Best eSIM for Spanish travellers going outside the EU

Two things shape travel out of Spain: Morocco is forty minutes away across the Strait, and Latin America is a long-haul market with deep family and language ties. Neither is covered by EU roaming. Inside the EU your Movistar, Vodafone, Orange or Yoigo plan already works on your domestic allowance — this guide is about everywhere else.

From€1.99· 1 GB

The Strait of Gibraltar is a roaming border

EU rules require Spanish operators to let you use your domestic allowance anywhere in the EU and EEA at no extra cost. Paris, Lisbon and Berlin are already covered, and you do not need anything from us for them.

Morocco is forty minutes by ferry from Tarifa and is not in the EEA. That short crossing moves you from inclusive roaming to international rates, which surprises people far more than a long-haul trip does precisely because it feels so close. A Morocco eSIM settles it for the price of a coffee.

The other defining pattern is Latin America. Mexico is the most-visited, and long trips to see family are exactly the shape where per-day roaming is worst: the charge tracks the calendar, and a three-week stay is three weeks of it.

Since Brexit the United Kingdom has also been outside Roam Like At Home, which catches out anyone visiting family in London on an old assumption.

What to actually look for in a travel eSIM

Most travel eSIM sites compete on adjectives. Four things are worth checking instead, and all four are answerable from a plan page before you buy:

1. A number, not the word "unlimited". Almost every unlimited mobile plan carries a fair-use threshold past which you are throttled to a speed you would not choose to browse on. An "unlimited" plan with a 5 GB cap is a 5 GB plan that does not say so on the price tag. Ours show the number — the reasoning is in fixed data or unlimited.
2. The price per gigabyte, not the headline price. The cheapest plan is almost never the best value. In Morocco, the entry plan works out at €2.49 per GB while the best-value plan is €1.17 per GB — about 24% less for every gigabyte you use.
3. Whether your handset can actually take it. The most expensive eSIM is one that will not install. Thirty seconds with *#06# settles it.
4. Which networks it roams onto. A travel eSIM is not its own network — it uses local ones. In United States, for instance, that means Verizon, AT&T — the same commercial networks local customers use, not a separate tourist band. We publish the operator list on every destination page.

What it costs for the places Spanish travellers actually go

Live prices in EUR, pulled from the catalogue when this page was built. The last column is the best cost per gigabyte available for that destination — which is usually not the cheapest plan.

Charged in EUR. No activation fee, no delivery charge, no card surcharge and no auto-renewal — when the data is used up, the plan stops.

Will your Spanish phone work?

Yes for most handsets sold in Spain since roughly 2019 — iPhone XR and XS (2018) onward, Pixel 3 and later, Galaxy S20 and later, plus most recent mid-range Androids. Spanish iPhones keep their SIM tray, so your Spanish number stays reachable for calls and SMS while the eSIM carries data.

Worth knowing if your phone came bundled with a contract: devices subsidised over a permanencia period were historically sometimes locked to the operator, and a locked handset will install a travel profile and then refuse to register on a foreign network. If you have never tried another operator's SIM in it, check before you fly.

Dial *#06# — an EID next to the IMEI means the hardware is present. Setup by brand is in our device compatibility guide.

Long trips to visit family

A three-week stay with family is a different purchase from a week’s holiday. You will use the connection for more days but often less data per day, because you are on someone’s home Wi-Fi much of the time and need mobile data mainly for travel between places.

That favours a plan chosen on validity first and size second. Check the validity column before the price — a cheap plan that expires after seven days is no use on a twenty-one day trip, and buying two of them costs more than one correctly sized plan.

Why our pricing is worth comparing

Not a claim to be the cheapest — prices move, and anyone who tells you they are permanently the lowest is guessing. What we will put in writing are the policies, because those are checkable:

• Every plan states its data allowance as a number. No unlimited tier, so no fair-use threshold to discover mid-trip.
• The price on the plan is the amount charged. No activation fee, no delivery charge, no card surcharge, no auto-renewal.
• Charged in EUR. The figure at checkout is what leaves your account — not a dollar price converted afterwards by your bank at a rate you find out later.
• Cost per gigabyte is published on every destination page, next to the headline price, so the comparison above is one you can make yourself rather than take on trust.
• The operator list is published too. You can see which local networks a plan roams onto before buying.

For the full picture across every destination we sell, see what travel eSIMs actually cost.

Frequently asked questions

Buying takes about two minutes

Pick a destination, pay by card, and the QR code plus activation details appear on your order page and by email within minutes. Install before you fly — validity only starts when the eSIM first connects in the destination, so buying early costs nothing. What happens after you pay walks through the whole process.

Popular with Spanish travellers: Morocco, United States, Mexico, Turkey, Egypt.

Browse plans from €1.99