Travel in Europe with TooSIM?

[AntonioMendez]

I’m planning a trip to Europe and need an eSIM that will work reliably across several countries. Found TooSIM, and wanted to see if anyone here has used it while traveling through multiple European countries. On my last trip I tried Airalo, but it didn’t work well for me, so I’m exploring other options. Did it work well in both cities and more rural areas?

 

[wco81]

I haven't heard of TooSIM.

It seems a lot of these eSIM providers offer deals up to $10 for a few gigabytes of data.

Depends on how much data you expect to use.

Last couple of years I've been getting this on every trip:

eSIM Europe, Buy the Best Prepaid eSIM for Travelers by Orange

Buy online the best prepaid eSIM for travelers to Europe & local number with calls to the EU. Your Orange eSIM for less than 1€/GB. Immediate shipping.

www.esimholidays.com

You can also buy directly from Orange and in the summer they tend to have promotional prices.

Buy an eSIM for Europe | Orange Travel

Get the best prepaid eSIM for Europe. Enjoy seamless connectivity with affordable data plans with Orange Travel. Easy setup for travelers, locals, and expats.

travel.orange.com

I go for the 100 GB for a 2-3 week trip because I've stayed in places in Europe with slower Wifi or Wifi which simply didn't work too well.

I don't' know if it's better getting an eSIM from a major carrier like Orange. They may have the best roaming arrangements with the best networks. Often in some countries, smaller carriers offer the lowest prices but they have like speed limits and/or lesser coverage.

This Orange Europe eSIM get 5G and access to the biggest networks.

If you need just a few gigabytes or want to only spend about $10, then these 3rd-party eSIMs may have the best prices.

 

[DGal]

Hi. We are slow traveling (early retirees at 58 yrs old) for much of the next 7 years before we return to the US full time; where we will build a house on some property we own. We started out in September of this year and have covered areas of France, Belgium and Amsterdam before our Astronomy cruise in Norway. After that we went to Cyprus (to get out of Schengen) for 60 days, then into Germany and Strasbourg FR for the Christmas Markets. We are currently in Zurich and will be flying to Kenya tomorrow. I say all this to tell you the eSIM situation is one of the most frustrating for us thus far. Our phones are unlocked so we have to use eSIM or physical cards to have any service. We did a lot of research and settled on Airalo- which is one of the hardest to make work and has a lot of steps. It also doesn't have great service if you can't get it to install. We ended up having to get physical SIM cards in France and Cyprus to get service while we decided what to do. Our Airalo wouldn't always install on my phone (iphone 15 pro) for some reason, and would work at times and then not have service at others as wll. We also tried Kolet, which is super simple to install, but is newer (french co) and doesn't have as much coverage, but would be great for just France or Europe. It also has good reviews on service. We are now using Saily, which is part of NORD which is also our VPN. We are happy with it so far. Installation is simple, it is competitively priced and is supported by the NORD customer service team. We have used it in a single country, Germany, and now we are both using the Global plan to get us through our 100 days in Africa and then 60 days in S Spain and S Portugal. We are hoping having this one plan that just adjusts for each country will be the trick to avoid a lot of the hassles we have been experiencing.

 

[TomandKathy]

An interesting thread for me. We have used Airalo three times in Europe (france and Greece mainly, but also Spain) with no problem except for not being able to make calls and accept sms from home in Australia. Banks are getting so security fussy now and want us to receive these for all sorts of things. Oh and there were a few times in Japan that my husband had connection on his local sim card (his phone was too old for an E-sim) and I didn't have connection on my Airalo E-sim but that was very rare.

I used to use Skype for calls home but that's gone now so I have downloaded Yolla and loaded it with enough $$ to make a few calls, but I would like to be able to receive the blessed sms from banks etc.

Before we return to France and Greece in April 2026, I'd like to do some comparisons and will look into the brands already mentioned, but does anyone know of any E-sim provider that offers a real phone number that you can receive sms through?

 

[wco81]

If you use a SIM or eSIM that you didn’t get from a US carrier, you will have a foreign number. You can make calls and texts but you’d receive calls and texts on that foreign number so it wouldn’t be good for banks texting you codes to login.

So you can certainly get eSIMs which include callls and emails but typically, they are only for Europe, not calling to the US.

But more recent phones will let you assign one SIM to calls and texts and one to data. So you can have your US carrier phone number be used for calls and texts and use a local or regional eSIM for data at faster speeds.

Of course any call you make while overseas on US number will cost you overseas calling charges but some carriers have relatively low rates for calls and texts outside the US.

Here is a description and instructions for how to use dual SIMs or eSIMs on iPhone, you can search for similar instructions for Android:

Use Dual SIM on iPhone

You can use Dual SIM on certain iPhone models.

support.apple.com

Also your phone must be unlocked in order to install a SIM card or eSIM. If you got your phone from a carrier, it’s likely locked and some carriers may not unlock at your request unless it’s been months or maybe 2 years.

 

[TomandKathy]

Thank you so much - I'll check the link. We are from Australia and my iphone is only an 11 - so it uses E-sims but is not very updated in other ways. I'll check the apple information. Thank you

 

[TomandKathy]

So, I have checked the link (thank you wco81) and it looks like (with what looks like a bit of rather complicated work on my behalf eeek) I can have an eSIM AND a local SIM card installed on my iPhone, and if I find a cheap local SIM card, I can then make calls and receive sms from Australia if I send the banks my temporary travel number.

I checked the Airalo Europe area e-SIM I used last June and it can still simply be topped up so I think I'll go ahead and use that since I know it, and look for a cheap SIM card in France which will cover Greece too. I did that with an Orange SIM card a few years ago but it was very difficult to get online when we got to Greece. Does anyone know a SIM card I can buy easily in France which works smoothly all over Europe? I'd need it for 40 days and only for calls and receiving sms. In fact maybe only sms.

Do you people think that's the best way to go. I need to keep it as simple as possible and my local phone company does not do roaming at all.

 

[wco81]

I don't know about Australian banks but US banks would be wary about sending texts to a foreign number.

Can you get Google Voice numbers with Australian prefixes? Because GV is a more secure form of texts than standard SMS.

Though not all banks will actually send messages to GV numbers but I use it whenever I can.

 

[TomandKathy]

I don't know about Australian banks but US banks would be wary about sending texts to a foreign number.

Can you get Google Voice numbers with Australian prefixes? Because GV is a more secure form of texts than standard SMS.

Though not all banks will actually send messages to GV numbers but I use it whenever I can.

Thank you I'll look into that - talk to my banks and try to work out Google voice and what I can do with it. Is it very complicated?

 

[wco81]

If you have a Google account, you log in and go to voice.google.com. Then you will be able to get a local phone number of your choosing.

At least that's the way it works in the US.

You don't really have to ask the bank. I log into my bank website and under accounts, you can enter your phone number, one that can receive calls or texts. Most US banks will accept the Google Voice phone number when you enter it into your bank website profile.

A few of them will say that they only accept phone numbers and not let you save the Google Voice number.

An the bank will verify that the number is good by texting a code to the number and you verify it by entering it on the bank website and once that's confirmed, that number is your official contact number.

I mostly use it for 2-factor authentication (2FA) so that when I log into the bank website with my email and password, the bank will send a code and you enter the code and the bank website will load your account information.

In general Google Voice numbers are harder to hack than regular mobile phone numbers issued by your mobile phone service carrier or provider.

 

[TomandKathy]

No good - I am in Australia and this only works with a US account... sigh... I too need something to use for 2 factor authentification - I got caught in Indonesia last year, unable to make a booking for a flight within Europe because Visa couldn't identify me, so my payment couldn't go through. I rang Visa and the bank, but no one could do anything without my receiving the code... it sucks

 

[wco81]

Didn’t know GV wasn’t available in some countries.

Maybe there’s another service which issues virtual phone numbers in Australia.

These threads have Aussies discussing GV alternatives.

https://www.reddit.com/r/AussieFrugal/comments/1g3ez80/google_voice_equivalent_in_australia_and_asia

View: https://www.reddit.com/r/AussieFrugal/comments/1g3ez80/google_voice_equivalent_in_australia_and_asia/


But it sounds like there’s no free service which you can access over the Internet but also receive calls and texts from phones.

So you’d have to probably get texts to an Aussie number even when overseas. Technically possible but probably not a free service.

Or if Aussie banks would call or text foreign numbers, which seems unlikely.