I’ve used eSIMs across Europe on recent trips to Germany, France, Portugal, Spain and Italy, and after years of travelling with them, I know exactly what I want from one. For me, the best eSIM for travel is Holafly. I want unlimited data, help I can actually reach if something goes wrong, and a plan that still makes sense when travel doesn’t go exactly as expected.
I learned most of that the hard way.
On a trip from Madrid to Valencia, another eSIM provider failed when I needed it most. By the next morning, the replacement had burned through its entire 10GB allowance too.
That one trip changed how I choose an international eSIM, and why I went straight back to Holafly.
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The Day My Travel eSIM Failed at the Worst Possible Time
The trip started in Madrid, although Madrid wasn’t actually where I was staying. I was landing there after an overnight flight and catching a train to Valencia, with a fairly tight window between the airport and the train station.
Before leaving home, I had installed a complimentary eSIM from Airalo that I’d agreed to test. I followed the instructions and waited until I landed in Spain to turn it on.
Except it didn’t work.
Normally, I would have opened Google Maps and worked out the quickest way from the airport to the train station. Instead, I was standing there jet-lagged, speaking only un poco Spanish, watching the time disappear and trying frantically to figure out why my phone wasn’t connecting. Oh, and did I mention I was travelling alone?
I looked at the time and realized I had a choice: keep troubleshooting or leave the airport and make my train. So I jumped in a taxi, and I made the train with only minutes to spare, which was a relief, but I still hadn’t solved the actual problem.
A couple of hours later I arrived in Valencia and found myself in almost exactly the same situation. I didn’t know the city, I couldn’t use Google Maps to navigate to my rented apartment, and my phone still wasn’t giving me the mobile data I thought I’d already sorted out before leaving home.
So I took another taxi.
By then I was tired and hungry and mostly wanted to drop my luggage somewhere. But there was another problem waiting for me at the apartment.
My host had asked me to text when I landed in Madrid so they would know roughly when to meet me in Valencia. I hadn’t been able to send that message because I hadn’t had data. When I reached the building, no one was there.
I waited outside for more than an hour until someone happened to come out. They were kind enough to help me contact my host, who eventually arrived and let me into the apartment.
It sounds almost ridiculous when I write it all out now. Two taxis, a train connection made with minutes to spare, an apartment host who didn’t know I’d arrived, and more than an hour standing outside with my luggage.
None of those things was particularly serious on its own. But they all came from the same problem: I had expected my phone to work, and it didn’t.
Once I finally got inside and connected to the apartment Wi-Fi, I contacted the eSIM provider’s customer service. That became another couple of hours of messages, waiting, being bounced around from agent to agent, troubleshooting and trying different fixes. Eventually they gave me a new eSIM to install, which finally connected. The replacement eventually worked, but getting to that point had been anything but smooth.
By then, I’d spent a good part of my first day in Spain dealing with something I thought I’d sorted out before I even boarded the flight. Still, at least I was connected.
I went out for a meal, wandered around Valencia for a little while and assumed the problem was behind me.
The next morning, I was up early and out exploring Valencia’s top attractions. At around 10 a.m., a notification appeared on my phone. I’d run out of data. All 10GB of it, and in less than a 24-hour period. I was gobsmacked.
Then 10GB Disappeared in Less Than a Day
At first I thought the notification had to be wrong. Maybe the replacement eSIM didn’t load the 10GB of data.
I hadn’t been streaming movies for hours or doing anything that felt particularly data-heavy. I’d used my phone the way I normally do when I travel. Google Maps had been running while I was out, my photos were uploading, Lightroom was syncing, email and social apps were doing their usual things in the background. Individually, none of it seemed extraordinary. Added together, apparently it was.
And because I had no data again, I walked back to the apartment to get onto the Wi-Fi and contact customer service.
This time there wasn’t really anything to troubleshoot; I was told that the 10GB had been used and if I wanted to keep using mobile data, I would need to pay more. They also suggested I turn off apps running in the background and use the apartment Wi-Fi whenever I was there instead of the eSIM.
By that point, I was done with Airalo. I lost trust in their product and service.
Then I bought a Holafly eSIM for Europe. I’d already used Holafly for three months while living in Berlin the year before, so I knew what I was going back to. I installed it in seconds on the app, got connected and carried on with the trip.
What surprised me most was how badly I’d underestimated my own usage. Ten gigabytes had sounded like plenty when I saw the number on the plan. In practice, my phone did far more in the background than I realized, and I used it far more than I would have guessed if someone had asked me to estimate in advance.
That was the last time I ever considered a limited-data eSIM while travelling.
Why Holafly Is the Best eSIM for Travel for Me
By the end of those two days, price had dropped a long way down my list of priorities. I cared much more about being able to use my phone normally, getting help if something went wrong, and not having to change how I travelled simply to make a data allowance last.
That is why I went back to Holafly, and why I have stayed with it.
Why I Choose an Unlimited Data eSIM
With Holafly, I don’t buy a set number of gigabytes because its travel eSIMs offer unlimited data in more than 200 destinations, so there isn’t a point during the trip when I have to start conserving what I have left.
That would have changed my Valencia experience immediately. I wouldn’t have got a notification telling me my entire allowance had disappeared. I wouldn’t have been advised to shut down apps running in the background or save my mobile data by switching to apartment Wi-Fi. And I wouldn’t have been asked to top up again because I’d run out of the data I needed.
I know now that I’m a heavy data user when I travel. My photos upload automatically, Lightroom syncs, Google Maps can be running for hours, emails arrive, train apps update, and I use my phone for work as well as the trip itself.
I could turn all of that off and carefully ration my data. I just don’t want to.
With Holafly, I don’t have to travel differently simply because I’ve left home.
Holafly eSIM Coverage for the Trip I’m Taking
One thing I appreciate is that Holafly isn’t built around a single type of trip. There are country-specific, regional and global options, and in more than 200 destinations. When I’m travelling in Europe and know I might be crossing the border, I will choose regional coverage rather than country-specific to avoid buying another local plan.
Plus, if I’m somewhere for an odd number of days, I can buy the exact number of days I actually need instead of trying to fit my trip around a pre-set package. That suits me because my trips vary. Sometimes I’m away for a week, sometimes a month, and sometimes I’m moving around.
I check the coverage before I buy, choose what matches the itinerary and sort it out before I leave.
Holafly Always On: Backup for the Extra Day I Didn’t Plan
Bad weather once cancelled my flight home from New York. Instead of flying out that evening, I suddenly needed a hotel for the night and a new flight the following morning.
It was only one unexpected night, but think about what happens the minute a flight is cancelled. You’re looking for somewhere to stay, checking transportation, following airline updates, messaging people at home and then working out how you’re getting back to the airport the next day.
If I’d been using a Holafly plan that ended on my original departure day, this is where Always On would have helped. It gives me 1GB of backup data every month from the time the eSIM is installed, without having to activate something in the middle of a travel problem.
One gigabyte is not how I want to travel for two weeks. But for one unexpected night in New York? I could have found the hotel, used Maps, checked my new flight and messaged home.
That’s enough for me to understand why the benefit is useful.
24/7 Holafly Support Matters to Me Now
Spain also changed my opinion of customer service.
Before that trip, I doubt I would have spent much time comparing the support offered by different eSIM companies. It was somewhere fairly low on the list, because surely the eSIM would just work.
Then I spent hours being passed between agents trying to get connected with Airalo, not to mention the lack of empathy for my situation.
Holafly offers 24/7 support with a real person. After Spain, that matters to me much more than it once did. I’ve dealt with Holafly support myself and found them courteous, helpful and willing to actually solve the problem.
And If You Work While Travelling, Look at the Hotspot
This won’t matter equally to everyone, but it does to me because I often work while I’m away.
Holafly offers hotspotting in more than 200 destinations, although the amount you can share with another device varies by plan, so this is one specification I would check before buying if you expect to connect a laptop or tablet.
For a normal trip, I use Holafly’s regular travel eSIM. If you travel continuously or work remotely for longer stretches, Holafly also has monthly Plans, including an Unlimited option with unlimited hotspotting. I haven’t personally used Holafly Plans, so I won’t pretend to review them here, but they are worth comparing if your life looks more like ongoing travel than a defined holiday.
For the way I travel now, the regular Holafly eSIM does what I need it to do.
My Travel eSIM Choice Now
I went into that Spain trip already knowing Holafly worked for me. I came out of it knowing why.
I don’t want to count gigabytes, change how I use my phone or spend part of a trip trying to solve a connectivity problem. And after enough delayed and cancelled flights over the years, I also like knowing there is now a little backup data there if the trip lasts longer than expected.
Holafly costs more than some eSIMs. I’m fine with that. I tried making a different choice once, and before that trip was over, I had paid for Holafly anyway.
I’ve used it ever since, and it’s the only one I trust to recommend to my clients.
