Airalo - quick questions

I've used nomad https://www.nomadesim.com/ in the past, worked well for me.

I would work out how much data you think you might need, but even if you need more you can easily top up.

We have T-Mobile and have used it in the UK, France and Norway with no issues. We can even add their International Pass if we need more data

It's true that T-Mobile has an international plan for free that you can use, but it depends on the TM plan that you have. I don't think it's offered to all of T-Mobile customers. That said, you can pay for an international plan if you aren't entitled to a free one.

However, in the past I have used Airalo, and sometimes it's a good idea to have an eSIM in addition to your international plan just in case. For example, when I was in London last year, I had a lot of trouble with the carrier that was providing service for T-Mobile and was stuck without service for a lot of my stay. It was extremely frustrating, and I wish I would have just gone ahead and gotten an eSIM that I could have used to supplement the plan.

With regards to your question about which package is a better value, it really depends on what you need. If I was traveling to Schengen countries and the UK, I would get the EU and UK package. Otherwise, you might get stuck. For example, I had an Airalo eSIM when I went to Germany back in 2022. I bought just the Germany package; however, while I was there, I decided to head to Copenhagen for several days. Unfortunately, my Germany plan wouldn't work there, so I had to buy an extra five days of service for Denmark with Airalo. It wasn't expensive at all, and it worked fine, but I'm just saying it's probably a better value to get the package so you don't have to change eSims when you switch countries.

I no longer use Airalo as T-Mobile is great in Europe for us. I use Whatsapp and wifi calling if actual calls are necessary, which is rare.

Ronda, it depends on just what is included with your Tmobile plan. There are many plans, some new, some old, and plans vary a lot on what International Roaming is included. You need to log into a Tmobile website, or use the T-Life app, and see what applies to you. My plan is an old Magenta plan which is not listed on a Tmobile website, but I get unlimited texting in 214 countries, with 5 gb. of high speed data in 11 countries. In the other countries I still get unlimited slow data (256 kbps), which works well enough for me.
Edit: I see now that Tmobile has changed the "11 countries with 5 gb. high speed International Data", to be "214 countries with 5 gb. high speed International Data". So Tmobile folks here might re-check their plan benefits.

To those evaluating travel SIM options, I strongly recommend visiting esimdb.com. It's a brand-agnostic site that lists a variety of availability eSIMs with their associated pricing.

We used Airalo when we went to Italy 2 years ago and it worked great. We did the regional coverage as we had a long layover in Amsterdam.

We have Verizon so Airalo was a much better deal for international service. It was easy to set up and use, lots of Youtube videos go through all of the step by step set up, if you need it. I don't remember how much data I started out with, but it alerted when we were getting low, so I was able to add more.

Will likely use it again in October when we head to Germany.

We also have Whatspp and Facebook messenger to use for wifi calling and messaging if needed. We didn't need this in Europe but interestingly needed it in Alaska as our normal texts messages weren't going through but Whatsapp messages did.

Thank you all so much for the information & feedback. I checked with TMobile and they'd want $50 per 30 days per line for only 15gb of data, etc. So, we will definitely be exploring the other options you've given.

Cheers!
- Ronda

Welp, Airalo did not work optimally for me. In Italy it’s data only. I could web surf etc but I could not get iMessage to work. I followed all the instructions, it’s a known issue, and Customer service had no fix unfortunately. I know I could opt for what’s app instead but for a variety of reasons I decided to spend the money and use my carrier’s international plan. It’s frictionless and works for data text and calls.

While T-Mobile is great for shorter trips, T-Mobile would not be a good option for 3 to 4 months of travel.

I use T-Mobile all the time when I travel and typically travel for a month. Last June shortly after returning home I got a warning from T-Mobile. Basically, it said that I had 2 consecutive billing periods with more international data than domestic data and if I had a third consecutive billing period like that service would be interrupted. I had only been away for 4 weeks but it happened that 2 weeks fell in each of the 2 periods and I always use more data when I am away from home. I’ve had T-Mobile for about 20 years and this was the first trip where I got that warning. I didn’t get the warning on my fall trip where the majority of my travel was within a single billing period.

Here are the T-Mobile T&Cs
https://www.t-mobile.com/customers/roaming-data-alert

Even though I have Google Fi and have coverage in Europe, I use a lot of data when traveling, so I supplement with an eSIM from Airalo.

As for broader packages vs a specific country, generally paying for a specific country is cheaper per GB than the wider packages, but not by much, and if you will need data in several countries, then a broader package is easier, unless your stay fits their time periods

For example, I have a 3 1/2 week trip coming up, I'll be in Amsterdam airport for 5 hours, Malta for 4 nights, and the rest in Sicily.

I can get a Europe package, 10GB for 30 days for $39, and it would cover all.

However, I can use my Google Fi Data in Amsterdam, get a 7 Day 3 GB SIM for Malta at $9, then a 30 day 10 GB SIM for Italy for $20.50, or about $30 total. I would have to dump the Malta SIM and load the Italy SIM, so it just comes down to if I want convenience or save a few bucks.

The more countries you go to, the more sense a broader SIM makes.

Reddit has r/eSIMs subreddit which as lots of experts. In order to find the best esim, you should ask yourself:

1. How many GB of data do you need? And for how long?

2. Which countries do you require mobile data?

3. Would you like the ability to make regular telephone calls and SMS texts within the countries that you are traveling?

4. Would you like the ability to make international calls and texts back to your home country?

I have used Orange Travel which satisfy all of the above requirements. For my upcoming trip, I plan to use Roamless which is a pay-as-you-go esim. In addition to mobile data, I will be able to make outgoing calls which will appear to come from my cellular number. However, it will not allow me to text, but I have other workarounds including WhatsApp.

While I alluded to it in my response, just to add how it works, my phone (and many now are) dual SIM. In settings, my phone has a selector for "Voice", "Text", and "Data". When I travel with a second SIM, I set Voice and Text to "SIM 1" and Data to "SIM 2", which is the data eSIM I buy from Airalo. Everything is then seamless, calls are on Goggle Fi, data on the airalo SIM, no switching back and forth needed.

iPhones, surely have the same type of feature.

I wish my 2-1/2 year old Samsung phone had the straightforward, function-specific settings Paul described in a logical place. Unfortunately, it does not. I need to go into my Contacts and use the menu to set up use of my original, physical SIM for phoning and texting when I've made my eSIM primary. I don't know whether that setting would be sticky if I added a new eSIM.

T-Mobile.
It just works. Standard data and text included.
Seamless, easy and (relatively) inexpensive international high-speed data/voice pass.

Mint Mobile looks to have excellent international options, which might be attractive to someone considering changing their US plan.

I’ve tested Airalo in a few European trips, and honestly it works fine - but there are a couple of things people don’t always mention.
First, about packages:
If you’re moving between countries, definitely go for a regional (EU + UK) plan. Otherwise you’ll end up buying multiple eSIMs when plans stop working across borders - that’s a pretty common mistake.
Second, coverage is usually good, but it depends on which local network they connect you to. Sometimes speeds are great, sometimes just “okay” - especially in busy cities.
Also worth checking your T-Mobile plan carefully. Some plans already include international data (even if slower), so you might only need an eSIM as a backup.
From my experience, the biggest difference isn’t really the provider - most of them use the same local networks anyway.
It comes down to:
price
data limits
ease of setup
I’ve used a couple of options (Airalo, Nomad, and recently Skyalo), and setup-wise they’re all similar - scan QR, done in 2 minutes.