which carrier and the cost. For phone or for data or both? How much data? Dual SIM? Does you bank account, or any other account, send you a text with a code for account entry or payment approval? Can you live without that? Are you okay with no one being able to call you because they dont know your new SIM number; like the fire department as your house burns? No chance that you will ever need to log into a US account that is blocked to all but US IP numbers? You know which ones are, right?

Lots to sort through. I live here and kept my US service ... and a local phone.

I always get the verizon monthly international plan for $100, even if I'm only going for 2 weeks. For me, it's worth it to have my phone work exactly as it does at home.

Thanks for the advice. We are gonna stick with the international plan.

Sorry, I didn't mean to sound doom and gloom. Our most experienced travelers on the forum use a travel SIM. You just gotta sort through those questions and know the solution for each.

No worries, I don’t wanna work that hard before our trip! I have enough loose ends to tie up before we leave in 12 days.

Get WhatsApp and if you hsve TMobile the wifi calling and texting is free.

Since you mention international plan, that likely means you have service with one of the big carriers and a phone under contract.

I would agree that going with that may be the easiest option, seamless, you keep your own number, people can call you (which should incur no additional cost), but it does make it a bit more difficult for you to call within Europe, or have a hotel/restaurant contact you by calling.

Honestly though, I really do not make calls in Europe, mostly data. I do suggest though to have WhatsApp loaded and set up, if you are staying in apartment type accommodations (AirBnB, VRBO, Booking.Com) hosts prefer to contact you by WhatsApp, it is free to them and very popular in most of Europe.

Do verify if the $100/month is per phone or per plan. Be aware of data caps or throttles after some level of use.

FWIW: The way I do it, having my own dual SIM phone and Google Fi, is that I have service as normal in Europe at no added cost, but since I usually use lots of data, I use my primary SIM for calls and text (normal phone number) and the second SIM as data only. An Airalo SIM for data only for the month is ~$25 or so for 10 GB.

Just an FYI for future trips, T-Mobile offers a free international plan. It's very handy, and I've used it for the last three years when I've traveled, as long as I've had the plan. And in fact, that's the main reason I switched to T-Mobile.

I do as Paul does, except that earlier this year I installed a Bcengi eSIM to use/test here in the US. It covers (it seems) most of the world, so I won't need to install a new eSIM every time I cross a border in Europe, leaving a trail of paid-for but unused data behind me. Becengi is quite a bit cheaper than the Airalo rates I've paid in the past and much cheaper than Google Fi's per-GB rate of $10 US. I'll see how it goes once I'm actually across the Atlantic.

Calls (at roughly 25 cents per minute, I believe) and texts (free) continue to come through on the Google Fi number; I do have to do something fiddly before I originate a text because of my Samsung phone. To make a phone call, I have to temporarily make the Google Fi eSIM primary.

acraven, thanks for the info. Please keep the forum posted about it—I would be interested in hearing more about it.

I appreciate all the advice & we’ll definitely look into WhatsApp. We’ll probably mainly be using data, but who knows. We’re so excited to be doing a Rick Steves European tour.

Regarding Tmobile, I have an old Magenta plan, only $35/month, but it still gives me only 256 kbp of data here in Ireland. So if I want fast data I switch to my Bcengi esim. It's working well here.