eSim cards in Portugal

Used the Orange Vacation sim for over a month there. Worked flawlessly would recommend

Thanks Tyler. Was that a physical sim card or the downloadable "e" type? Our phones only use the "e" type. And did you purchase it over there?

Yes, in February. I bought an Airalo eSIM, 5 gb data for $10.99. It was good for 30 days. Worked flawlessly and we used about 75% of the 5gb in 12 days. Download the app, create an account, select the plan you want to buy. Follow the instructions to install the eSIM but don’t activate it until you arrive in Portugal. That’s when the clock starts ticking.

Thanks everyone!

The orange one is an e-sim you can purchase it prior to arriving in Europe on their website.

Basically scan a QR code they have it will set it all up etc. in 2022 when I did it if you needed it for longer than 30 days you needed to provide more contact info like passport etc. because they want to associate the number with a person

We used Vodaphone. There is a store near the Rossi train station that set our esims up for us.

Thank you!

I have been using Saily eSIM’s for several trips and no problems. (iPhone 13) App is easy to use and activation was almost instantaneous. Planning to use in Portugal later this spring.

John

Thank you John. Perhaps we'll meet if you're on the Heart Of Portugal tour May 5-16. Mike

Another thumbs up for Orange Holiday esim. Worked in Portugal for us. I like that Orange provides a working French telephone number that allows you to telephone and text all over Europe. Plus it provided limited minutes to call and text internationally back home. Having a working phone number to call hotels, restaurants, attractions or the bank back home is very useful.

Good to know - thanks!

I concur with the recommendation on esim from Airalo. My family went to Portugal/Azores twice in 2024 and used Airalo esim without any problem. I have Verizon and used to rely on their International Pass (which costs $10 a day for unlimited roaming data). I thought that was a pretty good deal until somebody told me about Airalo. For a week in Portugal, I bought an eSIM for 5GB for $6. It's valid for 7 days (after first use). You may think 5GB is not a lot, but if you are careful -- don't download videos or large size photos when you are out and about, you will barely use 0.5 GB per day. I didn't even use 2 GB for the whole week, since it's mostly for Google map navigation. Do your social media updates or streaming vidoes at night when you have WiFi in the hotel or Airbnb.

I also found a discount code online MINFEI4587 that gives me another $3 discount. Try it. It should still be good. So basically you pay $3 for a 5GB eSim that will cover your data needs for the whole week. (If you want more data or longer duration, you can pay $8 with the discount, for 10 GB eSim that's good for 15 days.)

Wife and I are going to Portugal and Spain later this year for 2 weeks. We will buy a Regional eSim that covers both countries and it's still a good deal though slightly more expensive than the country-specific eSIM -- $17 for 5 GB with the discount.

Enjoy the trip!

Great advice on the Airalo eSim! Thanks!

I am a verizon wirelesss customer with an Iphone 16 that has an eSim.
From the threads, it seems or must be set up before leaving and then activated when abroad.
My question is when in country such as Portugal and you turn on celluar (turn off airplane mode), the first item that shows is the Verizon account and will immediately start downloading messages, emails, vociemails. It's not obvious how one turns on the eSim vendor without incurring these Verizon charges even if it is only for a minute to transfer to the vendoir eSim.

I have the same question.
The instant you turn off airplane mode the phone starts downloading. I have Verizon and my plan said it had free international usage. Imagine my surprise when I arrived in the Lisbon airport, turned off airplane mode and immediately received a Verizon text saying, “welcome to Portugal. Your Travel Pass has been activated. You get 48 hours free…(then it was $10 a day but now it’s $12 for each phone!)! Shysters.

Can we activate it the day we fly out or do you have to activate it in the other country?

We were looking at Vodaphone. Anyone have experiences with them?

I have both Verizon and a Telecom esim on my iPhone. You just need to set your phone to which contacts fall under which service.

We were looking at Vodaphone. Anyone have experiences with them?

We used Vodafone in Portugal. We went into one of their stores in Lisbon and had them set it up for us. We had the same problem though and during set-up, it automatically set to our home network and billed us for a day. I think if you turn it on at home before you leave you may get international charges for a day from Vodafone, but I don't know that for sure.

I have no actually done this, but the following should solve the switch from Verizon to local eSim

While you are still in Airplane mode, click on Cellular and switch providers.
Then turn off Airplane mode and the phone will only try to connect to the new service.

Dennis

I recently purchased an eSIM for my Apple 16 phone. Verizon is my cellular carrier. I could not load the eSIM and despite an hour on the phone with Verizon they basically said I had to buy their travel plan that they could not unlock the phone to add the eSIM. Anyone else have this problem?

Momacluck,
How long have you had your phone? Verizon automatically unlocks a phone supplied by them after 60 days. If you just bought it, you have to wait it out.

Dennis

I’m in Portugal now, I use Airalo eSIM, since I didn’t want to have any chance of activating my Verizon account I used my old 12mini iPhone that isn’t attached to any plan and put the eSIM card on that. I can use that phone as a hotspot for my iPhone 16 or just use the iPhone 12 when I’m out and about. I was in Spain for 1 month and it worked perfectly. I’m now in Portugal and for some reason I had slight difficulty getting the new card to activate or connect but their customer service helped me get it working.

Hi, the wife and daughter are going to Lisbon and the UK for a week at the end of May. Will eSim's work like this in both places? Also, if you turn on data roaming does this prevent the instant download of and cost that goes with it of messages when you leave airplane mode? Thanks!

Bundej,

If your family is going to UK and Portugal, you can buy a Regional eSim from Airalo instead of a country-specific one. See my earlier reply above. A regional eSim is still pretty inexpensive, though slightly more than a country-specific one.