Thanks for another great post...and for the shout-out. We just returned from a trip back to the US. Several days before we left I "topped up" the esims in our phones. (We had originally purchased them for a trip in May.) When we landed in Philadelphia, we switched them on and they just worked.
We used WhatsApp to communicate with our dog sitter back in Portugal. A life saver because she had multiple issues - locked out of apartment, internet service out, yikes! During the trip, we did not have access to our Portugal cell number, but we rarely receive calls, so it wasn't a problem. And we use iPlum to maintain our old US numbers, so we were able to send and receive calls while in the states.
Anybody who has looked at the Americans & Friends PT Facebook group will probably have seen the hundreds of messages about how to configure phone service in Portugal. Our setup is just one way to make it all work. Your mileage may vary!
A tip for anyone thinking about using an Airalo esim: Before we bought the ones we used in the US on our earlier trip, I bought a 1 week, 1GB esim for Portugal. I installed it and turned off my regular cell plan for a few days. That gave me a chance to test the installation, configuration, and how to use it all before we landed in the US. I didn't want to be fumbling around, jet-lagged, trying to make something work! The person who referred me to Airalo had provided a referral code that gave me a $3 credit, so my Portugal esim only cost a couple bucks. (That's another bonus with Airalo - you get a code you can share with friends that gives them an initial discount and gets you a $3 credit. We had enough credits to almost pay for the second esim on this latest trip. Since it's your blog, I won't post my code here. You should post yours!)
Have a great weekend! / Tenha um ótimo fim de semana!
As usual you two are amazing. I have many e-sims in my cell phone and I tested out this one after Sherri shared with me (who you shared with...thank you). I read the emails they sent and there is one cool feature which is hidden. When you are selecting which plan to use there are three tabs at the top one of them says "Regional eSIMs", and if you click on this tab it gives you a magical option...Europe...whoo hoo. so you don't need to switch and buy in each country in Europe, one click does the trick.
"Eurolink" is the name and the options are:
1 GB for 7 days for $5.00 USD
3 GB for 30 days for $13.00 USD
5 GB for 30 days for $20.00 USD
10 GB for 30 days for $37.00 USD
And for the streamers out there who need to watch tv and play games:
50 GB for 90 days for $100.00 USD
100 GB for 30 days for $180.00 USD
A few friends and I were just in Seville and she downloaded the app and bought the 5 euro package, her phone was an older iphone and didn't have the esim option (check your specs first) as the app did let her buy it but when I went to install it I got partially through the install and it said that esim is not supported on her phone...bah humbug.
We went the old fashioned route and found a vodaphone sim card in a tourist shop for 15 euros for 30 days for 15 GB and popped out her sim card and put that one inside. We did find a shop for the same card who had it discounted to 10 euros (not selling many with these other options perhaps).
She had more than she needed and it worked fine in Spain/Italy/Portugal.
As another reader commented, this is an extremely timely post! We’ll be in Portugal for several weeks in October & I’ve been mulling over how to handle the phone issue! Thanks again, Nancy! Your blog has been a wonderful source of information.
I was especially touched by the story of the Japanese man who shed tears with you over Trump’s election. I will never forget that horrible, sinking-in-the-pit-of-my-stomach feeling late that election evening & the days afterward. And — being in a red state — the awful observation of coworkers & some friends celebrating. How could they not realize ?? Anyway — your story was comforting in some weird way.
Very timely as I’m just about to trade in for a new phone, and there’s all this talk about eSims. Now I feel like I’m not quite as much in the dark!
I will say that when I traveled full time as a nomad from 2014-2018 in 15 different countries, I had an unlocked iPhone (meaning I wasn’t locked into any US carrier and could change SIM cards as I went). It was super easy (and cheap!) to do this - in Cambodia, for example, they were hawking them at the airport upon arrival for around $5. In Thailand it was $10 for a month (AT&T in the US wanted a fortune for their “international plan”!)
However what I mostly found myself doing was calling people on WhatsApp or FaceBook messenger (or others) and they sounded like they were on the next room, sound quality was so good! Those services were totally free. Of course, the people you’re calling had to be signed up, and my elderly dad wasn’t up to that task, so I just used the paid Skype, which costed practically nothing and I could call his landline from Thailand (he didn’t need to be signed up to Skype).
I realize communication things are changing rapidly, however my point is that even 8 years ago it wasn’t hard to navigate your way around the world.
(The main reason I still got the sims was to be able to use google maps & translate, etc although free WiFi seems pretty readily available around the world as well).
Nancy - I think your recommendations are spot on and I highly recommend Airalo for travel when a data-only plan will do. I currently live in the US. Traveled to Germany for 2 weeks over the summer. My husband was in Germany for 5 weeks. He needed access to his US number - our AT&T bill topped $300...I used Airalo for $7! If you have a US carrier with a $10/day International day pass, I recommend only using this as needed (check in once a week?). My data plan with Airalo worked like a charm. I used WhatsApp to communicate and had invaluable access to Google Maps, AirBnb, and the DB train app (loved that 9 Euro monthly train pass!!!) etc, to manage our trip. One AirBnb host asked that I call or text upon arrival. Knowing that was not possible, I simply asked her to communicate via WhatsApp; no problem. Another friend traveling Germany with us continued on to 3 countries in Scandinavia - he purchased a single Airalo plan that covered all of Europe and it worked perfectly. That said, if you are traveling to Portugal and need to accomplish banking or other tasks, you may find having a local PT phone number is better than a data-only plan. Happy traveling!!!
Hi Nancy and Denise- Thank you for the info about E-sims. I have read about them previously but have never used one. This is good info for me to keep in mind. However, I have T-Mobile as my carrier and a great monthly plan for those 55+ that includes unlimited text, talk and data in the US, Canada and Mexico and unlimited text and data in a couple of hundred other countries. I pay no roaming charges but if I make a call there is a cost of 25 cents per minute. Last year I traveled to Portugal and Spain and had great service and this year I have been to France, Italy, Switzerland, Leichtenstein, Germany and Austria and had excellent service in all locations. Soon I will travel to Turkey and Greece and I anticipate the same. My monthly cost is $30 per line and as soon as I cross borders I receive an automatic notification from T-Mobile informing me of service availability in the country to which I have just been welcomed. I have never needed to do anything with my phone settings and retain the ability to hop on free Wi-Fi if available or use cellular data from local towers if there is no WiFi in the area. It is rare that service is unavailable. I have had wonderful coverage - often better in European rural areas than rural areas of day...Maine. I don’t know anything about agreements between phone carriers in the EU (clearly Switzerland is not part but I had free coverage there), but this has been a great option for me.
Hi Nancy! There's no reason why you'd need another SIM than your Portuguese one in Italy, due to free EU/EEA roaming.
Switzerland is another story, as they are not technically part of either the EU or EEA, although they still have very close integration with them both through lots of bilateral agreements. Still, quite a few European phone providers include free roaming in Switzerland, so it's worth checking before visiting. For what it's worth, neither MEO, Vodafone Portugal, or NOS includes Switzerland in their free roaming zone.
Such a timely topic. We are two weeks away from visiting Tuscany and Piedmont and the getting the cell phone (roaming) issue sorted was on my to-do list. We'd be fine with a data-only connectivity, but I still need to talk to Vodafone PT to explore our options/cost.
Also, knowing what your typical data consumption is is a good piece of information to have and knowing that Google maps is not a significant contributor to consumption.
Trump … still crying
Your last two sentences synthesize the real value of traveling/living abroad: recognizing America through others’ eyes.
Hi Nancy,
Thanks for another great post...and for the shout-out. We just returned from a trip back to the US. Several days before we left I "topped up" the esims in our phones. (We had originally purchased them for a trip in May.) When we landed in Philadelphia, we switched them on and they just worked.
We used WhatsApp to communicate with our dog sitter back in Portugal. A life saver because she had multiple issues - locked out of apartment, internet service out, yikes! During the trip, we did not have access to our Portugal cell number, but we rarely receive calls, so it wasn't a problem. And we use iPlum to maintain our old US numbers, so we were able to send and receive calls while in the states.
Anybody who has looked at the Americans & Friends PT Facebook group will probably have seen the hundreds of messages about how to configure phone service in Portugal. Our setup is just one way to make it all work. Your mileage may vary!
A tip for anyone thinking about using an Airalo esim: Before we bought the ones we used in the US on our earlier trip, I bought a 1 week, 1GB esim for Portugal. I installed it and turned off my regular cell plan for a few days. That gave me a chance to test the installation, configuration, and how to use it all before we landed in the US. I didn't want to be fumbling around, jet-lagged, trying to make something work! The person who referred me to Airalo had provided a referral code that gave me a $3 credit, so my Portugal esim only cost a couple bucks. (That's another bonus with Airalo - you get a code you can share with friends that gives them an initial discount and gets you a $3 credit. We had enough credits to almost pay for the second esim on this latest trip. Since it's your blog, I won't post my code here. You should post yours!)
Have a great weekend! / Tenha um ótimo fim de semana!
Mike
As usual you two are amazing. I have many e-sims in my cell phone and I tested out this one after Sherri shared with me (who you shared with...thank you). I read the emails they sent and there is one cool feature which is hidden. When you are selecting which plan to use there are three tabs at the top one of them says "Regional eSIMs", and if you click on this tab it gives you a magical option...Europe...whoo hoo. so you don't need to switch and buy in each country in Europe, one click does the trick.
"Eurolink" is the name and the options are:
1 GB for 7 days for $5.00 USD
3 GB for 30 days for $13.00 USD
5 GB for 30 days for $20.00 USD
10 GB for 30 days for $37.00 USD
And for the streamers out there who need to watch tv and play games:
50 GB for 90 days for $100.00 USD
100 GB for 30 days for $180.00 USD
A few friends and I were just in Seville and she downloaded the app and bought the 5 euro package, her phone was an older iphone and didn't have the esim option (check your specs first) as the app did let her buy it but when I went to install it I got partially through the install and it said that esim is not supported on her phone...bah humbug.
We went the old fashioned route and found a vodaphone sim card in a tourist shop for 15 euros for 30 days for 15 GB and popped out her sim card and put that one inside. We did find a shop for the same card who had it discounted to 10 euros (not selling many with these other options perhaps).
She had more than she needed and it worked fine in Spain/Italy/Portugal.
I hope this helps ;)
Very useful post and, yes, I also cried that day/evening.
As another reader commented, this is an extremely timely post! We’ll be in Portugal for several weeks in October & I’ve been mulling over how to handle the phone issue! Thanks again, Nancy! Your blog has been a wonderful source of information.
I was especially touched by the story of the Japanese man who shed tears with you over Trump’s election. I will never forget that horrible, sinking-in-the-pit-of-my-stomach feeling late that election evening & the days afterward. And — being in a red state — the awful observation of coworkers & some friends celebrating. How could they not realize ?? Anyway — your story was comforting in some weird way.
Very timely as I’m just about to trade in for a new phone, and there’s all this talk about eSims. Now I feel like I’m not quite as much in the dark!
I will say that when I traveled full time as a nomad from 2014-2018 in 15 different countries, I had an unlocked iPhone (meaning I wasn’t locked into any US carrier and could change SIM cards as I went). It was super easy (and cheap!) to do this - in Cambodia, for example, they were hawking them at the airport upon arrival for around $5. In Thailand it was $10 for a month (AT&T in the US wanted a fortune for their “international plan”!)
However what I mostly found myself doing was calling people on WhatsApp or FaceBook messenger (or others) and they sounded like they were on the next room, sound quality was so good! Those services were totally free. Of course, the people you’re calling had to be signed up, and my elderly dad wasn’t up to that task, so I just used the paid Skype, which costed practically nothing and I could call his landline from Thailand (he didn’t need to be signed up to Skype).
I realize communication things are changing rapidly, however my point is that even 8 years ago it wasn’t hard to navigate your way around the world.
(The main reason I still got the sims was to be able to use google maps & translate, etc although free WiFi seems pretty readily available around the world as well).
Nancy - I think your recommendations are spot on and I highly recommend Airalo for travel when a data-only plan will do. I currently live in the US. Traveled to Germany for 2 weeks over the summer. My husband was in Germany for 5 weeks. He needed access to his US number - our AT&T bill topped $300...I used Airalo for $7! If you have a US carrier with a $10/day International day pass, I recommend only using this as needed (check in once a week?). My data plan with Airalo worked like a charm. I used WhatsApp to communicate and had invaluable access to Google Maps, AirBnb, and the DB train app (loved that 9 Euro monthly train pass!!!) etc, to manage our trip. One AirBnb host asked that I call or text upon arrival. Knowing that was not possible, I simply asked her to communicate via WhatsApp; no problem. Another friend traveling Germany with us continued on to 3 countries in Scandinavia - he purchased a single Airalo plan that covered all of Europe and it worked perfectly. That said, if you are traveling to Portugal and need to accomplish banking or other tasks, you may find having a local PT phone number is better than a data-only plan. Happy traveling!!!
Hi Nancy and Denise- Thank you for the info about E-sims. I have read about them previously but have never used one. This is good info for me to keep in mind. However, I have T-Mobile as my carrier and a great monthly plan for those 55+ that includes unlimited text, talk and data in the US, Canada and Mexico and unlimited text and data in a couple of hundred other countries. I pay no roaming charges but if I make a call there is a cost of 25 cents per minute. Last year I traveled to Portugal and Spain and had great service and this year I have been to France, Italy, Switzerland, Leichtenstein, Germany and Austria and had excellent service in all locations. Soon I will travel to Turkey and Greece and I anticipate the same. My monthly cost is $30 per line and as soon as I cross borders I receive an automatic notification from T-Mobile informing me of service availability in the country to which I have just been welcomed. I have never needed to do anything with my phone settings and retain the ability to hop on free Wi-Fi if available or use cellular data from local towers if there is no WiFi in the area. It is rare that service is unavailable. I have had wonderful coverage - often better in European rural areas than rural areas of day...Maine. I don’t know anything about agreements between phone carriers in the EU (clearly Switzerland is not part but I had free coverage there), but this has been a great option for me.
Hi Nancy! There's no reason why you'd need another SIM than your Portuguese one in Italy, due to free EU/EEA roaming.
Switzerland is another story, as they are not technically part of either the EU or EEA, although they still have very close integration with them both through lots of bilateral agreements. Still, quite a few European phone providers include free roaming in Switzerland, so it's worth checking before visiting. For what it's worth, neither MEO, Vodafone Portugal, or NOS includes Switzerland in their free roaming zone.
Such a timely topic. We are two weeks away from visiting Tuscany and Piedmont and the getting the cell phone (roaming) issue sorted was on my to-do list. We'd be fine with a data-only connectivity, but I still need to talk to Vodafone PT to explore our options/cost.
Also, knowing what your typical data consumption is is a good piece of information to have and knowing that Google maps is not a significant contributor to consumption.
Thanks for sharing your useful experience.