Roaming or eSim in Australia?

[S879]

Apologies if discussed elsewhere and please direct me in that case.

Will be in Australia, main cities on East Coast, for 10 days. Any deals or suggestions for roaming or would eSim be better. Have previously use Airalo in Malaysia. We will need Uber straight away at Sydney Airport so am wondering if better to go for roaming if not much price difference. Any advice would be appreciated.

[davefl]

eSim will always be better value. You can install and enable it before you fly, then just set data to that sim when you land. (rememmber to turn off roaming on your main sim before you leave the UK. Airalo will cost well under a tenner for 15 days. If you need calls and texts it’ll cost you £20

Needing Uber on landing has no effect on either option.

[The Savage Squirrel]

As above; ESIM is trivial to set up in advance and will likely be hugely cheaper. No idea what the best deal is currently; Nomad are current my go-to if even vaguely competitive on price as they passed the provide-decent-customer-service-when-an-issue-crops-up test by sorting out a minor issue when my wife’s phone failed to register correctly on sign-up in a very speedy and helpful way. In Australia as it happens; so,I can also say their coverage was decent, although that shouldn’t really be an issue in and around the big cities.

[AFKAE]

I used Nomad for 6 weeks in Australia and New Zealand and it was absolutley perfect. Something ridiculously cheap for 45 days and I think it was 30GB.

[S879]

Thanks all for your helpful comments! eSim it is then.

[Gagravarr]

If you’re on EE and one of their new “Full Works” plans, Australia is one of the countries covered for free roaming.

Probably not worth switching networks and paying for a more expensive plan for a one-off trip, but could be worth it if you’re a frequent visitor to Australia or the US

[freckles]

Likewise O2 has some tariffs which include wider than European roaming which includes Australia and North America – I have one and used it in Canada recently

[mzb]

Have a look at eSimDB.com for a comparison search of all eSim provider deals for any destination.

[JenT]

Optus (one of the main Australian networks) run a free trial for 7 days – just search Optus esim trial. 30GB of data, unlimited talk and 1000 texts included. If you are travelling with someone else, you may be able to each sign up at different times and not pay a penny. Worked for us a few months ago.

[davefl]

mzb wrote:

Have a look at eSimDB.com for a comparison search of all eSim provider deals for any destination.

I don’t trust that site, it doesnt have complete tables and the prices aren’t correct.

https://travel-dealz.com/esim/provider has a review of the majors, the filtering isn’t wonderful and it’s not complete as it does’t show call inclusive packages for Airalo for the USA for example but its pricing table is more accurate.

Basilcally take both with a medium pinch of salt.

[mzb]

davefl wrote:

mzb wrote:

Have a look at eSimDB.com for a comparison search of all eSim provider deals for any destination.

I don’t trust that site, it doesnt have complete tables and the prices aren’t correct.

https://travel-dealz.com/esim/provider has a review of the majors, the filtering isn’t wonderful and it’s not complete as it does’t show call inclusive packages for Airalo for the USA for example but its pricing table is more accurate.

Basilcally take both with a medium pinch of salt.

All eSimDb.com does is comparison shop (think trivago for esims). The quality of the providers I can’t vouch for, but I’ve used it half a dozen times already and so far I’ve had no issues. Besides for the few quid an esim costs, I am usually willing to take a punt.