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The eSIM Setup That Costs Me $8 a Month Across 40 Countries

I've tested Airalo, Holafly, and Nomad across four continents. Here's exactly which one wins by region — and why I never pay full price for roaming.

Somewhere between my third airport in a week and my second dead SIM card, I decided I was done with physical SIMs forever. That was about two years and forty countries ago. Since then I’ve run almost entirely on eSIMs — and my average monthly data bill sits around eight dollars.

That number surprises people. It also requires a bit of strategy, which is what this piece is about.

I’m not going to tell you eSIMs are magic. They’re not. There are still dead zones, speed caps, and providers that quietly throttle you after 500 MB. But once you understand the real per-GB costs by region, you stop overpaying immediately. So let me break it down.

I’ve tried maybe a dozen eSIM apps. Three have earned a permanent spot on my phone: Airalo, Holafly, and Nomad. Each has a genuinely different sweet spot, and none of them is universally best.

Airalo is the OG. Biggest catalog, most countries, and usually the cheapest per-GB when you’re buying region bundles rather than single-country plans. Their “Asante” Africa plan (1 GB, 30 days, around $4.50) is absurdly good. Europe plans run about $2.50–$4 per GB depending on size, which beats most local SIMs I’ve found at airports. The app is a bit clunky but functional. Customer support is slow — plan ahead.

Holafly sells itself on “unlimited data” and that headline is attractive. The reality: most plans throttle to 1 Mbps after you hit a daily threshold, which is fine for maps and messaging but miserable for uploading content or video calls. Their prices are high per-GB ($12–$18 for a week in Europe) but if you’re a heavy user who just wants to stop tracking megabytes, the flat-rate simplicity has value. I use Holafly specifically for Japan and South Korea, where their unlimited plans are surprisingly competitive and the throttle feels less punishing on faster base networks.

Nomad is the one I recommend to people who visit Southeast Asia frequently. Their regional SEA plan (10 GB across Thailand, Vietnam, Indonesia, Malaysia, and others, 30 days) regularly comes in at $15–$18 total — that’s $1.50–$1.80 per GB across a region where you might hop countries every week. The coverage quality in Vietnam and Cambodia specifically beats Airalo in my experience.

Here’s roughly what I pay per gigabyte when buying the largest plan that makes sense for my trip length. Smaller plans cost more per GB — always buy bigger than you think you need.

Europe (most countries)

• Airalo regional: ~$2.50–$3.50/GB (5 GB plan)
• Nomad regional: ~$3.00–$4.00/GB
• Holafly: unlimited, ~$14–$18/week flat

Southeast Asia

• Nomad regional: ~$1.50–$1.80/GB
• Airalo regional: ~$2.00–$2.50/GB
• Holafly: varies widely by country, not my first pick here

Japan and South Korea

• Holafly unlimited: ~$14–$16/week (wins if you use 5+ GB)
• Airalo Japan: ~$3.50–$5/GB
• Nomad: limited coverage, skip it

Latin America

• Airalo regional: ~$3.50–$5/GB depending on country coverage
• Nomad: spotty — check country list carefully before buying
• Holafly: priced similarly to Airalo but with throttling risk

Middle East and North Africa

• Airalo wins here almost every time, ~$3–$5/GB
• Very few Nomad or Holafly plans cover this region well

Sub-Saharan Africa

• Airalo’s regional “Asante” plan is genuinely the best option I’ve found at ~$4–$5/GB
• Build in backup: coverage gaps are real outside major cities

The thing that gets my bill to $8/month isn’t just smart eSIM buying. It’s that I don’t pay for voice calls at all.

I ported my real number to Google Voice years ago. Calls and texts come through WiFi or data. When I’m abroad, I use a small data eSIM and Google Voice handles the rest. If you’re in the EU or have a US number you need to keep active, this setup is trivially easy to replicate. Combine it with WhatsApp or Signal for most contacts and you genuinely do not need a roaming phone plan.

The math: a 3 GB Airalo plan for a week in Portugal runs me about $7. That’s it. No roaming fees, no carrier surprises, no $45 international add-on from my home carrier.

I buy eSIMs before departure for anywhere that might have slow airport WiFi or where I’ll need navigation immediately on landing. That covers most of the world. The exceptions:

Buy on arrival: Japan (airport SIMs and eSIMs are excellent and sometimes cheaper than international apps), and anywhere in Southeast Asia where local eSIMs from 7-Eleven or convenience stores are genuinely the cheapest option — though this requires knowing what you’re doing.

Never wing it: Anywhere in the Middle East or Africa. Roaming rates from your home carrier in these regions are brutal. Buy before you fly.

If you’re building a proper multi-city itinerary, our destination guides include connectivity notes for each region — useful for knowing whether a local SIM is worth the hassle or if an eSIM app beats it.

I definately paid for a Holafly “unlimited” plan once in France without reading the throttle policy. Had to video call for work and spent thirty minutes buffering. Now I check the fine print on every single plan.

Other errors I’ve made and seen:

• Buying a single-country plan for a multi-country trip (Airalo’s regional plans exist for exactly this reason — use them)
• Forgetting to activate the eSIM before landing (some plans start the clock on activation, not on purchase; others start on purchase — read this carefully)
• Assuming 1 GB is enough for a week (it’s not if you use Google Maps heavily or stream anything; I budget 2–3 GB per week minimum)
• Not having a backup plan — I keep one small dormant eSIM from a previous trip as emergency backup

For travelers with medical needs or accessibility requirements who depend on reliable connectivity for navigation and communication, the stakes are higher. I’d point you to this piece on planning a careful trip to Vienna with chronic illness considerations — it has solid notes on staying connected when connectivity is safety-critical.

On a heavy travel month — say, three weeks across multiple countries — my eSIM spend looks like this:

• 1x Airalo Europe regional (5 GB): ~$16
• 1x Nomad SEA regional (10 GB): ~$17
• Google Voice: free (I’m grandfathered in; new users pay $3/month for a ported number)

That’s about $33 for a genuinely heavy travel month. On lighter months — a week in one country, mostly WiFi — I’m closer to $6–$10. The $8 average holds up over a year.

If you’re traveling somewhere specific and want to cross-reference connectivity with trip planning, our Barcelona accessibility guide is a good example of how we think about connectivity as a practical trip variable, not an afterthought. Same goes for knowing where you’ll actually have reception when navigating Michelin-starred restaurant reservations around the world — a spotty eSIM at the wrong moment is its own kind of travel disaster.

If you’re starting from zero: download Airalo, buy a regional plan one size larger than you think you need, and port your number to Google Voice. That setup will serve you in 90% of destinations better than any roaming add-on your carrier sells.

For Southeast Asia, add Nomad. For Japan, try Holafly’s unlimited once to see if it fits how you travel. After a few trips you’ll have a feel for which provider wins in which region — and you’ll stop paying for connectivity that doesn’t work.

Your home carrier’s international roaming plan is almost certainly the worst deal available to you — there are better options in every region, and they take five minutes to set up.

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