When I first started backpacking nearly a decade ago, things were a little different. Honestly, more than a little different. The more I reminisce, the more I feel like a dinosaur. This is especially true when I run into a wide-eyed backpacker on their first ever gap year, and tell them tall tales about how back in my day, we didn’t have Tik Tok and cheap international data plans to pass the monotony of a cramped South East Asian sleeper bus. Staying connected while traveling abroad was far from a given. More often than not, I went without data entirely rather than incur the costs of international roaming fees or chancing it with a SIM card that may or may not work.
However, the travel landscape has changed dramatically. Nowadays, we book flights with a few taps on our phone. Foreign menus and street signs don’t stand a chance against the instant-translation features of our smartphones. Siri gives us a live play-by-play of public transportation routes, ensuring the ride from Suvarnabhumi to Khao San Road goes as smoothly as possible. Things are just different. A big part of travel’s tech glow-up can be attributed to the rise of the eSIM, which has done nothing short of revolutionize how I and many others jet set around the world. I have no idea how this technology works, and that’s one of the best things about it. Minimal effort or understanding required — it just works. eSIMs are incredibly convenient and affordable. Since I started using them back in 2021, I have not looked back at all.
But for the purpose of this post, let us look back just this once. Flash back real quick to 2017, when I myself was that fresh-faced, wide-eyed traveler on his first ever gap year.
- Setting: Guatemala City International Airport
- Time: Shortly after midnight
- Our heroic protagonist: Yours, truly.
Okay, heroic protagonist might be a stretch. In reality, I am much more suited to be the bumbling sidekick that excels at comedic relief. My travel planning process is tag-teamed by the dynamic duo of Whimsy and Frivolity, the ADH-Demons on my shoulders that whisper impulses into my head. In this case, those slithery and surreptitious susurrations were, “let’s book a flight to Guatemala right now.”
Thus, very little research was done on Guatemala prior to my arrival the next day. Sure, I had my sights set on a few bucket list destinations, from the tranquil shores of Lake Atitlan to the rumbling craters of the Volcan de Fuego. However, logistics? Who actually needs ’em.
Upon my midnight arrival into Guatemala City, it should not have come as a surprise that everything was closed. I was still in my “please-let-there-be-airport-wifi” era. Naturally, there was no wifi at the airport, nor anywhere to buy a SIM card. An ATM was nowhere to be found. Even the money exchanges were shut, which might have been the most shocking of all. I figured that as long as there were tourists to rip off, an airport money exchange would function even if they had to tape their eyelids open.
What did I end up doing?
Travel makes you very resourceful and creative when you’re forced to be. Determined not to sleep on yet another airport floor, I unleashed the extrovert in me and started mumbling my broken Spanish to anyone who would listen. Well, it turns out anyone can be a money exchange if you are desperate enough and willing to give them an offer they can’t refuse. I slipped someone a $20 in exchange for 100 quetzals, swallowing a painful 33% loss on my end. Buy high, sell low, am I right? I never was good at investing, but be sure to subscribe to the blog for more financial advice.
Next up, it was time to contact my hostel to cash in on the free airport shuttle which was the entire reason I booked it in the first place. I asked an older Guatemalan lady rocking her colorful traditional garb if I could make a call on her phone. She handed me a trac-fone that seemed even older than she was. I fumbled through the tiny buttons and called my hostel a few times to make sure I could check in, and see if they could still send an airport pick-up my way. It was 1 AM, so I’m not sure what I expected, but I had no luck reaching them. She wanted to charge me 5 quetzales per call, and after haggling it down to 20 quetzales for the 8 failed calls, I moved on.
I took matters into my own hands, asking someone for a hotspot so I could just count my losses, order an Uber, and rest my weary head.
Now, fast forward a decade later.
Everything now has a lowercase to signify that we live in a golden age of technology. iPhones and iPads, eBikes and eBooks, the list goes on, but perhaps my favorite is the almighty eSIM.
Looking back on adventures like this, stranded at an airport in the middle of the night, sometimes gets a chuckle out of me. To think that now, I don’t even second-guess arriving at 3 AM without a single care in the world because I’ve got an eSIM and all the world’s resources at my fingertips.
A lot has changed, and I’m far more experienced and battle-hardened as a traveler than I was nearly a decade ago. But a huge part of it is also how much more convenient things have become. The convenience of an eSIM is simply unbeatable. Gone are the days of worrying about juggling physical SIMs and hoping they don’t get lost in the chaos of travel. I remember having to memorize several phone numbers and texting people from each one trying to convince them that this random South African number they have never seen before was indeed me.
It’s like your phone finally caught up to the 21st century. Soon, people will be talking about SIM cards the way we reminisce on (this might age me a bit) the beloved floppy disks of the 90s.
Companies like Saily have become essentials for backpackers and travelers worldwide, setting a gold standard for convenience and affordability. Get 5% off of your first Saily eSIM by using my code “eli5”.
Simple to Buy & Use
It’s a massive drag having to search high and low for SIM cards in certain countries. In Pakistan, for example, you can’t even get a SIM card as a foreigner unless you know a local who is willing to give you one of their allotted SIM card allowance. Sure, in some countries it’s a breeze and you can get an insane amount of data for like $10 right at the airport. But again, completely irrelevant if you no longer have a SIM card slot. Good ol’ American capitalism, am I right?
Travel has become a whole different ballgame. Instead of fighting the physical SIM battle, I just tap my screen a few times, get a data plan activated in mere minutes, and bada-bing bada-boom. I’m ordering a taxi before my backpack hits the carousel. No plastic chips. No relying on airport wifi. No emotional damage. Just sweet, beautiful data, instantly. It’s honestly one of the most underrated tech upgrades in modern travel—right up there with noise-canceling headphones and the invention of Google Translate’s photo mode.
Keep Your Phone Plan From Back Home
And the best part? You can store multiple plans at once, which is perfect if you, say, want to keep your U.S. number active for bank texts and two-factor authentication, while also using an affordable eSIM data plan to binge Tik Tok brain rot in between stints of island-hopping and scooter adventures. Keep your home number active for texts and banking stuff, while using a local data plan to avoid getting gouged by your carrier’s $15/day “travel pass.”
Will Get You Out of a Pickle, Guaranteed
Having Google Translate on hand is a lifesaver if any communication struggles arise, like just a couple of weeks ago when I had to declare my drone at Uzbekistan’s Tashkent Airport and none of the customs workers spoke English. It offers an immeasurable amount of peace of mind, knowing that you’ll be landing into a foreign country and immediately have access to whatever resources you’ll need.
Time to Embrace eSIMs
Sometimes, it’s not worth the hassle to completely start from scratch every time you set foot into a new country. There are already enough rules and regulations that vary wildly from country to country. eSIMs are consistent and reliable, and give you an instant lifeline should things indeed be wilder and more unplanned than envisioned.
Don’t find yourself in the same pickle that I’ve found myself in time and time again. Traveling can, and likely will, lead to high-stress situations and a lot of uncertainties. Do yourself a favor and avoid adding any more stress to what should be a grand adventure.
If you’re not already using an eSIM, this is your sign. Ditch the plastic. Embrace the digital. And never beg an old Guatemalan lady to borrow their Trac-fone ever again.
Get 5% off of your first Saily eSIM by using my code “eli5”.
