SIM Card Carrier Suggestions

Here's a hugely helpful recent thread on just this issue.

https://community.ricksteves.com/travel-forum/tech-tips/buying-an-international-esim-data-plan-for-your-regular-phone-with-esim-no-more-burner-phones

I'm just finishing up a month long stay in Germany and used Airalo's eSIM plan. I got 5GB of data for 30 days for Germany and everything worked great! I'm on day 27 and have used 4.2GB of data (it cost me $15) so I should be good to go. FWIW, I am also a Verizon customer but refuse to use their crappy international plan, which is why I went with eSIM.

My data usage mostly came from Google maps and Google searches, plus taking photos. I was a heavy user of Google maps and GPS.

There are other eSIM providers - other users here have used Orange with success, and Holafly also has some good plans (although they are the priciest of the ones I've researched). Airalo was good for me - I used them based on a Reddit recommendation - and had no problems. In fact, during my Germany stay, I decided to take a quick 3 day trip to Copenhagen so I needed Denmark coverage. I bought a 7 day plan with 1 GB for $5 (that was the shortest plan they had). It was simple to switch out the German plan for the Danish plan, then when I got back to Germany, switch back to the German plan. Easy peasy.

Let me know if you have any questions.

We are in the middle of a five week trip in England. My husband and I are using giffgaff SIM cards and it’s been great. I ordered the SIM cards (free) ahead of time sent to me in the US. Download the giffgaff app and set up your account before you leave. There are different levels of data for purchase— you probably won’t use as much as you think. I used 6GB in 21 days, using it for Google maps, looking up information while traveling, buying admission tickets on the fly. https://www.giffgaff.com/

The thing I liked about giffgaff is that you activate the sim card and receive your phone number without even needing the cellphone. You just replace the SIM card in your phone when you board the plane, and voila. Having the number allows making restaurant reservations etc. in advance. I was also able to update many of my account settings, except for Google and Bookings.com, which require the cellphone to be "live" for confirmation.