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.