My last trip with the best eSIM: 3 countries, 6 weeks, stress-free!

Let’s face it: we can no longer live without our phones, especially a data connection. This became clear during my last six-week trip, during which I visited three countries as a solo female traveler and relied upon Uber and last-minute accommodations and flights. And what saved me was using eSIM! If you don’t know yet what an eSIM is, how it works, and why it’s one of the greatest inventions, read my post below (including some fun moments from the trip and which is the beste eSIM for international travel).

I started traveling abroad when smartphones were not yet common (so finding the beste eSIM was not a problem yet). I would connect with family and friends at home by going to an internet café to send emails and using this time to research flights and accommodations, too. Then smartphones arrived, and like most people, I became very dependent on data connection.

During my first years using smartphones, the best solution available (until eSIM for international travel were invented) was to use a SIM card from the local country: I would land and go straight to a SIM card store to purchase a physical SIM card.

It worked fine, except for the many times I would lose or misplace my regular SIM card or when I could not find a store at the airport or in town and had to rely on crappy Wi-Fi from hostels and restaurants or be without a data connection. You can’t imagine how often it happened that my mom would alert half world because I did not reach out to her to confirm safe arrival within 2 hours of landing!

As you can imagine, this is not ideal, especially when almost everywhere you need the internet to move around or do anything now: from getting a cab to scanning online menus in restaurants to contacting hotels requesting late-night check-in, to connecting with other travelers on social media. Sure, you can survive without the internet. I enjoy being offline sometimes, but not when I arrive at 1 am at Mumbai airport, and I count on data connection to get an Uber that safely drives me to my hotel.

This whole SIM card thing always gives me stress, and it’s really the part of every trip I don’t enjoy having to sort out.

I was preparing to leave for a six-week solo trip across Sri Lanka, Maldives, and India, and the idea of finding a SIM card in each country was already making me anxious.

Have you ever traveled to these countries? I genuinely love them, but one thing that still hits my boundary is landing in Colombo airport to find thousands of men shouting outside at the exit trying to sell their services: a taxi, an accommodation, a money exchange, etc. I usually can deal with this, but not when it’s 6 am, after a 15-hour trip, sleepless and aching from the night spent on the plane.

I wasn’t looking forward to this welcome, and before leaving for my trip, I was thinking of the best way to organize my transport to Weligama (my first destination in Sri Lanka). Should I find a driver in advance (but how would I find him among all the other hustlers outside the airport), should I look at how to reach it via train/bus (who knows what time I’ll be done with immigration and what’s the timetable of public transport), should I find a taxi driver at the airport (but what’s the right price)?

Then, a friend told me about eSIM for international travel, and life was never the same! I could have easily chosen the commuting option that worked best for me because as soon as I landed in Sri Lanka, I would have had data connection! In fact, by using the beste eSIM I didn’t waste time finding a SIM card store at the airport to buy and install a physical SIM card. I didn’t wait until I arrived at my hotel to inform family and friends that I had safely landed. I didn’t have headaches trying to find the best way to reach my final destination.

I had a data connection as soon as I landed and could sort everything out within minutes. Having an eSIM for international travel made arriving in a new country totally stress-free!

I met many people on this trip who didn’t know about eSIM for international travel, so let me briefly summarize what it is, who can use it, and how it works (or as we say in Dutch, wat is een eSIM, wie kan een eSIM gebruiken, hoe werkt een eSIM)

What is an eSIM? (Wat is een eSIM?)

An eSIM for international travel is a digital SIM that allows you to activate a data plan from any carrier without using a physical SIM. Basically, you purchase a data plan from any carrier and follow a straightforward procedure to install the eSIM. You’ll have a data connection from the carrier of the country you are in.

What’s the difference between eSIM and physical SIM cards? (Wat is het verschil tussen eSIM en fysieke simkaarten?)

• A physical SIM is a removable chip, while an eSIM is embedded in the device.
• A physical SIM is tied to a specific carrier, while eSIM is carrier-independent.
• Physical SIM is removable and can be lost or stolen, while an eSIM can be uninstalled but can’t be lost or stolen. 

Who can use an eSIM? (Wie kan een eSIM gebruiken?)

Not all phones are equipped with eSIM. Before purchasing any plan, ensure your phone has this functionality (you can Google it by researching the model of your phone, although most eSIM providers list which phones and models have this functionality).

How does an eSIM work and which is the beste eSIM? (Hoe werkt een eSIM en welke is de beste eSIM?)

Once you confirm your phone supports eSIM, you can purchase a plan using any eSIM for international travel provider (I prefer Airalo for the ease of installation and the wide range of data plans offering) and install the eSIM. The installation takes just a few minutes (follow the eSIM provider instructions), and you can do it before your trip; no need to wait to land in the travel destination country. This way, you’ll have a data connection as soon as you remove the airplane mode from your phone once you have land in the country.

Why do I prefer eSIM to physical SIM cards?

1. I don’t waste time at the airport when I arrive – I can go directly outside to the driver I contacted in advance, who shared with me his live location (trust me when I say you don’t want to look for your Uber driver in Mumbai airport without being able to locate his live location – the parking of Mumbai airport is a maze!). By the time I was comfortably sitting in the car, I had already informed my apprehensive mom I landed safely, avoiding her calling the Embassy to find out if I was still alive!
2. I don’t lose my regular SIM card by putting it in my wallet or misplacing it somewhere—it used to be a tradition to spend at least an hour going through all my bags and pockets to find it, often without success. 
3. I can have multiple eSIM for international travel at once. For example, now I have three eSIMs in my phone (Sri Lanka, Maldives, and India) and my physical Dutch SIM card. If I am going to travel to one of these countries soon, all I need to do is top up the already installed eSIM with additional credit. 
4. I don’t need to find a shop to top up data (nor do I get the bad surprise of ending data at the worst possible time, like last year when I was on a bus between Oaxaca and Puerto Escondido and had no clue about the location of my hotel in Puerto Escondido). I can easily check the app to find out how much data I have left and top up with additional data if needed. 
5. I can still receive phone calls to my Dutch phone number: using eSIM, you have a data plan from the local country. Your home phone number is still active, ensuring you can receive phone calls or text messages. All you need is to turn off the data roaming of your home phone number and switch on the eSIM local country one (it’s all explained by the instructions of the eSIM providers)

I am a massive fan of eSIM for international travel now and recommended them to many fellow travelers during this trip, especially Airalo which I find to be the beste eSIM. I find it to be a great innovation, and it really improved the quality of my journey.

For example, when my tuk-tuk driver was totally lost (although he refused to admit it) on the way to find the entrance of the Samudratheera Maha Viharaya Buddhist temple in Mirissa (thank you Google Maps for saving us). Or when the taxi driver handed me over to a stranger in the middle of the night in Varanasi, to find out that the stranger was actually the manager of the guest house I was staying at (the taxi driver texted the guest house to inform them about road closure and a point where they could come “collect me,” and to ensure I felt safe, the guest house manager texted me on WhatsApp explaining what was going to happen).

I must say, in the Maldives, I didn’t need a data connection much as I spent most of my time swimming with sharks and scuba diving with turtles (plus, the islands are so small that you can’t really get lost).

So perhaps you should consider if and when you need a data connection and maybe opt for a short internet detox to fully embrace and enjoy the beauty around you!