Ready to hit the ground running on your next trip to Europe?
Videos by TravelAwaits
You need a solid phone plan in your back pocket. The easiest way to stay connected abroad is with an eSIM that you can activate upon arrival.
ESIMs are digital SIM cards that come with data plans that let you connect to the internet all over the world.
Previously, travelers had to buy a physical SIM card from a local phone shop to get service—now, all you need to do is download an app.
But how do they actually work? As a traveler and not a techy, I know how easy it is to get hung up on the whole process. That’s doubly true in a region like Europe where you might cross borders every other day… or even daily, depending on your itinerary.
Can’t figure out how to get your smartphone ready for your trip to Europe? Let’s use one of my favorite eSIM providers as an example: Saily.
Here’s how to buy and set up an eSIM from Saily for your next European adventure—in three easy steps.
A short intro to Saily
Saily is a premier eSIM provider with some big backing. Saily comes from Nord, the same company behind Nord VPN.
That’s a pretty big deal considering Nord’s experience in the VPN world means Saily has added security features, including ad-blocking and tracker-blocking.
Those features are great to have anywhere—but they’re even more important when we travel because we have less understanding of data laws and potential cyber threats at our destination.
Second, Saily is the official partner of Lonely Planet, which is a pretty big stamp of approval, if I’ve ever seen one. Unlike other eSIM platforms, Saily lets you choose a pan-European data plan, too, which means you don’t need to activate new eSIM plans every time you cross a border.
Now onto the fun stuff. Here’s how to buy a data plan from Saily for your next trip to Europe.
Step One: Download the Saily App
You can download Saily on the Apple App Store or via the Google Play Store. The app is free to download and won’t take up too much space on your phone. Once you download the app, you’ll be able to follow a simple set of instructions to set up your account.
[Alternatively, you can select and pay for your data plan straight from the website, then download the app afterward. To me, it makes more sense to download the app and shop there from the get-go.]
Step Two: Find the right plan and make your purchase
In the screenshot, you can see Saily’s Europe webpage. Here, you can shop around for the right plan for you. As you can see, most plans are only active for 30 days or, for larger data plans of 50 GB and over, 90 to 180 days.
I recommend a 5 or 10 GB plan for any Americans heading to Europe for a week or so. That will give you enough data to do just about everything that you do from home, from scrolling on social media to sending emails. But if you want full video streaming capabilities, go for the 50 GB plan.
Lastly, I want to point out the ‘view country list’ at the bottom of the page. The reason I prefer Saily for European adventures is that the data plans work across the European Union’s borders—and into countries that aren’t part of the EU, like the UK and Iceland.
It’s a set-it-and-forget-it solution for all types of European trips.
Step Three: Show up and have fun
How can you activate your data plan when you touch down in Europe? Thanks to the magic of Saily, you don’t need to do anything.
Your eSIM will automatically activate when your phone connects to local networks. And they’ll automatically lapse once that 30-day period ends.
