eSIM, local SIM or roaming: the real cost of data abroad

Everyone knows someone with a roaming-bill story. The colleague who streamed one football match from a beach and talked about the invoice for a year. The friend whose phone quietly backed up 2,000 holiday photos over cellular somewhere above the Atlantic. These stories all have the same moral: data abroad is only expensive when you haven't decided anything before leaving.

So let's decide. Three options, honestly compared.

Option 1 — Carrier roaming: convenient, until it isn't

The simplest option: do nothing, land, accept the welcome SMS. Inside the EU with a European plan, this is actually the right answer for short trips — « roam like at home » makes your allowance work across member states (within fair-use limits, which a long stay can exhaust).

Outside the EU is where the genre changes. Depending on your operator, you're looking at travel passes billed per day — often several euros to over ten euros each day, whether you use them fully or not — or, worse, out-of-bundle rates billed per megabyte, which is how a few minutes of video becomes a story you tell for a year. The real issue isn't even the price: it's that you discover it afterwards.

« Roaming isn't expensive by accident. It's expensive by default. »

Option 2 — The local SIM: cheap data, hidden costs

The backpacker classic. Local SIMs are often genuinely cheap per gigabyte, and for a long stay in one country, they remain a solid play. But count the hidden costs: the queue at the airport counter after a red-eye flight, the paperwork — many countries require passport registration to sell you a SIM — the shop that's closed when you land at 11 p.m., and your own SIM spending the trip in a pocket, which means your real number can't receive that one bank code you suddenly need at checkout.

Per-gigabyte champion, logistics included. You pay the difference in time and small frictions, at exactly the moment of the trip when you have the least patience.

Option 3 — The travel eSIM: decided before, boring after

The eSIM flips the timeline: everything happens at home, on wifi, the night before. You buy the plan for your destination, scan a QR code, and your phone now has a second line waiting. Wheels touch down, the eSIM finds a network, and the trip starts connected — no counter, no welcome-SMS roulette, and a price that was fixed when you were still on your couch.

Your physical SIM stays in place for calls and SMS (data off — that's the one setting that matters), so bank codes and the people who only know your number lose nothing. The honest limits: your phone needs to be eSIM-compatible — check yours in 30 seconds — and travel eSIMs are data-first, so they complement your number rather than replace it.

So which one wins?

Annoyingly reasonable answer: it depends on the trip — but it never depends on luck.

— Short trip inside the EU, European plan: your own roaming, no purchase needed.
— Months in one country, big data needs: a local SIM earns its queue.
— Everything else — city breaks outside the EU, multi-country routes, landing late, working on the move, or simply refusing surprise bills: the travel eSIM is the option you set up once and stop thinking about.

The cheapest data plan is always the decision you made before boarding. The most expensive one is the absence of a decision.

— The AEY team.