I had a really good experience with Holafly e-sim in Europe. As I am not techy, it took me some time to get the e-sim set up correctly, but I can report that once I was on the ground in Italy, Holafly worked very well for me, I highly recommend it. Much more affordable than data from my US carrier
Posted by
🏝️ Hobe Sound, FL⛱️
3244 posts
I’d still opt for TIM for Tourist SIM. Holafly costs €59 for 21 days and is only a data plan. No texting or telephone. TIM is €25 for 30 days - 100 minutes international calls, unlimited calls in Italy, 100 gigs 5g data, no roaming charges in most of Europe.
Posted by
OP
Caldwell Idaho
92 posts
Oh, thanks for the tip, that sounds like a great alternative
Posted by
SoCal
890 posts
The TIM plan looks good, except I see no eSIM offering. That's a deal breaker for me. But as the website is in Italian, a language I don't speak, perhaps I just couldn't figure out where to find eSIMs on the site.
I agree that Holafly is overpriced compared to competitors such as Nomad.
Posted by
San Diego
7 posts
for someone else who is trying to follow and understand what to do, here is the link to TiM https://www.tim.it/en/landline-mobile/international-calling/from-italy/tim-tourist
Posted by
PNW
113 posts
TIM does not offer an e-sim. If I want to use the TIM sim, I have a travel phone which allows for a physical sim exchange. It is a good option if you want to have a local number for the trip.
I have found Holafly and Airalo to work well in Italy as e-sims. The downside is you can only use data and you don't have a local number, which is usually not an issue as most places also use WhatsApp for communication.