Airalo: eSIM Travel & Internet 4+

Rarely take time to write reviews but I’m blown away by Airalo in Japan. The country is rarely covered for UK roaming packages and many people hire a wifi unit which is another thing to remember to charge etc but I gave Airalo a go for mine and partners phone and it has seriously not missed a beat. We’ve been from Tokyo to Kyoto to Osaka to Nara to Kobe and the phone has worked perfectly everywhere even on bullet train which is where I am writing this from! I wish my phone worked so well at home where mobile signal is terrible. This even works in Shinkansen tunnels!

The only bit of advice is read the instructions carefully before just hitting next next next. When apple prompts you make sure you keep your default line for calls and iMessage set to your main home sim tariff and also to “swap data as needed” between the sims. Then make sure you have turned data roaming ON on the eSIM and OFF on your home sim tariff. Or just turn the home sim tariff LINE OFF completely if you prefer. Airalo would be good to link to a little video for showing this as it’s not too obvious. Also, if your eSIM gives you a message when at home saying “failed to register” it will keep trying in background and will work when you hit the country you have purchased it for. Approx £15 for 10gb faultless data in Japan with convenience of on your phone = amazing.

Btw. My mum is currently in Turkey with one of these and it’s working beautifully also.

Hi there. Thank you for your amazing review! We're thrilled to hear that Airalo has provided you with reliable and convenient internet connectivity throughout your travels in Japan and that it is also working well for your mom in Turkey. We appreciate your feedback regarding the instructions and will take it into consideration for future improvements. Enjoy your seamless connectivity and have a fantastic time exploring!

This is the first time I’ve used an e-sim and have to say I’m impressed. I was a little nervous to begin with not knowing what to expect. I decided to use it for a cruise to the USA and took out the 2gb for 15 days. I needn’t have worried it was relatively easy to set up and only had a little hiccup on the switching it off and back on but worked out not to just switch it to off but to go in and switch the line off as well or you get a message constantly flashing unable to find provider and you can’t do anything with your phone. It’s good for basic contact hello goodbye and messages though what’s app or messenger type of thing any internet based messenger. I must admit it was hard to not use my phone and the apps like I normally do but if you do use it a lot you will chew through the minimal data you get and need to top up which could end up quite expensive. I switched virtually all my apps off, my iCloud and backups to ensure didn’t use my data up within a day 😂
The e-sim is convenient and saves all the hassle of swooping sims about and I would definitely recommend this e-sim and will use for future travels, but will weigh the benefits of using my own sim at £2 a day and the freedom to use my phone as I do normally against having limited access for a few £’s for the duration of the holiday. Possible more benefits in the more exotic areas that your home sim doesn’t cover.

Hi there. Thank you so much for your review! We're thrilled to hear that you had a positive experience using our our services for your cruise to the USA. We understand that there was a small hiccup with switching it off and back on, but we're glad you were able to figure it out. It's great to know that the eSIM was convenient and saved you the hassle of switching SIM cards. We appreciate your feedback about the data usage and will take it into consideration for future improvements. Thank you for recommending our eSIM, and we look forward to helping you stay connected on many trips to come!

This is the first time I’ve used an eSIM as I’ve always bought physical SIM cards whenever I’ve travelled. On this trip I was travelling through 4 different countries in South East Asia - Thailand, Vietnam, Laos, and Cambodia - and so I decided to try out an regional eSIM covering Asia to see if it was any good. The cons are that it is cheaper to buy individual SIM cards in each country, but the pros are the absolute convenience of landing each time in a different country and seeing your phone connect automatically to the local network - brilliant! So saving time queuing for a SIM card, fiddling about changing the cards over and able to connect with your friends or accommodation before even getting off the plane! Another bonus is that it is incredibly easy to set up, simple to top up if you use more GB then you expected, and it actually works REALLY WELL. One piece of advice I would give to anyone using this (and something I wished I had known beforehand) is to switch off the photo synching from the eSIM (this cost me nearly 2GB within 10 days before I realised) as you can sync your phone for free when you connect to WIFI. Another thing (which I DID realise) is to turn off your VPN (if you use one) as this drinks GB data like nothing else! Apart from that, I fully recommend using Airalo eSIM, you won’t be disappointed.

Hello, thank you so much for taking the time to leave such great feedback. We appreciate that we have become your travel companion during your visit to South East Asia. Thank you for pointing out the pros and cons of our product, and we are working hard to improve on it. A part of your comment that caught our attention was your advice on saving data usage, and we are grateful for that. We look forward to helping you stay connected on many trips to come!