Why one eSIM beats a SIM per country

Here's the decision that actually matters for a trip like ours, so we'll put it up front. When your route crosses borders, buying a local SIM in each country is a nightmare: you land, you hunt for a kiosk, you hand over your passport, you wait, and you do it all again at the next border. A multi-country eSIM removes every bit of that.

Two ways to do it, and we used both on this trip:

Holafly Plans (what Chris & Shayna used)

One subscription covering 160+ destinations with unlimited data and unlimited hotspot. The same plan carried us through Vietnam, Laos and Thailand without buying again. It's what we use full-time.

Regional eSIM (what Lakai used)

The Asia regional eSIM covers the region on one purchase — ideal for a set trip through several neighboring countries. It reconnects automatically as you cross each border.

For the full breakdown of which plan fits which kind of trip, see our Holafly Plans guide.

Into the gap between borders — where most phones go dark

Crossing into Laos, we hit the stretch every traveler dreads: no man's land between two countries. If you had a local Vietnamese SIM in your phone, this is where you'd start to panic — no connectivity, no way to sort your onward ride, nothing.

This is exactly where Holafly stands apart. Because Lakai had the regional eSIM and we had our Plans, our phones simply reconnected the moment we came into range of a local network on the Laos side. No shop on the other side. No new SIM. Already set up, ready to go.

We stopped one night at Pilgrims, a lovely little place right on the Mekong River — Thailand sitting on the far bank, close enough to see. The funny part: Chris woke up and his Holafly Plans had already hopped onto a Thai network across the water, before we'd even crossed. That's how seamless it is — no searching for an eSIM on the other side, no dealing with any of it. Just connected.

The text message that nearly ended the trip

Then it went sideways. Right as we reached the Thai border, a message came through from the man organizing our onward shuttle: the driver he'd arranged had gone to the wrong border — and was five hours away. Everything had been confirmed the night before. Didn't matter.

This is the part where connectivity stops being a convenience and becomes the thing that saves your trip. We ducked into a hotel, and because we had data:

• Chris used Google Translate to communicate with the front desk and get help contacting another driver.
• We used ChatGPT to find other shuttle companies operating in the area, messaged one (busy), and lined up another who showed up and got us moving.
• Shayna kept messaging on WhatsApp to coordinate the whole scramble in real time.

Traveling before smartphones, this would have been charades and a hand-drawn map. Instead it was a solvable problem — because we had a connection. That's not a small thing. Even purely as a safety matter, being able to translate, navigate and call for help the moment something goes wrong is the real reason we won't travel without an eSIM. And if you'd forgotten to buy one, Holafly's Always On backup (1 GB free monthly) would at least get you online long enough to sort it.

Getting real work done where the WiFi couldn't

After a rest day in Khao Yai, Chris needed to work — and the local internet wasn't great. So he tethered his laptop to the Holafly eSIM and actually got better download and upload speeds than the place's own WiFi. Making music, pushing files up to Google Drive, all of it, over the eSIM.

Worth knowing how tethering allowances differ, because it decides which plan you want:

• Holafly Plans Unlimited — unlimited hotspot. This is what let Chris work through a 7-hour drive south without watching a data meter.
• Plans Light (25 GB) — hotspot within the 25 GB allowance, a cheaper option if you don't need unlimited.
• Destination & regional eSIMs — a smaller daily sharing allowance, starting around 500 MB per day, depending on the destination.

That daily sharing is genuinely useful in a pinch — we've used it before in Cambodia to hotspot a driver who needed directions to get us home. If you rely on tethering for work, though, Plans Unlimited is the one. More on picking a plan in our long-term travel eSIM guide.

What this costs — and the discount

Quick note, because the pricing actually changed while we were filming this trip: Holafly increased its annual promotion, so the stacked discount is now higher than when we set off. Here's where it stands, verified at checkout:

Destination & regional eSIMs

5% off with THEDUFRESNES — whether it's a single-country eSIM or a regional one like the Asia plan Lakai used.

Holafly Plans — monthly

10% off with the code.

Holafly Plans — quarterly (new)

Up to 20% off: 10% from Holafly's quarterly saving stacked with our 10% code.

Holafly Plans — annual

Up to 30% off: 20% from Holafly's annual promotion stacked with our 10% code. This is the best value if you travel often.

And because you pick your exact number of days on destination and regional eSIMs, you never pay for data you won't use — coming to Koh Samui for two weeks? Pick two weeks. Three days? Pick three days.

Installing it is genuinely easy

There's no wrong way to install a Holafly eSIM. Sign up with your email, and you can install straight from the Holafly app with one tap. On a newer phone you can scan the QR code right off the screen; on Android you can use Google Assistant, or screenshot the QR and long-press it to scan. You can also scan it from your computer screen. It installs automatically — and if anything snags, Holafly's 24/7 WhatsApp support walks you through it.

Our advice: install before you fly, then activate when you land, so you're connected the moment you arrive — whether that's stepping off a plane or crossing a land border. Far easier than standing in a queue for a SIM from someone who doesn't speak your language.

Barefoot on Lamai Beach — we made it

The last leg was the ferry across to Koh Samui. Out on the water, still within range of the coast, we ran a speed test mid-crossing and had a solid 5G connection — which was a fun way to end a trip that had tested our connectivity at every border. (Fair note: travel eSIMs need land-based towers, so genuine open ocean is a dead zone — this worked because we were still near the coast.)

We finished on Lamai Beach, connected the whole way — three countries, 2,000 kilometers, one carefully-chosen data setup. As content creators, the unlimited data mattered every single day: uploading to Instagram and Facebook as we went, video-calling family from the road like they were right there, never rationing minutes. Four years in, Holafly is still the travel hack we lean on hardest.

What travelers say

Our experience matches what we consistently see from travelers on Reddit and traveler forums. The reason people reach for an eSIM on multi-country trips is exactly the border-crossing seamlessness we lived on this trek — connected the moment they cross, no kiosk hunt, no passport registration in each new country. Frequent regional travelers value the unlimited data most on longer runs where topping up capped plans becomes a chore. And the theme that comes up again and again is peace of mind: having a connection the instant something goes wrong, which — as our wrong-border scramble proved — is when it matters most.

Multi-country trip FAQ

Bottom line

Three countries, two borders, 2,000 kilometers, one shuttle crisis — and we stayed connected through all of it. That's the case for a multi-country eSIM in a single trip: Holafly Plans or a regional eSIM, set up once, connected everywhere, with a safety net for the moment something goes wrong. Four years on, it's still how we travel. If you're planning a trip like this, THEDUFRESNES saves you at checkout.

New to eSIMs? Start with our beginner's guide to travel eSIMs or our complete Holafly guide.