Travel tips: Avoid crazy cellphone bills with eSIMs

I'm pretty sure we've all done it... driven across a border, used our phones thinking it can't be THAT bad, then sure enough... you get your bill, and it's 3x higher than usual. Um... no thanks!

Recently when I went to Mexico, I discovered eSIMs, and instead of paying $16 CAD/day, I paid $30 CAD for 30g over an entire month. Yeah... big savings.

What is an eSIM?

You know that tiny SIM card that you put in your phone to connect it with your service provider? Well eSIMs do the same thing, they connect you with a service provider, without having to change your SIM card! You just download it straight to your phone.

Depending on the phone you have, you can toggle between which SIM card you're currently using, and some phones/plans even allow you to keep BOTH active and choose which SIM card/phone plan you use for texting, calling, or data usage.

The company I bought my eSIM from for Mexico was Airalo. Again, depending on the phone you have, installing it can be SUPER easy, or it might take some figuring out. My boyfriend got the exact same eSIM from Airalo as I did, and since he has an iPhone he just installed it and was good to go. On my Android however, I had to change some network settings to make it work. Once I figured it out though, I had instant connection!

That being said, Airalo makes it super easy. They e-mail you instructions on how to install the eSIM based on what type of phone you have, and while we bought an eSIM for Mexico, Airalo has eSIMs available for over 200 countries and regions.

Click this link to go to the Airalo website