I have an Orange eSIM with a France number that I have kept alive by reactivating it at least once every 6 months. It’s good for all Europe, without roaming charges, so that’s easy to do. Having the same number all the time is convenient, but more importantly I have gone through the hassle of providing passport info to Orange, which is a government requirement if you want a number for more than a couple of weeks. I think that’s an EU thing.
The local number is good for calling hotels and for making restaurant reservations. Just having that is a game changer.
For my wife’s we don’t need a number, so I just use Nomad for her data only eSIM, and get a new one each time. The cost is about $12-15, and you get whatever carrier you get, but the service has been good so far no I keep using Nomad.
We can text each other using WhatsApp, and you can even use WhatsApp for voice calls. The sound quality is acceptable.
Watch out: roaming costs are a thing of the past in the EU, not in Europe. Vistising Switzerland, the UK, and various other European countries outside of the (expanded) EU area can/will cause roaming charges.
This can be especially annoying when near the border, as your phone can easily pick up a non-EU cell tower and you’ve probably enabled roaming already (as you are in a different country after all). With a bad carrier combo this can cost you whole euros per call or text.
You’ll probably never run into this problem, but with how good we’ve got it here in the EU, it’s easy to forget about the existence of roaming costs as a tourist.
The travel eSIMs are a bit different. My Orange plan covers Turkey and the UK, which I specifically wanted, and probably Switzerland as well. For my wife, I needed to get a “world” plan that covered Turkey, otherwise the Europe plan would have covered the UK.
But that’s an important point. The travel plans are NOT the same as regular plans in some ways.
Which eSIM do you buy for the EU?
I have an Orange eSIM with a France number that I have kept alive by reactivating it at least once every 6 months. It’s good for all Europe, without roaming charges, so that’s easy to do. Having the same number all the time is convenient, but more importantly I have gone through the hassle of providing passport info to Orange, which is a government requirement if you want a number for more than a couple of weeks. I think that’s an EU thing.
The local number is good for calling hotels and for making restaurant reservations. Just having that is a game changer.
For my wife’s we don’t need a number, so I just use Nomad for her data only eSIM, and get a new one each time. The cost is about $12-15, and you get whatever carrier you get, but the service has been good so far no I keep using Nomad.
We can text each other using WhatsApp, and you can even use WhatsApp for voice calls. The sound quality is acceptable.
Watch out: roaming costs are a thing of the past in the EU, not in Europe. Vistising Switzerland, the UK, and various other European countries outside of the (expanded) EU area can/will cause roaming charges.
This can be especially annoying when near the border, as your phone can easily pick up a non-EU cell tower and you’ve probably enabled roaming already (as you are in a different country after all). With a bad carrier combo this can cost you whole euros per call or text.
You’ll probably never run into this problem, but with how good we’ve got it here in the EU, it’s easy to forget about the existence of roaming costs as a tourist.
The travel eSIMs are a bit different. My Orange plan covers Turkey and the UK, which I specifically wanted, and probably Switzerland as well. For my wife, I needed to get a “world” plan that covered Turkey, otherwise the Europe plan would have covered the UK.
But that’s an important point. The travel plans are NOT the same as regular plans in some ways.
Thanks!