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You land after a long flight. Your phone lights up with a text from your carrier. Data roaming charges apply. International rates in effect. You know what that means, even if you don’t know the exact number yet. Somewhere between twenty and a hundred dollars a day, just for the privilege of checking a map. This was my reality not so long ago as my cell was a work phone and an international plan was not included. Having to rely on public Wi-Fi and offline maps to navigate by was stressful!
There’s a better way to handle this now, and it doesn’t involve hunting for a SIM card kiosk at the airport or handing your passport to a stranger behind a counter. It’s called an eSIM, and if you haven’t used one yet, it’s worth understanding before your next trip.
What an eSIM actually is
An eSIM is a SIM card built into your phone’s hardware. Nothing to insert, nothing to lose, nothing to swap out with a tiny ejector tool. Instead of a physical card, you download a mobile data plan straight onto your device. The whole process takes a few minutes and can usually be done before you even leave home.
Most phones from the last several years support this, including iPhones from the XS onward and most Android phones from Samsung, Google, and others released since around 2019. It is worth checking your specific model before you travel, since older phones and a few budget models still require a physical SIM.
Why this beats the old options
Airport SIM kiosks mean standing in line, showing your passport, sometimes paying a deposit, and hoping the card actually fits your phone. All of that, after a long flight, when you’d rather already be at your hotel.
Carrier roaming is the default your phone falls back on if you do nothing. It works. It’s also usually the most expensive way to get data abroad, often ten times what a dedicated travel eSIM plan costs for the same amount of data.
An eSIM plan, bought and installed before you fly, skips both problems. You land, your data works, and there’s no kiosk, no deposit, no surprise bill waiting when you get home.
One detail that matters more than people expect: your phone can run two lines at once. Your home SIM stays active for calls, texts, and anything tied to your phone number, like banking verification codes. The eSIM handles data separately. You’re not choosing between staying reachable and staying affordable. You get both!
How it actually works
Buy a plan before you leave, while you’re still on your home Wi-Fi. Most providers sell plans through an app or website, and installation involves either scanning a QR code or tapping a link they send you.
Install it at home, not at the airport. Installation needs an internet connection, and you don’t want to be troubleshooting this in an unfamiliar place with spotty Wi-Fi. Do it a day or two before you leave.
Label the lines clearly. Your phone will ask you to name each line. Something obvious like “Home” and “Travel Data” saves confusion later.
Set the new eSIM as your data line, and turn on data roaming for that line specifically. This is the step people miss most often. It sounds backwards, since you spent this whole guide trying to avoid roaming, but the travel eSIM works by roaming onto local networks abroad. The setting has to be on for that line to work at all.
Turn data roaming off on your home line. This is the step that actually saves you money. It stops your home carrier from quietly charging international rates in the background while you assume you’re safely on the travel plan.
How much data to actually buy
A rough guide: about 1GB a day covers maps, messaging, and general browsing for most people. If you’re streaming video, making video calls, or using your phone as a hotspot for a laptop, budget more. Most providers let you check usage in real time and buy more if you run low, so it’s better to start with a reasonable estimate than to massively overbuy on day one.
Regional plans, covering a group of countries like all of Europe, make sense if your trip crosses borders. A single-country plan is usually cheaper per gigabyte if you’re staying in one place the whole time.
Where Airalo fits in
Airalo has been around since 2019, longer than most of its competitors, and it shows in how the product runs. Coverage spans more than 200 countries, split into local, regional, and global plans depending on how much ground your trip actually covers. Setup takes a few minutes, and independent reviewers who’ve used it for years across multiple continents consistently name it as the one they reach for first, not just the one they tried once.
Two tradeoffs worth knowing before you buy. Customer support has a reputation for being slow when something actually goes wrong, worth factoring in if you tend to travel somewhere with unreliable networks. And most plans cover data only, no calls or texts. Your home SIM stays active alongside it for that, so you’re not cut off, just relying on your regular number for anything that isn’t data.
Why Saily is a great integrated option
If you’re already using NordVPN or NordPass, it’s worth knowing that Saily, Nord Security’s own eSIM product, exists too. The case for it isn’t that it beats Airalo on coverage or reputation, it doesn’t have the same track record yet. The case is convenience: one account covering your security tools and your travel data, instead of a separate login and a separate payment method for each.
One clear distinction worth mentioning regardless of which eSIM you choose. An eSIM handles your cellular data connection. It is not a VPN, and it doesn’t encrypt your traffic the way one does. If you’re on hotel or cafe Wi-Fi instead of your cellular data, you still want a VPN running, same as we’ve covered in our guide to public Wi-Fi safety. The two tools solve different problems. A good travel setup uses both, not one instead of the other.
The bottom line
An eSIM removes one of the more stressful parts of international travel, without adding new stress in its place. Buy it before you go. Install it while you’re still on familiar Wi-Fi. Flip the two roaming switches the right way, on for the travel line, off for home. Land, and your phone just works.
This pairs naturally with our guides on staying safe on public Wi-Fi and choosing a VPN for travel and banking. Together, the three cover the actual situations you’ll run into while traveling, not just the ones that make for good marketing copy.