SunnoroData abroad
An eSIM is a phone plan you install from an app, with no physical card and nothing to collect. You set it up at home, it activates when you land, and you walk out of the airport with maps already working.
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First: check whether you need one
You may well not, and we'd rather say so than sell you something.
Travelling inside the EU on an EU plan? Roaming is included at no extra cost, with a fair-use data cap that's generous for a holiday. You need nothing.
UK plans post-Brexit vary — some kept free EU roaming, some charge £2 a day. Check before you buy anything.
Some plans include worldwide roaming at no charge. Worth two minutes in your provider's app.
Where an eSIM genuinely wins: travelling outside your home region, a plan that charges €10–15 a day for roaming, or a long trip where you'd blow through a fair-use cap.
How much data you actually need
People wildly overestimate. On a normal holiday — maps, messaging, a few searches, photos uploading over hotel Wi-Fi — a week runs about 1–3GB per phone. Two weeks, 3–5GB.
What eats data is video: streaming on the plane-to-hotel transfer, or handing a child a phone on a long drive. If that's the plan, download it before you go and budget 5–10GB instead.
For a family, one phone with data and the rest on its hotspot is usually cheaper than four eSIMs. The hotspot phone's battery takes the hit, so bring a power bank.
Before you fly
- Check your phone supports eSIM. iPhone XS and later, Pixel 3 and later, recent Samsung Galaxy S and Note. It must also be carrier-unlocked.
- Install it at home, on Wi-Fi. This is the step people get wrong — installing needs a connection, so doing it at the airport in a country where you have no data is a problem that solves itself badly.
- Don't activate it until you land, if the plan is validity-limited. Installing and activating are separate.
- Turn off data roaming on your normal SIM and leave it on for calls and texts, so your number still works without a surprise bill.
- Download offline maps for your destination regardless. Costs nothing and covers the gap between landing and the eSIM waking up.
What an eSIM won't do
Most travel eSIMs are data only. No local phone number, and no calls or SMS on that line. That matters more than you'd think: restaurant bookings, a taxi driver trying to find you, and the SMS codes your bank sends. Keep your normal SIM active for texts, and use WhatsApp or FaceTime for calls.
It also won't fix bad coverage. An eSIM rides on the same local networks as everyone else — in rural Greece or the Scottish Highlands it will be exactly as slow.
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