eSIM for traveling in Europe when refereeing matches abroad?

[Marko]

Hey. This season we have 2 trips planned, one to Germany and another to Spain to officiate continental-level American football games. The problem is that my usual carrier charges me completely outrageous roaming rates, like 15 euros a day just to get decent data. A fellow referee who travels a lot to European tournaments told me about an eSIM for Europe travel, a virtual SIM card that you can activate right on your phone without having to hunt for a store at the airport when you arrive. I’m interested, but I don’t have much information on how it actually works, whether all carriers are covered in the countries where the league plays, and especially whether the rates are really affordable for about ten days. Has anyone here used this for this kind of trip?

[peterparsons]

Have a look at apps such as Airalo, Nomad and Saily. These are what I use when travelling for work outside countries where my contract provides for roaming. They all offer European or EU eSIMs as well as country-specific eSIMs.

[ljudge]

Yes, Marko, I have been to London multiple times working in football.  You just have to arrange with your carrier before you go. The cost is about $10/day, and it works just like being home.  You only get charged the $10 "IF" you place a call or send your first text for the day.  I forgot one of those subsequent times, but because I had it set up in the past (with my carrier), I got a pleasant surprise when I re-enabled my phone from airplane mode upon landing at Heathrow.  You get a text reminding you that this feature is turned on.  I don't recall the exact language of the text.  There was no mention of a SIM card, however.  We just called Verizon (or Comcast, I forget which), and they just set up our account to handle this.

[Imperial Stout]

I've purchased e-sims for European trips.  My particular iphone can handle two e-sims and you can pick the European sim to handle data. Both can make and receive calls at the same time.

The e-sim would work in any EU country with roaming included.  I've bought the Orange Holiday sim from Amazon before and had success for around 20 GB to use over 30 days for around $20 - $30.