Best Sim for UK cruisers in Canada/New England

[Cathygh]

We will be visiting Canada and New England on cruise and a land tour next month. We will need wifi on land, so does any one know the best way to access it - is here any particular sim card that we can get? thanks

[scobie15]

The best I have come up with is a Lebara sim with 2, possibly  3, add-ons for Canada and US

[CruiserfaeFife]

We are doing a similar trip from the UK, leaving next week, and I’m trying an eSIM for the first time on my iPhone. Not sure if you’ve looked at this option - only available for more recent phones. I’ve gone for an Airalo North America regional sim, which gives data (but not calls or texts) but they offer various plans depending on your needs. 
 

If you google their name you'll come up with their website and various reviews which I found helpful in deciding to try this approach - but since I haven’t activated it yet, no guarantees offered!

[QueenP]

Let us know how it goes!

[Alphen]

We are from mainland Europe and today departing for Canada/New England and making use of our Travel Wifi, with a package for north America, that includes both US and Canada, for up to 3 devices.

[CruiserfaeFife]

Following up on my previous post, I installed my eSIM at Toronto airport and it is working well, making 5G connections with local data providers in both Canada and USA. So I’d recommend it as an alternative to physical SIMs or bolt-ons from your UK provider as long as your phone (works with either iPhone or Android) is compatible. 

[paddingtonbear]

On 8/25/2024 at 6:59 PM, CruiserfaeFife said:

We are doing a similar trip from the UK, leaving next week, and I’m trying an eSIM for the first time on my iPhone. Not sure if you’ve looked at this option - only available for more recent phones. I’ve gone for an Airalo North America regional sim, which gives data (but not calls or texts) but they offer various plans depending on your needs. 
 

If you google their name you'll come up with their website and various reviews which I found helpful in deciding to try this approach - but since I haven’t activated it yet, no guarantees offered!

I got an eSIM for a recent trip and it was a disaster. I tried to follow the ultra complicated instructions to connect but couldn’t then I had a tech savvy friend help all to no avail. Customer service (of my particular sim) was only via “chat” on wifi and ultra slow) just sent same info. Managed to connect for 15 mins that is all. 
I have an iPhone 12. 
I’m never getting an eSIM again. 
I hope you have better luck. 
 

We buy an international sim each trip for the particular countries we are visiting and have it posted to us at home. We have it all set up (can talk to customer service if needed but not needed) and ready to go as soon as we land. 

[CruiserfaeFife]

@paddingtonbear Sorry to hear about the problems you had - how frustrating 🤬. My experience (Airalo on iPhone SE) has been the opposite - straightforward to install before I left home and picked up networks as soon as I activated.  Haven’t had to use their customer support so far, so can’t speak to that. 
 

For information, which provider and region was your eSIM for?

[paddingtonbear]

2 hours ago, CruiserfaeFife said:

@paddingtonbear Sorry to hear about the problems you had - how frustrating 🤬. My experience (Airalo on iPhone SE) has been the opposite - straightforward to install before I left home and picked up networks as soon as I activated.  Haven’t had to use their customer support so far, so can’t speak to that. 
 

For information, which provider and region was your eSIM for?

My eSIM was with Flexiroam and I tried to use it in NZ. It was probably me but I just find a regular SIM so much easier - no klutzing around changing the systems on the phone etc.  
 

DH had a regular sim from SimCorner and we shared that and wifi. Which we’ve used in US, Canada and various countries in Europe flawlessly. 

 

I tried to get a sim in Queenstown, NZ, but the Vodafone store was the only provider with a shop there and it was closed due to illness and we couldn’t find any travel SIMs in any of the supermarkets. It turned out to be a comedy of errors!  
 

Luckily I was travelling with DH and friends and we were mostly on the great walks so it wasn’t a huge problem but goodness I rely on my phone! 
 

Edited August 31 by paddingtonbear

[sherrjo]

On 8/30/2024 at 9:45 PM, paddingtonbear said:

I got an eSIM for a recent trip and it was a disaster. I tried to follow the ultra complicated instructions to connect but couldn’t then I had a tech savvy friend help all to no avail. Customer service (of my particular sim) was only via “chat” on wifi and ultra slow) just sent same info. Managed to connect for 15 mins that is all. 
I have an iPhone 12. 
I’m never getting an eSIM again. 
I hope you have better luck. 
 

We buy an international sim each trip for the particular countries we are visiting and have it posted to us at home. We have it all set up (can talk to customer service if needed but not needed) and ready to go as soon as we land. 

Hi Paddington, I wouldn't give up on them.

 

If you go with a company like airlo you can already install the sim in the  UK and only switch it on when you get to your destination. It's handy as it has regional prices as well so you only need one esim for both US and Canada. Have a look on YouTube about it i wouldn't let one bad experience put you off.

 

I did this for the first time in March for New York and it worked seamlessly. I had the data only option which meant that my calls and texts still used my original number. It was easy to see on the airlo app how much data I had left.