Staying Connected: eSIMs, Wifi and Your Phone Abroad

The short answer for most travellers today is an eSIM: a digital SIM you buy and install before you leave home, often one that works across a whole region of countries. It spares you a roaming bill, a hunt for a shop on arrival, and the swapping of tiny plastic cards at every border. For a multi-country journey, that convenience is the whole point.

But connectivity on a grand journey is also a choice about how present you want to be. Our journeys move through landscapes — the high Andes, the deep ocean, the Central Asian steppe — where signal is genuinely scarce, and that is part of their character. The aim is to be reachable when it matters and untethered when it does not. Here is how to set that up deliberately.

The three ways to get online

There are three practical options, and a long journey often uses all three. Roaming on your home network is the simplest — your existing number simply works abroad — but unless your plan includes international allowances, it is historically the most expensive, and a multi-country trip can run up a startling bill. Check your plan's roaming terms before you assume anything.

A local SIM card, bought in each country, gives the best price and local speeds, but means finding a shop, sometimes showing a passport to register it, and changing cards at every border. An eSIM is the modern middle path: a digital profile you buy online and install by scanning a code, with no physical card at all. Regional eSIMs that cover many neighbouring countries are especially well suited to a journey that crosses borders weekly.

Why an eSIM suits a long, multi-country journey

An eSIM is bought and installed before you ever leave home, so you land already connected — no queue, no language barrier at a phone counter, no first-day scramble. Most modern phones can hold an eSIM alongside your usual SIM, which means you can keep your home number active for calls and verification codes while using the eSIM's data for everything else.

For our itineraries, a regional eSIM that spans an entire route is the neat solution. A single plan covering Central Asia eases the path of The Silk Road Reborn; a regional plan smooths a journey across several countries on The Long Way East. You change country without changing anything on your phone. The one requirement is to confirm, before you buy, that your phone is unlocked and supports eSIM — most recent models do, but it is worth checking.

Wifi: where it helps and where it lets you down

Wifi will carry a good share of your connectivity. Hotels, cafés, restaurants and airports across the cities on our routes — Madrid, Istanbul, Marrakech — generally offer it, and it is ideal for video calls home, backing up photographs and heavier tasks best done on a stable connection. Plan your larger online jobs around the evenings, when you are at a hotel with reliable wifi.

Two cautions. Public wifi is convenient but not private, so avoid banking, shopping or anything sensitive on an open network unless you are using a trusted secure connection. And wifi cannot follow you onto the road: the long overland stretches, the boat days and the remote country between cities are exactly where a mobile data plan, not wifi, keeps you in touch. Use wifi for depth and an eSIM for reach.

Setting up before you leave

Do the connectivity admin at home, where you have time and a reliable connection. Confirm your phone is unlocked and eSIM-capable. Buy and install your eSIM, but only activate it when you arrive, as many plans start their clock on first use. Download offline maps of your destinations, any translation language packs, and your travel documents, so they are available even with no signal.

Check your home plan's roaming charges so nothing surprises you, and consider switching off automatic data roaming on your home SIM so it cannot quietly run up costs in the background. Note your important account passwords and recovery methods, because some services demand a verification code, and a code sent to a number you cannot currently receive is a familiar travel headache. Ten minutes of preparation prevents all of it.

Being unreachable, on purpose

Finally, accept — and perhaps welcome — that parts of a grand journey will be genuinely off-grid. There is no meaningful signal in much of Antarctic waters on Beyond the Blue, across stretches of the high Andes on Andes to Antarctica, or in the remoter country of The Great Rift. This is not a failure of planning; it is one of the quiet gifts of slow travel.

Tell the people at home, before you depart, which legs of the journey are likely to be silent, so a few days without a message cause no alarm. Our guides and tour managers carry their own means of communication for genuine emergencies, and our office can pass an urgent message to a group on the road. Knowing that safety net exists is what lets you put the phone away with an easy mind.