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?
