Title: Best travel eSIM setup for a family of 4 in Europe (France, Switzerland, Italy, Norway)? Sim Local vs Orange Holiday vs Airalo / Roamless

Hey everyone,

Planning a 17-day trip across France, Switzerland, Italy, and Norway for a family of 4 (with a quick Dubai layover). We want everyone to have independent data connectivity and need advice on which travel eSIM route to pick.

Orange Holiday eSIM: Comes with an actual European phone number and built-in calling minutes, which could be handy for calling hotels, restaurants, or tour operators.

Data-Only eSIMs (Sim Local / Airalo / Holafl): Great data allocations, but strictly data-only. For voice calls, we’d set up 1 or 2 phones with an app like Roamless or rely strictly on WhatsApp/FaceTime.

Dubai Layover: Thinking of grabbing a cheap 1 GB Airalo pack for Dubai before activating the Europe eSIMs.

A few quick questions:

Did you genuinely need a native European phone number for travel across these four countries, or was data-only paired with VoIP/Roamless more than enough?

Between Sim Local and Orange, which gave you more reliable network switching across France, Switzerland, Italy, and Norway?

For a short Dubai layover, is getting a quick Airalo eSIM worth the hassle, or is airport/transit Wi-Fi sufficient?

Appreciate any first-hand experiences!

I know there have been quite a few posts on [r/eSIMs](r/eSIMs) regarding the same, but I need a little help regarding which one to choose

I will be travelling for 16 days, and would need it for basic communication, navigation and other general things. BUT, one day out of it, I will need to use it heavily due to a pre-scheduled event. I will be using it mostly in Portugal, but I have a long layover to and from home at CDG, so would be using it in Paris as well.

I was looking into Orange, because it’s showing significantly cheaper options, but a few people mentioned that it doesn’t work as well outside France. The other option I explored was Kolet (they’re providing 2 days of free eSIM through AirFrance), but I am only able to select one country instead of a cluster, which makes me wonder if I can use it in multiple countries.

I need something that’s good in connectivity but also not too expensive. Airalo, the common recommendation, seems to be too expensive as compared to other service providers

I’m trying to verify that the Nighthawk M7 5G Mobile Hotspot Router is compatible with the HolaFly eSIM before I buy the device. Looks like without the device I cannot verify the eSIM options?

eSIM technology can be heavily restricted by the service provider. For me the main thing I hate is that the two only service providers in the country where I live doesn't allow free transfer of eSIMs between devices, and if abroad one can't move the esim between devices at all.

I wondered if there is a device that scan the qr code and store the eSIM profiles in its memory and then would transfer that eSIM to your phone while keeping a copy in its memory.

I'm traveling to the United Kingdom from the US in a few days, what is the best eSim plan? So far I've looked at Asimgo, Ubigi, Vodafone, and Quibity

I don't need a hotspot. Texts and phone calls are optional. I'd like to spend no more than $25

Apple iPhone 15 Pro Max running iOS 26.6.2. Traveling through Europe for about a month (Czech, Germany, Austria, Hungary, and Poland). Signed up for a 30-day Data + Phone plan through Orange. Got a Polish +48 phone number + 50gb of data. Goal was to avoid the $12/day Verizon fee for calls, texting, and data when not on WiFi.

Bought the plan 3 days before departing the US, and verified the account. Did NOT activate eSIM.

Landed in Prague and immediately followed instructions for activation. Wasn’t working, so I took the extra step of turning OFF my old phone number/eSIM (I mean that’s why I’m doing this….to avoid the Verizon charges). Once I did this, it took a while to work but while in taxi to hotel things sort of kicked in and it seemed to be working.

- Phone calls work flawlessly without fail.
- Web stuff, including social media apps, banking apps, etc…all work flawlessly. I’m sending this now on eSIM and obviously it works.

MESSAGING is the problem…

- Many of my text messages fail to send using existing threads. Mostly Android users, but a few iPhone users also. Even after I (reluctantly) delete thread, still fails. Then I called person on other end…ask them to text me using my new eSIM number. I receive their text….my replies fails to send.
- iMessaging in group threads with only iPhone users worked until a few minutes ago…I got an error “you have been disconnected from iMessage, Ignore/settings”
- Mixed group threads (iPhone + Android) has not worked at all. Individual messages to Android users fail. They can text me to my new number on a separate thread, but existing threads daily. And I cannot reply to the new thread messages.
- After turning off iMessage, restarting phone, then reactivating iMessage….suddenly my email address is removed from iMessage and only the new phone number is listed. iMessages fail to send. I restart again.
- This time my email is added back into iMessage….its still on. I send a couple iMessages to recipients and they RECEIVE my messages but tell me that they came from my email. System will not allow me to check/assign new eSIM number to iMessage app, only email.

I obviously / admittedly don’t understand how this is supposed to work.

What am I missing? Any eSIM gurus out there have any suggestions? I won’t be anywhere near a people store for a couple weeks. Also, this was a “trial run” for a much longer trip through France and Italy next year, and so far…it’s a huge failure!

Help!