I’ve been in NZ and now Australia since 2 November and haven’t bothered with SIM cards and have managed without. Most places have wifi now and I rarely find it a problem.
@smiley the issue I have is that I have to call family in Australia frequently while I’m overseas so an international call allowance in a mobile plan is important for me
For international house sitters, getting a local SIM card or phone contract can be costly so I wanted to share this easy version of getting local data (another sitter told me about it last year and it’s super convenient)
There are apps that sell international data packages (1 GB, 3 GB, for a few days or a month etc.) so that you don’t have to use international roaming or get a local SIM.
Personally, I use an app called “Airalo,” but I’m sure there are other similar options available. I want to clarify that I’m not endorsing any specific app or company, as I have no affiliation with them. Nonetheless, I find the concept itself super helpful when traveling and house sitting abroad.
By using an eSIM provided by the app (your local SIM can stay in your phone), you can download a data plan specific to your destination and easily connect to a mobile network upon arrival. Once you land, you activate the eSIM (a digital SIM card), and within a few minutes, you can use services like WhatsApp, order an Uber, check your messages, text your host that you have arrived etc.
I find this service extremely helpful and quite cheap when visiting another country for a few days or a month or longer. Hope this is helpful to some of you! 
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Thanks you for posting this @Danielsitter ,
I have been using EE in the UK with a UK phone number. It transferred well to Denmark and Sweden but in Norway, there is a surcharge and the cost is adding up. My regular phone number is a US number.
With Airalo, would I be able to make voice calls and text from my regular US phone number? This would make things much easier, as I can’t access certain websites, e.g. banks, that require 2-step authentication, as they want to send a code to my regular US number. To get it I would have to put my US simcard back in my phone and incur a $10 charge.
To get around this, I got my husband on the phone on WhatsApp - he’s in Virginia, I’m in Oslo, logged into my bank and had them send a code by voice to our landline. He told me what it was and I entered it and was able to access my account. Pretty nuts, isn’t it?
@mars we use Google voice for texting and voice calling US. It is free to use with any US Google account.
https://voice.google.com
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Don’t know whether this would work for you, but I did this in the U.K. on a recent sit: I had two phones with me — I always keep an older one on hand for overseas. So I kept my U.S. number on my daily phone and used it on wifi at my sit. For everything else, I bought a local SIM card at the airport and plugged it into my old backup phone.
With my daily phone staying on my U.S. number, I was able to get text codes so I could access various apps and tools, just as if I were in the U.S. That was a must for me, because I have work-related tools that require a text code to verify that it’s me. I couldn’t telecommute without that. And doing that didn’t cost me extra and it was no fuss.
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Thank you @Danielsitter, I’ve never heard of this. I’ll have to look into it.
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Airalo only offers data, you can’t use a phone number with it, so it doesn’t solve the 2FA issue.
Aside from that it’s great, I’ve used it in Mexico, the US, Turkey and Uzbekistan with no problems.
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I checked out Airalo and even with the added surcharges by EE (when I was in Norway), EE was the better deal.
Yeah, it’s not the cheapest, but it’s super convenient so I like it for short trips.
But you can call people via WhatsApp all over the world free, or messenger, FaceTime etc….
@Smiley we use WhatsApp for most international calls except to my 85yo parents who have dementia and can’t do technology, only a landline phone. We’ve also had to call our bank and insurance company from overseas so really need a mobile plan with international calls.
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I’m so sorry, I don’t understand the notifications on this forum well so I never saw your question. - For most Airalo eSIMs, you will not be able to make phone calls or send SMS text messages, as their eSIM packs provide data only. You have to use internet-based apps like Whatsapp, Facebook messenger etc. for calls.
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Thanks for that. I won’t bother with an esim then
Most esims provide everything not just data so don’t scratch them off completely. 
For example:
This is prepaid eSIM comes with French (+33) mobile number.
UNLIMITED calls and SMS within EU.
25 Euro credit included to call non-EU countries worldwide.
30 GB of data.
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I’ve been travelling in NZ and Aus since 2 November last year and haven’t bothered with a sim other than my UK one. It’s rarely been a problem as there’s wifi all over the place. Hopefully by the time I go travelling again the phone companies will offer roaming worldwide without having to pay exorbitant costs
You can have several eSIMs in your smart phone so 2FA works fine for me, put your phone on WiFi calling.
Put you phone on WiFi calling and get a data only esim. Use whatever you want to call
Airalo or any other eSIM provider is the best idea for anywhere. I’ve been sitting in Thailand for 6 weeks and just got a 5 day esim for Taiwan for next month. Activates when you hit the network. I can have 10 esims on my phone and just select the one you want to use…depending where you are. I have chucked heaps of plastic sim over the years. Cheers, Keith
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I’m doing a sit in Spain but my phone and account are US. I added the Airalo eSIM before I left, it was cheap and took all of two minutes. When my plane touched down in Madrid I switched to it and instantly had service. It’s worked great so far. So much nicer than swapping a physical SIM and worrying about losing it.
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