General travel discussion and questions

[Mo Horn 8808]

Have a question and wasn't sure where to put it. We have a lot of different country/region specific threads but not a place for general travel questions and discussion. Thought it might be helpful to start one. 

My question is about e-sims for your phone when traveling internationally. Anyone use them? It looks like they're easy and cheap and provide data, which would be great for maps and translation apps. I don't really care about making calls since you can just use Whatsapp or the like. Vodafone looks like a good option in Europe. Airalo also seems to be good. 

[mycox 582]

I find all of the e-sims work well and very affordable. You can't beat the Airalo $5 for 1GB/7 day deal. Very easy to set up.

No texting, but you can switch back to your local SIM when on wifi.

Verizon charges me $10 a day on my phone plan.

Edited September 15 by mycox

[Mo Horn 8808]

15 minutes ago, mycox said:

I find all of the e-sims work well and very affordable. You can't beat the Airalo $5 for 1GB/7 day deal. Very easy to set up.

No texting, but you can switch back to your local SIM when on wifi.

Verizon charges me $10 a day on my phone plan.

I have Verizon as well so definitely a better option. 

[52-80 19128]

Ive been using google fi on esim that i can suspend and resume at will. But the value is no longer that good compared to providers like airalo

[Sam Lin 3543]

I hate that some phones <cough cough Apple> have gone to full eSim and removed the sim slot completely. So many countries don't have providers that support eSim yet, it means those phones are not an option for a frequent traveler, unless you buy an international model that still has sim slot, and then warranty support for it in US sucks.

I will not travel with anything but a physical sim. Phone gets dropped or drowned? Just buy another and plug the sim in and you're back in business. Try that when roaming on an eSim and you are fucked.

[Gil Bang 25903]

I've traveled quite a bit, and my T-Mobile service has always worked well for me.    Off the top of my head, Japan, Argentina, D.R., G.B., Italy, Belize.  

[seven 1367]

Google fi plans include international data and have always worked great for me. I did use a 60 day supplemental esim from airalo in western Europe earlier this year that worked fine as well. I am on the cheapest plan with only 1gb data and forgot to bump up the plan before I left. I just turned Google fi data off and set data to sim2. Voice and text still worked through sim1. 

[PenelopeWitherspoon 19096]

I always just pay the 10 a day on my Verizon plan, especially if it is work travel as I am usually on Wifi most of the time with my personal phone (yeah, I have two).

But my next big vacation is next Spring, so I might look at the eSim options. Thanks for starting this.

[52-80 19128]

3 hours ago, seven said:

Google fi plans include international data and have always worked great for me. I did use a 60 day supplemental esim from airalo in western Europe earlier this year that worked fine as well. I am on the cheapest plan with only 1gb data and forgot to bump up the plan before I left. I just turned Google fi data off and set data to sim2. Voice and text still worked through sim1. 

it probably makes sense if you already use google fi as primary provider at home, and use its extension for international data

for using google fi exclusively as a traveling provider, the flexible plan has base cost + data. 

pretend its a 1mo period using 5gb, fi is $20+$10*5gb= $70.  airalo for 5gb of regional use is $20.

[PilotsError 2286]

17 hours ago, Gil Bang said:

I've traveled quite a bit, and my T-Mobile service has always worked well for me.    Off the top of my head, Japan, Argentina, D.R., G.B., Italy, Belize.  

 

tmobile is the absolute tits for travel.  I can go anywhere in the world.

[Your Mom 4803]

Another happy T-Mobile guy here. And if you’re a veteran you get worldwide (or pretty close to it) unlimited data for $55 a month. It works fine everywhere. I use Waze when I’m driving abroad.  Asia, Europe, Latin America… never a problem. It’s been many years since I fucked around with sim cards or prorated international monthly add-ons.