Before you go · step 7
An eSIM is the easiest way to be online out there: you sort it at home and you are connected the moment you land. The catch is that there is no single package that suits everybody. A few questions below and you will know what to filter for, then you pick it yourself from the full range.
First evening, first photo
None of this is dramatic on its own. Together it is the difference between walking out of the airport knowing where you are going, and standing at arrivals at two in the morning with no idea and no map.
Thailand, Vietnam, Laos, Cambodia and the Philippines are not in your European bundle. Roam like at home covers the EU and the EEA, and nothing beyond it. Without an eSIM you pay per megabyte or buy a daily pass from your own provider, and both add up fast. Look up your provider’s out of bundle rates before you go, so the bill is not the surprise.
Every airport in Asia has the stalls ready, but you hand over your passport, fill in a form and wait. At two in the morning after a twelve hour flight you will have precisely no appetite for that.
It works in the lobby, sort of works in your room, and does not exist on the night bus, on the slow boat, or on a scooter heading for a waterfall you can no longer find.
Ordering a Grab, putting your hostel on the map, telling someone at home you landed: you want to do all of that as you step off the plane, not two counters further along.
Three questions about your trip and you will know what to filter for: one regional package or separate ones per country, how much data, and for how many days. You only go to Trip.com when you click the button yourself.
It is a rule of thumb, not a measurement. Want to be sure? Look in your phone’s data usage and see what you get through on an ordinary day at home, then work from that. On the road you tend to use a bit more navigation and a bit less streaming than you do at home.
First things first
*#06#
Type that code into your phone as though you were dialling a number. A short list of numbers appears straight away. Is there an EID among them? Then your phone has an eSIM and you are set. Only an IMEI? Then it cannot, and you become a SIM card buyer instead. It costs you nothing and it takes five seconds, so do it before you read on.
iPhone XS, XS Max and XR, and everything after
Anything from 2018 onwards does eSIM. Two things worth knowing. The iPhone Air has no SIM tray at all, anywhere in the world, so on that phone an eSIM is not a convenience but the only way online. And in twelve territories, the United States and Canada among them, Apple sells every iPhone from the 14 onwards without a tray. Bought yours in Europe? Then a numbered iPhone still has both.
Galaxy S20 and newer
Plus the Note 20, every Z Fold and Z Flip, and part of the A series. That last bit is worth reading twice if you travel on a second hand phone: the A5x line (A54, A55, A56) does eSIM, the A3x line depends on the region it was sold in, and the A2x and below generally cannot.
Pixel 3 and newer
From the Pixel 7 on you can even run two eSIMs at once, so your home subscription and your travel eSIM side by side with no card in the phone at all.
Two things that catch people out. Phones sold in mainland China, Hong Kong, Macau or India often have no eSIM at all, even when the identical model does everywhere else. And a phone that is still locked to a carrier will not take a second eSIM: get it unlocked before you go, which is usually one phone call.
Source: the eSIM support pages of Apple, Samsung and Google. Checked on 13 September 2026.
From ordering to being online is about fifteen minutes, and most of that you do at home. Step four is where nearly everybody comes unstuck, so read that one twice.
You get a QR code by email. Installing that code needs internet, which is exactly what you do not have on arrival. Keep the email and screenshot the code as well: at an airport with no working wifi that is the whole difference.
On your phone: Settings, Mobile network, add eSIM, scan the code. With most packages the validity only starts once the eSIM first connects to a network. Do read how yours handles that though, because it varies by provider.
Leave it in the phone so your number stays reachable, but switch data roaming off for it. Otherwise your home subscription quietly grabs the local network while your eSIM sits there ready.
This sounds like a contradiction and it is the mistake most people make. A travel eSIM works over roaming itself, on a local network. Leave roaming off for that eSIM and you stay offline with absolutely nothing broken.
Your eSIM usually has no phone number of its own. WhatsApp, Signal and the text codes from your bank all stay attached to your own number and run happily over your eSIM’s data. Nothing changes about how people reach you.
We use an eSIM ourselves, but we are not going to pretend the card from the 7-Eleven is worthless. For some trips it is straightforwardly the better buy.
What the eSIM wins
What the local SIM wins
Our rule of thumb: travelling through several countries, or away for less than a month? The eSIM wins. Staying two months in one country and getting through a lot of data? Buy a local SIM once you are there and use the eSIM only for your first few days. That last plan is a good one anyway: being online on arrival day is half the battle.
Six things that are not on the product photo but decide whether you are happy with your package. Open whichever applies to you.
A travel eSIM gives you internet, not a local phone number. So you cannot make calls or send texts from it. In practice you barely notice, because WhatsApp, Signal, Google Maps and your email all run over data.
Do need a local number, because a rental place wants to ring you back? Filter for packages that include calls and texts, or just buy a cheap local SIM when you get there.
With most packages the validity counts from the moment the eSIM first picks up a network, not from when you ordered it. So buying it three weeks ahead costs you nothing.
Do read the terms of your package though. The odd provider starts the clock at purchase, and then you buy it the day before you fly instead.
With a daily package you get a fresh slice of data every day and whatever you do not use that day is gone. With a total bundle you get one pile of GB and you divide it up yourself. There is a filter for it.
Backpacking with a lot of quiet days and the occasional one where you have to sort everything out at once? Then a total bundle is almost always the nicer thing to own.
If you want your laptop or your travel partner’s phone on your hotspot, the package has to permit it. Not all of them do, and there is a filter for that too.
Two of you sharing one eSIM over the hotspot? Then budget the data of two people, or you are out halfway through the trip.
Trip.com separates packages that work over roaming from packages that put you on the local network. Roaming usually covers more countries at once; local is normally faster in one place.
Crossing several countries? Choose roaming. Staying a month on one island? Local is the nicer one.
Google, WhatsApp and Instagram are blocked in China. A roaming eSIM that routes your traffic outside the country often gets around it, but that is not a guarantee anybody can give you up front.
Transiting through China? Install a VPN before you leave whatever else you do. Once you are inside the country you often cannot download one any more.
Work down it in the weeks before you go. Your browser remembers where you got to.
The sign behind him still sells call minutes
Recommending one package would be easier for us and wrong for you. Our readers fly from ten different countries on a dozen different routes, and the package that fits a two week trip to Thailand is not the one that fits four months from Hanoi to Palawan. Trip.com sells eSIMs from dozens of providers side by side, with traveller reviews and filters for country, days, data and hotspot. You can work out what fits your route in two minutes.
Do take that one last step though: open the package and read the coverage list. That is where it says whether Laos and Cambodia are included, and that is exactly where regional packages let people down.
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An eSIM is a SIM card already built into your phone. Instead of sliding a little card into a tray, you scan a QR code and load a data bundle onto it. Your physical SIM can stay where it is, so you have both at once: your own number to stay reachable, and your eSIM for the internet.
It depends on your route. One country and a package for that country is simplest and usually fastest. Several countries strung together and you want a regional Asia package. Watch Laos and Cambodia especially: they fall outside the coverage of many regional bundles, including ones that say ASIA in large letters. Always check the package’s own country list before you pay.
Yes. Your physical SIM stays in the phone, so you stay reachable on your number and you still get your text codes. Do switch data roaming off for that SIM, or outside the EU it will use data anyway. WhatsApp and Signal are tied to your own number and carry on working over your eSIM’s data.
As a rule of thumb: around 0.3 GB a day if you only navigate and use WhatsApp, around 0.7 GB a day for normal use with social media and video calls, and around 1.5 GB a day if you stream or run a laptop off the hotspot. To be sure, look at your phone’s data usage and see what an ordinary day at home costs you.
Usually not: most travel eSIMs are data only and give you no local number. You call over WhatsApp, Signal or Messenger, which works fine. If you do want a local number, filter for packages that include calls and texts, or pick up a cheap local SIM when you arrive.
Install at home, on wifi, because installing needs internet. Activation happens on arrival: with most packages the validity starts when the eSIM first connects to a network. Do check that with the package you buy, because providers differ.
Type the EID code into your phone as if dialling. An EID among the numbers means your phone has an eSIM on board. Broadly: iPhone XS, XS Max and XR from 2018 and everything after, Samsung Galaxy S20 and newer, Google Pixel 3 and newer. Note that phones sold in mainland China, Hong Kong, Macau or India often lack the eSIM even when the same model has it elsewhere, and that a phone locked to a carrier will not take one.
Not necessarily. Staying a long time in one country and using a lot of data, a local SIM is often better value. Travelling through several countries, or away for under a month, the eSIM wins on convenience and usually on price too, because you are not buying again in every country. What an eSIM wins regardless is day one: you are online the moment you land.
Check three things. Is the eSIM selected as the line for mobile data? Is data roaming switched on for that eSIM, because a travel eSIM works over roaming itself? And have you restarted the phone once since landing? Nine times out of ten it is one of those three. Still nothing, find some wifi and pull up the order email for your package.
Then you have an iPhone Air, or an iPhone bought in one of the twelve territories where Apple sells them without a tray. Nothing is wrong: those phones do eSIM and nothing else, so a travel eSIM is your only option rather than one of two. Everything on this page still applies, you simply skip the part about your physical SIM staying in the phone.
You know which countries have to be covered, roughly how much data you need and where the small print bites. Filter on Trip.com for your countries and your number of days, read the coverage list, and buy it at home on wifi. Then you can go back to thinking about the good parts.
Device details checked on 13 September 2026.