Sim cards Portugal and Spain

I am looking into E-sims. There are many videos on YouTube which recommend various companies. You need a newer iPhone, but you can just purchase a block of data and it's cheaper than service through carrier. I guess thats if you just use data.

e Sims are quite easy. You can purchase one before you leave home and activate once you get to Portugal. Countries in the EU are very much like the states. One sim will work in all countries. I’ve just started using the eSims when I go to Switzerland (not EU). They work quite well and it’s nice to not have to search out a provider once you get to your destination. Remember, your phone must be unlocked for the eSIM, just like the physical one.

My family went to Portugal at the end of May and we bought e-sim from Airalo. Yes you will need one for each phone. We were a family of 4 but we chose to buy only 2. I needed my phone to use Google Map for navigation and my son chose to buy one for his phone so that he could have data while out and about, and I thought it's a good idea in case something happened to my phone. My wife and daughter chose not to buy the e-sim. They relied on WiFi in the hotel and in public places like coffeeshops and restaurants, and didn't really miss not having data.

Most airports have a booth that will sell you the e-sim, but why wait until the last minute? Do you really want to spend half an hour of your precious vacation time on this? I bought mine from Airalo a week before our departure and went through the process of installing it so that I knew it was all set. The e-sim doesn't kick in until you land and the phone connects to the local network, so there is no worry about wasting data when you are not in Europe.

Airalo sells a regional e-sim for the whole Europe for $13 for 3 GB or $20 for 5 GB. I think 3 GB is all you would need. We were in Portugal for 8 days and I barely used 2 GB.

I also found a code on line "MINFEI4587" (quotation mark is NOT part of the code) that would give you another $3 discount, so basically you will pay $10 for 3 GB of data. What a deal, comparing to Verizon's International Pass that charges $10 a day.

Enjoy your trip!

ESIMs are great. Check out Airalo. As others have said, you need to make sure your phone is unlocked from your carrier first. This can often be done by logging into your online account and requesting to unlock. You typically would have to have paid off your phone, but the process is often very simple.

Thanks for bringing up this topic, I did not know about this. Phaser, thanks for the details - wow what a difference from Verizon TravelPass (what I used last year).

@Phaser - What did you do to prevent TravelPass from initiating a charge?

@Muguet, after you install the e-sim, you can go to the setting of your phone and choose which sim to use -- either your regular Verizon sim or the new e-sim. Only one can be on at any given time. When you choose the new e-sim, the Verizon sim is effectively disabled. So at the end of the flight, when you land, before you turn off the airplane mode, you should make sure that the phone is set to use the e-sim.

When you buy the e-sim from Airalo, it comes with detailed instructions on how to install and how to activate, including videos of how to do it on popular phones like iphone or Android. It's really easy.

@Phaser thank you so much, that's what I thought but wanted to be sure. It looks like texting won't work while using the Airolo esim, but they will come through later in the day when I am connected to wifi, correct?

We used Vodafone Travellers physical Sim card purchased at the Vodafone booth in Lisbon airport, they also have E-Sim.
https://travel.vodafone.com/product-details?i_code=CS-F-11-ESIM_EUROPE

@Muguet - yes, texts will come through once you're back on your regular data plan. When you use the eSIM, if you have iPhone, imessages (the blue ones) will come through like normal. Others (the green) won't, as they are using cellular rather than wifi (which the iMessage uses. Are you familiar with WhatsApp? If not, it is a great and useful app to download and use to communicate. It is free, and runs exclusively on wifi and/or data (thus, Airalo compatible). You can use it to make wifi calls to others who have the WhatsApp app, text messaging, and even video calls. So I have my folks at home download before I go and then we use that to communicate if not through iMessage. Hope this is helpful!

@Milo thanks for the info, yes I did use whatsapp the last time I was in Europe to connect with a host and it worked well.

Many recommend Airalo which used to sell esim that uses MEO's network and works in Madeira. That one is no longer available.

The one available now uses NOS and according to Airalo customer rep, doesn't work in Madeira. Bummer.

Orange Holiday will work in both Spain and Portugal. I like Orange because it includes a telephone number so you can make unlimited phone calls and SMS texts in Europe. This is very handy to phone up the hotel or restaurants etc. It also provides you with a limited number of international minutes to allow you to phone and text home. I use this to phone my bank when I was having an issue with my credit card. Orange can be purchased either as a sim or esim.

For US based customers:

1. Familiarize oneself with Whatsapp - the most widely used (but not many have even heard of it in USA) phone)message app in the world (many hotels/tour operators in Portugal use it for communications). It is totally free

2. TMobile offers free text and slow internet (calling is 25 cents per minutes) for free for over 10 years now

Use data from 2) to use 1).

I haven't bought a local SIM in many years