Your departure date is almost here – all your dreaming about and planning for your next trip is about to come to fruition. You’ve done the 8 things I recommended before leaving home so you’re ready!!
But wait. What are you supposed to do about your phone 📞 ?
If you’re traveling overseas and your carrier has worldwide coverage, you’re all set! T-Mobile in the U.S. offers coverage in 100+ countries without any extra fees. But some of the other carriers (I’m looking at you, AT&T!) charge $10 a day for service –if you travel for 3 weeks, you’d pay $210 for coverage! 😳
What if I told you that you could get a ton of data, texts, and calls for as low as $10 a month while traveling?
How, you may ask?!? Get a SIM card.
When I began traveling full-time in 2017, the thought of getting a SIM card made my head spin. It seemed such a mystery to me.
How do I get one?
What does it do?
What about my “home” number?
I was baffled. 😲
For the first few trips, I just downloaded maps.me and Google Maps for the places I was headed so I’d have them on my phone regardless of whether I had a connection or not (and I highly recommend you do the same, with or without the SIM card.) Then I’d pop into a café or go back to my hostel or Airbnb and use the wifi there to research, send texts, book tours, and get online. That worked fine….but how nice would it be to Google “tapas near me” or “flamenco show tonight” 💃💃💃while standing on the streets of Barcelona instead?
After traveling to more than 6 countries without the convenience of data on my phone, I decided to get a SIM card in Vietnam. Somehow, I ended up on the back of some old local guy’s motorbike 🏍️ (yeah, welcome to my crazy life, right??) and he gave me a ride to a newsstand in Ho Chi Minh City to buy a SIM. The guy behind the counter tried to install one, but it wouldn’t connect…so I hopped back on the motorbike and off we went to another place. And another. And another. Seriously… I think we tried 5 or 6 places. I was frustrated, annoyed and… at the end of the day? SIM-less. I continued to use the wifi in the hostel, restaurants or cafe for the rest of my time in Southeast Asia.
Once I was back in the States I contacted my cellular provider to get a solution. I learned that my phone wasn’t “unlocked.” 🔒
Wait.
“Unlocked”?? What is that?? It meant I was still in contract with my carrier, paying a monthly amount to finance my phone. 
Because of this, they technically “owned” the phone and I wasn’t allowed to use another carrier, even overseas. Aha! This explained why I couldn’t get a SIM installed in Vietnam. I paid off the small balance due, asked them for the secret code to unlock the phone, and voila! I was SIM ready!!
Now that you know how to unlock your phone, here are 5 SIM-ple (see what I did there?) steps to get your phone ready for international use.
STEP 1 – Unlock your phone (see above.)
STEP 2 – Get your “normal”/home phone number SIM card converted to an eSIM/virtual SIM card before you embark on your next adventure overseas. Nearly all the major carriers can do this for you – as long as your phone is relatively new you can have “dual SIMs” by making one of them an eSIM. Although you can choose to get eSIMs while traveling, I found it easier to convert my home SIM to an eSIM and just buy physical SIM cards while I travel. You can have more than one eSIM loaded to your phone at the same time, and continue to use a physical SIM as well. (Confusing? Yep, a bit!) 
Having an eSIM empties the slot/drawer on the side of the phone, making it available and ready to hold a new physical SIM card. But if that’s not possible because your phone is older, no worries! You can remove your home SIM to allow the new travel SIM card to be inserted into that same slot. (Keep your home SIM somewhere safe – I tape mine inside my phone case or in my wallet. The nice thing is that if you have an eSIM, you can toggle back and forth between the travel SIM and your home eSIM if you want to text your peeps back home without having to reinstall your original card or if you need to get the annoying yet secure “two-factor authentication code” when you’re trying to log in to your bank or credit card website.
STEP 3 – Now that you’re unlocked and unloaded, you’re ready to get a SIM. Do a quick Google search and learn which carrier is better/best for wherever you’re headed. Some providers are better for the city and some are better for the outlying/remote areas. But TBH, most carriers are similar and offer great coverage, so it will come down to two determining factors – how much data do you want or need? How much will it cost? 💰
When you arrive at your new destination, you will see many SIM card providers in the airport or train station. Do a quick scan of the kiosks to see which carrier has the best package before committing to one. I recommend you purchase your SIM card there.
Many online blogs and articles recommend that you wait to buy your SIM card in the city itself rather than at the airport/train station where it may be more expensive, and you can certainly do that.
But I will tell you from experience that it takes time to find a SIM card provider in town – time you could be drinking local wines 🍷 or enjoying a spectacular view, or doing ANYTHING more fun than trudging (yes, I’ve trudged for this) around looking for a SIM card provider. 
In India, it was impossible to find a SIM card for sale outside of the airport, and eventually, I bought a virtual eSIM card (more on that below). Bottom line? It may be a couple of dollars more to purchase the SIM card at the airport but then it’s done. 🤷🏻♀️
STEP 4 – Choose a plan. SIM card plans are so cheap! In places like Turkey and Nepal, you can expect to pay $5 for 20GB of data for 14 days. In Italy, I’m paying 10 euros for 30 days for over 100GB data and calls with Iliad. 
At these SIM card kiosks and booths, you may see signs advertising “free SIM card!” That’s for the actual card/chip itself – the service plan is additional. Even if the “card” isn’t free, it’s usually only a few dollars. And take note – if you’re traveling through a few countries in Europe – a SIM card bought in France will work in Spain. And Germany. And Italy. So woo hoo! You don’t need to get a new SIM card for each country you visit in the EU. 🌍 And if you find that you need more data or minutes, you can always add that online – it’s called “topping up”.
STEP 5 – Get it installed. Are you worried about installing it yourself? 🫣 The person at the kiosk will do that for you. They often need to see (and possibly make a copy of) your passport (it’s a standard request). Then, using a fancy tool that looks like a bent paperclip they’ll pop open the little drawer on the side or back of your phone. 
Next, they’ll insert the new SIM card from the package they just opened and enter a bunch of numbers into your phone to activate the phone number, click away at their computer or sometimes on their own phone. Finally, they will ask you to restart your phone, and a bunch of texts will come through on the new number showing that you’re connected. That’s it! In less than 10 minutes, you’re ready to go!
Make sure you turn off your regular line (go to Settings and configure that) so that you’re not incurring roaming charges while you’re out…you know, roaming around. 😉
And when your trip is over, you should cut up the SIM card to destroy it… or keep it as a souvenir.
Now. About those online eSIM providers I mentioned earlier…
Airolo and Holafly are the main companies providing these. 
These eSIM cards are an option instead of getting a physical SIM card but are NOT necessarily a bargain. Convenient, yes. But cheap? Not really.
For example, Airolo offers an eSIM in Morocco for 7 days, with 1GB of data at $9 USD. (And 1GB goes fast!!!) A SIM card bought in Morocco at the Marrakech airport with 20GB of data (yep! 20 GB!) for 30 days (not just 7 days) costs only $20.
I did try Airolo while in India. I arrived in South India and figured I’d just grab a SIM card on the street and not bother getting one in the airport since I arrived late. Big mistake. In the Kerala District, you need to buy your SIM card in the airport. They are NOT sold on the streets! How did I know this? Because I trudged – yes, trudged – from tobacco shop to newsstand to convenience store in Kochi looking for a SIM card, to no avail. After wasting precious time and energy, I ended up using Airolo. It was super easy to navigate their website, convenient – and worked immediately. So there’s definitely a time and place for these online eSIM providers.
VOILA!! That’s it – easy peasy!
I honestly don’t know why this whole SIM card thing made me panic 🙀 in the beginning but it’s really not a big deal at all.
Having a local SIM will make travel more convenient, with less stress and hassle, and give you the freedom to enjoy your days on the go.
Technology. It’s amazing, ain’t it!
Now go.
Slay.
Enjoy.
“I need to move around a bit. To shuffle my surroundings. To wake up in cities I don’t know my way around and have conversations in launguages I cannot enirely comprehend. There is always this tremendous longing in my heart to be lost…be someplace else…to be far far away from all of this” ~ Beau Taplin
