We will be spending a month in Europe in June. Our plans include Switzerland, France, and Italy. I am interested in hearing recommendations for an eSim for my iPhone. We will use internet at our lodging for a much as possible, but want the eSim for maps/directions, and getting questions answered while out and about. I prefer to purchase before we leave even thought I understand it is cheaper to wait and purchase there. Looking forward to hearing your suggestions.
Donna
I bought an eSIM through Saily (recommended by Conde Nast Traveller) for a recent vacation in France and Italy. I bought it at home in the US through their web site, and then I activated it upon landing in Paris. It worked fine. I had service everywhere I went, which was mainly built up metropolitan areas. I bought a 5 GB, 30 day plan for "Europe" (multiple countries) which cost $19.50.
We've used Airalo in the past. As above, purchased at home, activated after landing at destination. A regional Europe (42 countries) 5GB 30 day costs about US$20.
I used Airalo for my first usage of an eSim on my (of course unlocked) iPhone 14 last month when in Rome and used 2GB of data on my 10 day trip. Extremely easy, inexpensive and numerous tutorials exist on the internet on how to purchase, install and use. I purchased and had it ready to go prior to trip start and was connected when I touched down and had switched my phone line to the eSim and was connected to a local tower. You can purchase regional (multiple countries) or local (single country) eSims as needed, easy to top up if you need to add data on the fly.
Use the search bar above to find lots of discussion about this in the forum.
Note that Orange France has several eSim plans that include a French phone number with EU calls included and a lot more data than the plans like Airalo.
https://boutique.orange.fr/vitrine/carte-prepayee-orange-holiday-europe-en/
par example, on my iPhone the primary 'slot' is my AT&T plan with my CA phone number in the 510 area code, and my secondary 'slot' is my Orange plan with my French/European phone number +3363276xxxx
(I don't have voicemail on the Orange line so you can't leave messages)
We use Orange on every trip. Their customer service is really good, and it comes in very handy to have a European phone number. Many EU apps require text verification and will not text a US number.
I have been comparing the plans recommended by the responders here. Thank you. I also compared Sim Corner which we used last time we traveled. (2023). At that time we had an older model phone so used a physical SIM card. The service was good and we had no complaints. They beat the price of the others on sims and seem to offer what we need. Has anyone had experience with this Australian company?
I recently read about an e-sim from GigSky, which looks very affordable. Has anyone used it?
I used Ohayu for my trip to Europe, they have a global subscription, so I just went for it and didn't have to swap SIMs all the time. Super convenient, highly recommend.
Be careful using a "EU" data SIM if you're also going to Switzerland. Your SIM may charge extra for data in Switzerland.
Learn from my mistakes.
I used an Orange eSIM for about 3 weeks in Switzerland last May and had no charges other than normal data, voice and text usage (and I had a ton of all three left when the top-up expired), but it was a "European" eSIM (but I am not sure if there is any actual difference between this one and the other country-specific eSIMs Orange sells). My wife likes to use her US number for simplicity (she does not enjoy geeking out on tech stuff like her husband), so we have a hybrid approach-I do most of the intra-country communications with my French mobile number, and she keeps our US friends and relatives up to date with her AT&T number. Not as cheap as eSIMs for both of us, but it is the best overall approach for us.
I'm confused - are Orange Travel and Orange Holiday actually from the same company? On August 23rd 2025 I purchased an e-sim France data+calls+sms, 4 GB, 30 days for 8.99 euros on the Travel Orange phone app. It worked well apart from coming with a phone number in Poland. I noticed in an earlier posting that someone going to Norway got a French phone number from them, so it seems to be a random assignment. Looking at the website now, all the prices have gone up quite a bit -- the 8.99 euro plan is now data only for 14 days. Not sure I would choose them in future, but really liked the data+calls+ sms option offered.
The app on my iphone is now called 'Orange Travel' and it is on my mind because every time they update the app it forgets my login info, whereas most other apps that require logins are set up to remember that info. Usually.
The plan I like is 14 days that includes 12 GB data and a busload of texts and calls, and a phone number that you can keep if you want. It has taken me a while to understand that French numbers are in some ways easier to remember because they are 'only' four two-digit figures plus the region and country code if necessary. It only looks like eleven digits :-P
