How to Stay Connected Abroad Without a Roaming Bill (eSIM Guide)
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Every tour, someone lands and spends the first hour hunting for a SIM card. Or worse, they don't, and get home to a roaming bill that costs more than a day of the trip.
There is a better way, and if your phone supports it the whole problem disappears before you leave home.
The thing nobody warns South Africans about
Start here, because this is the one that actually matters.
Your bank sends OTPs to your South African number. Every card payment, every transfer, every login. If you take your SIM out and put a local one in, those messages go to a phone in your bag that is no longer receiving anything.
We have watched travellers stand in a shop in Dubai unable to complete a card payment because the OTP went somewhere they could not read it. It is a genuinely stressful thing to discover on holiday.
An eSIM solves this completely. Your physical SIM stays in the phone and stays active for calls and SMS. The eSIM handles data. You get your banking OTPs exactly as you would at home, while paying local data prices instead of roaming.
That alone is the reason to bother.
What an eSIM actually is
A SIM card that lives in software rather than plastic. You buy it online, scan a QR code, and your phone carries a second mobile line alongside the physical SIM already in it.
No shop. No queue. No tiny tray tool. No SIM the size of a fingernail that you have to keep somewhere safe for two weeks and inevitably lose.
Important: travel eSIMs are usually data-only
This catches people out, so be clear on it before you buy.
Most travel eSIMs give you data and nothing else. No phone number of their own, no ordinary calls, no SMS. They are an internet connection, not a second phone line.
In practice that is fine, because your South African SIM stays in the phone and keeps doing everything else:
- Banking OTPs and any other SMS — these arrive on your SA number as normal
- Ordinary phone calls to and from your usual number
- Anything else that does not run over the internet
Meanwhile the eSIM carries all your data — WhatsApp calls and messages, maps, email, browsing, social media. Which is almost everything you actually do.
One cost note. Receiving an SMS on your SA number abroad is normally free, but making or receiving a regular voice call while roaming still costs roaming rates. Use WhatsApp or FaceTime for calls and you avoid that entirely.
Why we recommend it over the alternatives
Versus roaming with your SA network
Roaming is the expensive default. It works without you doing anything, which is exactly why people end up on it, and the bill arrives two weeks after you get home.
Versus buying a local SIM when you land
Cheaper than roaming, but it costs you time on arrival, sometimes requires registration and ID, and means removing your South African SIM — which brings us back to the OTP problem.
It also means a new number nobody has, so anyone trying to reach you cannot.
Versus an eSIM
You buy it before you leave, activate it before you fly, and it works the moment you land. No hunting, no queue, no swapping anything. Often cheaper than what you would pay for the same data locally — and considerably cheaper than roaming.
How to check if your phone supports it
Most phones from roughly 2019 onwards do. To check:
- iPhone — Settings, then Mobile Data. If you see "Add eSIM" or "Add Data Plan", you are set. iPhone XS and newer
- Android — Settings, then Network & Internet, then SIMs. Look for "Download a SIM instead" or similar. Most recent Samsung, Google Pixel and Huawei flagships support it
If your phone does not support eSIM, a local SIM on arrival is your next best option — just be aware of the OTP issue and consider keeping your SA SIM in a second phone if you have one.
What we use
We use Mobimatter, which is an eSIM marketplace rather than a single provider. It compares prices across networks for the country you are visiting, so you can see what the options actually cost side by side rather than taking the first plan you find.
It covers almost every country we travel to, which for a company running tours across Africa, the Middle East, Asia, Europe and South America matters more than it might for one trip.
Disclosure, because you should know: the links below are our referral links. If you use them, you get 50% cashback up to $5 on your first purchase — and we receive a referral benefit too.
We would recommend Mobimatter regardless, because it is genuinely what we use on tour. But you should know there is something in it for us, and now you do.
Sign up on the Mobimatter website
Or sign up however you like and enter referral code D6XCS54332 at checkout.
How to set it up properly
Do this in order, and do it while you still have working data or wifi at home. Installing and activating an eSIM requires a connection — which you will not have standing in an arrivals hall with no signal.
- Buy your eSIM a few days before you fly, not the night before. If something goes wrong you want time to sort it out while you still have decent wifi and access to support
- Install and activate it while you are still in South Africa, on wifi or your normal data. Scan the QR code, follow the provider's activation instructions, and confirm in your settings that the eSIM shows as active
- Set the eSIM as your data line, and leave your South African SIM switched on for calls and SMS
- Turn data roaming ON for the eSIM line. This is essential — travel eSIMs work by roaming on partner networks in the country you visit, so with roaming off for that line you will have no data at all
- Turn data roaming OFF for your South African SIM. That stops your home network quietly charging you while the eSIM does the work
- Land and check. If data does not connect immediately, confirm the eSIM is selected as the data line and that roaming is enabled on it
Both settings live in the same place on modern phones — each line has its own roaming toggle, so you can have it on for one and off for the other.
If you are travelling with us, your tour leader can help you check the settings before departure. Ask in the WhatsApp group — someone else will have the same question.
A few destination notes
China — you need an eSIM and a VPN. Google services, WhatsApp and several other apps are inaccessible without one, so install and test the VPN before you fly. Also set up WeChat Pay and Alipay before you leave, because China runs on those rather than cash or card, and use DiDi rather than Uber.
Zanzibar and Victoria Falls — coverage is generally fine in the towns and patchier at the beaches and in the parks. Do not count on being reachable every hour of the day, which is arguably part of the point.
Europe — most plans cover the whole Schengen area, so one eSIM handles Paris, Brussels and Amsterdam without changing anything at the borders.
Dubai — excellent coverage everywhere, including out at the desert camp.
The short version
- Travel eSIMs are data-only — no number, no calls, no SMS of their own
- Keep your SA SIM in the phone for banking OTPs, SMS and calls on your usual number
- Buy and activate it a few days before you fly, while you still have data or wifi
- Data roaming ON for the eSIM — it will not work otherwise
- Data roaming OFF for your SA SIM — so your home network cannot charge you
- Use WhatsApp for calls — regular voice calls still cost roaming rates
- Check your phone supports eSIM — most from 2019 onwards do
We are not paid by Mobimatter to write this and we are not a reseller. The links above are referral links, which give you cashback on your first purchase and give us a referral benefit. Data plans, prices, coverage and activation terms change; check current details on their site before buying. If an eSIM does not suit you, a local SIM on arrival works perfectly well — just plan around the OTP issue.
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