Seeking a little advice here re: cell phones/calling. I’ll be in the states for three weeks next month and planning a trip to Mexico soon as well. My thoughts are to use wifi and either messenger or what’s app while away. Better to get a pay as you go? I’m thinking about data for finding my way around, too. No one uses paper maps anymore but I don’t want the roaming fees. Sincerely, GenX Travel NewB. (Help!)
Update:
Thank you everyone for the advice! I have decided to try out airalo for my August trip. Your input was invaluable and I am looking forward to testing out this new-to-me idea!

For U.S. travel it basically comes down to this:
Option 1. Use an e-sim (downloadable SIM card). The most popular is airalo, followed by HolaFly or Nomad. They all basically work the same way.
Typical price: $10-$20 CAD for your entire trip.
Tradeoffs:
- your phone needs to support e-sims
- does not come with an actual phone number (for traditional texting) or traditional voice call capability (need to use data based apps like whatsapp, Facetime, etc, to chat or text).
more info: https://ydeals.com/buying-a-sim-card-for-your-next-trip
Other options:
- T-Mobile, Verizon, and AT&T offer free trials of their networks for 30 days using e-sims. But these free trial options can be trickier to setup from Canada and only work on certain devices. For example with T-Mobile you may need a US App Store ID and US VPN to install it. A person would likely want to stick with airalo or Holafly unless they're really comfortable with geeky tech workarounds.
- Mint Mobile offers e-sim plans for $15 USD/month, but there's a 3 month minimum.
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* or...
Option 2. Use a physical SIM card
Typical price: $30-$50 CAD for your entire trip.
- They do typically come with an actual phone number and traditional texting.
- Physical sim cards in the U.S. aren't quite as cheap as in say, Europe, so there's a price advantage to using e-SIMs in the U.S.
Trade offs:
- you need to hunt one down after arrival and physically swap it out (or order one on Amazon ahead of time)
Popular options:
- T-Mobile, AT&T
more info: https://ydeals.com/what-is-the-best-local-sim-card-or...

Rebecca Parzen An e-sim is an even better deal for U.S. travel where physical sim cards are not as cheap as they are in Europe.

Lindsay Danforth
If you know your areas you need maps for, you can download them ahead of time. Google maps I think has an offline version. It won’t GPS you and tell you where you are but if you can read a map it would work. I did it in Italy!!

I second this! Although it will actually GPS for you if you download the offline maps for where you will be. I use it whenever I’m in the US or Europe. I just download the map, type in my destination, and it will work as usual for me (minus telling me about traffic jams, accidents, etc)

Chad Ross
We download a version wireless app and use the esim. It’s quite reasonably priced and set it as the main internet carrier on our phone

You can look at purchasing a prepaid SIM card on Amazon and just swap out the one in your phone. We have done it for both our most recent trips and it is good for use in US and Mexico - good for calling, text and data. If you keep the SIM card, you can reload it in the future or if you run out of data, etc. I can't remember the amount of data we purchased (I want to say 2GB but just used it for google maps, etc and refrained from social, web browsing unless needed, etc). Once activated I believe the "plan" was good for 30 days.

If you can get an esim. We are in Europe right now and I'm on airalo esim. It is in American dollars but much cheaper than the phone company we are with in Canada.

You can go into the local Oxxo. Buy a new sim card and number. Get unlimited data for about $12 a month

airalo esim is my go to when travelling. Easy app to navigate, you don’t have to swap SIM cards…reasonable prices

Checkout airalo

Donna I used this in the states and it was perfect

Shelby does airalo work on certain apps like uber and Lyft? I used Holafly when I was in the US for 2 weeks and can’t even access those ride share apps.
such a waste.

Jenn Baltazar I had trouble using uber and Lyft because I didn't have them downloaded already. When I downloaded them, they were asking me to confirm my phone number via a text message which didn't work because my cell service was off. There didn't seem to be a way to confirm using data only. But, my friend already had them downloaded and was able to use them just fine with wi-fi/ data/airalo

Shelby thank you so much I will give it a try.

If I go to PV more than a week I buy a telcel sim card and purchase a plan at the OXXO. Its roughly $15 or 200 pesos for a month phone plan to Mexico/US/Canada with 4 gigs data.

L - I was in Mexico early this year. The SIM card cost $15 Cdn for 2 weeks, 2 gigs (which is still good!). The problem was it messed up my whatsapp - all my groups kept the Mexican number when I went back to my original SIM. Have you had this problem?

Maureen I don't use whatsapp so couldn't say if it's a problem switching over. The sim card itself was 100 pesos for the number and the plan was 200 pesos monthly for 4 gigs, which is cheaper than my Canadian provider charges for 1 day. I noticed whatsapp was very popular in Mexico because its free but never used it cause there phone plans are good value.

Maureen yes same happened to me when I went too Bali

Maureen yes same issue! However if your spouse has the Whats App on their phone with the contacts and you have the SIM to roam around and view Maps etc you’ll be good. That’s what we did

Shonna - how did you get your whatsapp groups back?

Maureen my husband just re installed his original Canadian SIM card…..I don’t really know if he had “groups” just contacts.

Maureen did you change your whatsapp account number back to uyour Canadian number in the app settings?

Mike - I’ll take a look. I didn’t manually change it to the Mexican SIM card, so didn’t think to change it back. Thanks!!

L is telcel online? And what and where is OXXO?

Lisa yes you can pay or add money online on there website. OXXO is the Mexican equivalent to 7-11 and they are almost on every block, they don't typically speak English but you point at the package you want and they'll add minutes and data.

L lol. Thank you!

L keep the sim when you get back to canada as the number is saved held for a while - up to a year. Download the MiTelCel app and you can go in and put a day on the account and it will restart the hold. I pay the minimum which is 10 pesos I think for 1 day service and the number stays yours. This way when I go back to Mexico I have service when I get off the plane. You actually have service in Canada, US and Mexico.
When you pay with a Canadian credit card it may not like the format of your canadian postal code and so you have to "convert it to the 5 digit US format". Do this by taking the 3 digits from your canadian postal code then add 2 zeroes to it. As an example V9N 6W4 becomes 96400. This works in the US as well.
If you use Google translate on your phone you should be given the option of viewing the telcel app in english or spanish while in the app.

airalo app works well! I'd recommend it.

For Mexico you can get a dirt cheap sim card and data plan at every telcel or Oxxo. Good from days to weeks to a month, your choice. I think it was $20 for a month including the simcard.
Unlimited facebook, whatsapp included. Extra for texting/phone canada but not much.
Maps could be downloaded but having data is so useful for much more

In Saskatchewan with Sask Tel, I called in before I left and they have a package for cheap for the days I was in Vegas.

Definitely get a local SIM in mexico. It’s so incredibly cheap. We just switch our SIMs out each time we go down and add data to the local one.

Check and see if your phone has an esim spot. When we went to Mexico, I downloaded an esim, ran data off it but I could use my regular SIM if needed (emergency $$). There is a second toggle button for each network, so easy to move between them if needed. We used airola without any issue.
https://www.airalo.com/.../how-do-i-know-if-my-phone...
AIRALO.COM
How Do I Know if My Phone Supports eSIM?

With Telus, they wanted something like $12 or 15/day for a travel plan. I think I paid $40 for unlimited data for my whole trip with the esim

SIM card, 80 pesos, amigo plan, 26 days unlimited calls and texts to Canada, US and Mexico, plus 2G, 150 pesos. OXXO on every corner for convenience.

In mexico just go buy a new sim card and use put it in your phone. You can get an unlimited data, call and text plan for like $8-12 canadian for the whole time you are there. When you come back just pop your old sim back in. Easy.

airalo

Freedom Mobile have a plan USA and Canada $ 50.00 and 40 GB data, unlimited calls

Freedom has a plan that is 40 or 50 gigs of data for all across Canada and the USA. It’s only $50 a month. We just switched to it yesterday. Their coverage just got better as well as they are now using Rogers towers and in the states it uses T-Mobile

Bruce I’ve been with Freedom for years. I figure it’s pretty good. Better than Telus and Bell.

Robbin yes we have as well, but recently became even better now that they use the Rogers towers

Bruce every time I leave a major city I lose reception with freedom.

Bruce I got telus to pretty much match the Freedom plan with their telus equivalent
Final deal (with multi line discount) $55/mth for all US / Can with 100Gig data pooled with family.
That was a steal

Sasktel offers travel pkgs. Got one for thailand and it worked great. No Sim card swap or dealing with other phone companies. Also works in the usa and mexico

Jim how do you get a Sasktel plan? Do you have to be a resident?

If your phone has esim capabilities then airalo is the way to go.

Used an eSIM in France. Worked great and was very well priced.

Just don’t use Telus. They are a ripoff

Celeste Jordan You can download Google maps offline for the areas you will be visiting, and use while on airplane mode. We make calls on Wifi /airplane mode through messenger and Instagram.

I recently used whatsapp and airalo in Italy and it worked fabulously.

Digital e-sim card is great. I have used Holafly https://esim.holafly.com/es/
And it worked amazing!
ESIM.HOLAFLY.COM
eSIM internacional para viajes al extranjero - Holafly

I pay $13 a day I think in the states with Telus. But I did get my kid a sprint sim while in California pay as you go when we went in March. She’s with lucky mobile here and her phone wouldn’t work down there at all. Was decently priced they have better plans down there then we do here in Canada

Shaw is the only plan that covers USA and Mexico

In Mexico just buy a SIM card…. Card is cheap and service can be bought on line from a few days to monthly.

My current cell phone plan with Shaw is $45 a month and I can call free in Canada, U.S. and Mexico. We used to spend Winters in Arizona and I could call Canada and Mexico from there as well. Didn't need any extra plan at all.

We're going away for 5 days, if I want Telus it's like $60(limited data) (currently on a plan with Telus) or I've been told that I can just add a SIM card into my phone because I have two slots (Google pixel 7pro) I just don't know how well it works. If it works, I see companies like Mint where I can pay 50 bucks for an entire month. Then there's no worries about how much data I'm using.
I don't know how true it is. How easy it is to use all that fun stuff.

Skype free

I budgeted the $15/day into my budget for my trip to Mexico. The wifi was terrible.

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I use Holafly, gets me unlimited data worldwide, one off fee, no roaming charges, just use whatsapp for calls if I need to.

I like what’s app when we’re away.

Try airalo. Used it last trip to US and daughter uses it in Europe a lot.

You can download city maps on google maps. Once you’ve done that, you can enter addresses and through some sort of sorcery, the google maps app knows where you are and shows the route to your destination.

What about Mint? Is that a possibility for you? I think they have short term plans.

Emma Poulin
When you're in Mexico, buy a telcel Sim to use while you're there. Soooo cheap

Hello, Canadian living in USA. For my Canadian visitors I tend to suggest going to Target to purchasing one of these SIM cards. Boost has usually been the most affordable but targets sell all kinds of prepaid sim cards from all different carriers. Hope this helps!

Katie thanks!

Maps me or Google maps does really good offline maps. Wifi messaging and put you phone on wifi calling and messaging works

Priya Guha The advice in the first comment of this post is pretty similar for Egypt. Except when it comes to a physical SIM card you may want to look at vodafone. airalo uses orange in Egypt. vodafone is known to be best for coverage there.

Frau See first post.

Just get a SIM card local to where you are.
Try eSIM.db
You can purchase and install an eSIM for whatever country you’re about to go to and it will activate when you land.