Visiting France: Roaming, a French SIM or a Travel eSIM?

France is the most visited country in the world, and almost every visitor lands with the same question: how do I get my phone working?

There are three real options. Here is how they compare.

Option 1: Roaming on your home plan

The easiest choice is to do nothing and let your phone roam.

If your SIM is from an EU country, this is usually fine. EU rules let you use your home allowance in France at no extra cost, within fair-use limits.

If your SIM is from outside the EU, from the US, the UK, Israel or elsewhere, check before you fly. Roaming in France is usually either charged per day or per megabyte, and both add up quickly over a week. Daily passes can look cheap, but they are charged for every day the phone connects, including the day you only checked a map at the airport.

Best for: EU residents, and very short trips where convenience matters more than cost.

Option 2: A French SIM card

Orange, Bouygues Telecom, SFR and Free all sell prepaid SIM cards, and the plans themselves are good value.

The cost is time. You need to find a shop, usually after a long flight, and in France you will normally need to show your passport so the SIM can be registered to you. Shop opening hours are shorter than many visitors expect, and many close on Sundays. Then you swap out your home SIM, which means your usual number, and any bank codes sent to it, stops working until you put it back.

Best for: long stays of a month or more, where the setup time is worth it.

Option 3: A travel eSIM

An eSIM is a digital SIM that you install on your phone before you leave home. When you land in France, you switch it on and you are connected, usually before the plane reaches the gate.

• No shop, no queue, no passport check at a kiosk.
• Your home SIM stays in the phone, so your number still receives calls and texts.
• You choose your data size in advance and can top up from your phone if you run low.

Best for: most trips of a few days to a few weeks.

The networks you will use in France

A HOAM eSIM for France connects to three of the major French networks:

Your phone uses whichever is strongest where you are. That matters outside the big cities, where one network can be weak in a valley and another fine.

How much data do you need for France?

It depends more on how you use your phone than on how long you stay. As a rough guide:

• A long weekend in Paris with maps, messaging, some social media and museum tickets: a small plan is enough.
• A week or two across several cities, with daily photo sharing: a mid-sized plan.
• Working remotely, video calls, or using your phone as a hotspot for a laptop: a large plan.

Streaming video on mobile data is what empties a plan fastest. Download shows on hotel Wi-Fi before a train journey and your data lasts much longer.

Is your phone ready?

Before you buy any eSIM, check two things: that your phone supports eSIM (most iPhones from the XS onwards, and most recent Samsung Galaxy and Google Pixel phones do), and that it is unlocked, which means it is not tied to your home carrier. Our two-minute check walks you through both.

Going on from France?

France borders Spain, Italy, Germany, Switzerland, Belgium and Luxembourg, and plenty of trips cross at least one of them. With HOAM you choose every country you are visiting, and one plan covers them all. The price is that of the most expensive country you choose, not the sum, so adding a second country rarely changes it much.

And when you travel again, you do not need a new eSIM. Yours stays on your phone, and you add a new plan to it.

Going to France? Choose France, and any other countries on your route, on hoamesim.com to see plan sizes and prices.