My husband and I are taking our 1st RS tour in Sept. We have looking at eSim cards and wondered if anyone who has used them in Italy have any recommendations of which to use or which to avoid. We will be in Italy for 16 days (we are doing the Village Italy trip with extra 2 days before tour starts). Any suggestions are very appreciated!
Posted by
Gettysburg PA
8139 posts
Who is your provider now?
Often easier to just add their International plan for such a short time.
( ex: Verizon is $100 for a month)
Forum Search
https://search.ricksteves.com/?button=&date_range=1y&filter=Travel+Forum&query=ESim
Posted by
Atlanta, GA, USA
826 posts
I would suggest for sure making sure you have data AND phone, as many options people recommend are through airalo (which is great!) but they are data only.
I was traveling over the microsoft meltdown night/day last summer on my way to France and got stranded halfway to my destination and I had to be on the phone with BA for an hour after I got to my destination (on my own) for them to cancel my "onward" flight and NOT cancel my return flight.....if I would have just gone with a data only I would have had to revert back to my international plan to use calling, but I had a French phone number and had unlimited calls (or a WHOLE BUNCH of calls) to Europe on my card from Orange..
I looked into the TIM tourist card and it seems to be only data, I can't figure out how to find the esim with data and phone.....next time I go I might use Orange again.....
or just use the international plan of my carrier.....no advantage for me using TIM
Posted by
OP
14 posts
Our carrier is AT&T and it would get pricey to use it. That is why we looking for eSim suggestions.
I would like to have one that has data and phone. It seems most are data only. Thanks for the suggestions.
Posted by
California
59 posts
In that case, I would just use AT&T International Plan. It should cap at $100. Works great in Italy
Posted by
San Diego, California, USA
1515 posts
All the eSim providers I've looked at are data only. Among eSim providers Airalo has worked well for me in Italy, Belgium, France and England. People on-line complain they are too expensive but I don't find their pricing even a blip against other vacation spending and it worked well for me so it's an easy choice.
If you want a number I believe you will need an actual, physical SIM and TIM, Vodaphone or Wind are the largest Italian providers. I've used TIM physical SIMs and they've worked well this generally necessitates a visit to a TIM location. They are in many of the larger train stations but unless it is an actual provider location I would avoid airport locations since most in Italy bundle unwanted additional things - tourist guides etc - to justify charging you more than the provider would. Take your passport if you go to get a SIM.
If you have two phones I'd go one physical and one eSIM if you're worried you want a number. Get your friends and contacts set up on WhatsApp and Signal or whatever pass you prefer that can use WiFi. You can "call" on WhatsApp using Wifi if the other person has an account and WhatsApp has somehow become the default communication platform for hotels in Europe.
Have a great trip,
=Tod
Posted by
OP
14 posts
I have looked through our ATT site. I see the International Day Passes which run $12 for 24 hours on one phone. Since I will need it for 16 days, that is $192. Then for a 2nd phone it is another $6 per day.
Maybe i am not looking in the correct place? Where do you find the ATT international plan capping at $100?
Posted by
Atlanta, GA, USA
826 posts
wow, I used to be able to find that really easily, but I don't see it anymore......
I used to do TIM and vodafone (when I lived there I had a TIM, vodafone when I traveled back again) but I didn't want to have to find a physical store.....so I liked the Orange that I could use it without going to talk to someone....
The TIM and vodafone websites have me going in circles trying to see if they have a phone + data and I can't seem to find it....
Posted by
Los Angeles
1608 posts
The Airalo Global eSim includes calls and texts - it's more expensive than a country-specific data plan.
Orange also offers eSims with calls - eSIM for Europe:
Posted by
West Michigan
402 posts
Esim sources which have data and phone #:
Airalo (calls/text optional)
Airhub (calls/text optional)
aloSIM includes phone #
They may have plans for Italy only, or they will have regional plans.
Posted by
Atlanta, GA, USA
826 posts
I THINK I did a Europe wide Orange, it was more expensive than just a data, but more service, more money....
50 euro was better than double that with the AT&T plan (which I still can't find haha)
Posted by
OP
14 posts
Thank you guys. I will check all the ideas mentioned!
Posted by
Salem, Oregon, USA
3268 posts
re: AT&T cap- you have to dig for the info, it's under the fine details on the International Day Pass page, under the link to footnote 1:
Charge cap in Destinations: There is a maximum charge of 10 daily
fees in Destinations only, per line, per monthly bill cycle. After
reaching this cap, the line may continue to use IDP in the 210+
Destinations only without additional charges for the remainder of the
bill cycle.
VERY IMPORTANT: note that it says the cap of 10 fees is "per monthly billing cycle" so if your billing cycle overlaps your trip, you could pay more than $100 depending on how long your trip is and where it crosses over your billing date. And the fee is $12 per day per line.
As long as your phones are unlocked, there are plenty of e-sim options as noted above. Depending on what you need your phones for (calling home, texting each other, multi factor authentication codes from banks, etc) you may want to pay for one phone to stay on AT&T so you retain your home phone number.
Posted by
OP
14 posts
Thank you! We may need to do that - one on IDP and one eSim. I didn't think about 2 factor authorizations we might need to be able to access.
Posted by
SoCal
1838 posts
This business is complicated enough that I ought to open a website to help people navigate it. The only question is how to monetize it.
Posted by
17 posts
Airalo esim worked great for us, data only and was roughly $10. Used it a lot for Google Maps (did download some before we left).
We used wifi and occasionally T-Mobile (our plan) for calls. In a 12 day period we paid $8 for cell calls off of T-Mobile.
Posted by
217 posts
Get the Airalo eSIM. We were just in Greece and Italy and it was $49 for the 20gb plan for 30 days. Oh probably don’t need it for that long, we didn’t, but after 17 days in northern Italy and two Greek islands, I only used up about 6 gb of data. Regarding everybody going gaga saying “but it doesn’t include voice calls” well, to be honest, everywhere we went that wasn’t a beach or a road we were driving were restaurants or our hotels which always had Wi-Fi, which was a,ways really good and we made calls on WiFi through WhatsApp or even on data and it worked fine. This idea that one’s needs a voice plan to call people internationally is old thinking. So, to recap, $49 for 20gb of data which gave us excellent connections even on a remote beach in symi island. To be honest, you’ll be on vacation. Will you honestly be calling people while sunning on a beach or hiking somewhere? I doubt it.