A first trip to Türkiye with a travel eSIM

Türkiye has its own page in our shop. A travel eSIM there works as it does anywhere: you install it at home and switch it on when you arrive. These are the parts worth a look before a first trip.

Check your phone first

The phone needs eSIM, and it mustn’t be locked to the carrier that sold it. Both take a minute to check in its settings, and our checklist for the days before a trip says where to look on an iPhone and on Android.

Choosing the plan

• The Türkiye page lists the plans for Türkiye. Where regional or global plans also cover Türkiye, it lists them below. They suit a trip that goes on from there.
• Regional plans don’t all cover the same countries, so open a plan’s list of countries and check that every stop on your route is in it.
• Look at when each plan starts. Most start counting their days when the eSIM first connects to a network at your destination. A plan labelled Starts when you buy begins as soon as you pay, so buy that kind close to your trip.
• Some plans show more, such as whether hotspot is included or the local network they run on. If our supplier hasn’t stated a detail, we leave it out rather than guess.
• Our plans are data only. They have no phone number of their own, so calls and texts stay with your usual SIM and your own carrier.

Install it before you leave

Install the eSIM at home, on Wi-Fi, and keep your usual SIM as the line for mobile data until you arrive. Our guides to installing on an iPhone and on Android go through it step by step, from the button on your order page to the questions the phone asks.

Switching on when you arrive

Flying in, do it once you’ve landed. Crossing by land, do it once you’re across the border, where the plan is meant to be used.

1. Turn on data roaming for the eSIM’s line. It’s a foreign line in Türkiye, so it needs roaming on to use the local network.
2. Choose the eSIM as the line for mobile data.
3. Leave data roaming off on your usual line, so it doesn’t use data abroad, and leave the line itself on for calls and texts.

On recent iPhones, a notification may offer to Turn On Travel eSIM as you arrive, which does the same from one screen.

While you’re there

• Your order page shows how much data the eSIM has used and has left, as our supplier last read it.
• If the data runs low, “Add data” on the order page adds data to the same eSIM where the eSIM can take one. Otherwise, buy a new plan.
• Keep your usual SIM on if you need its texts, such as your bank’s one-time codes. They come to your number, not to the travel line.

Coming home

Choose your usual line for mobile data again and turn the travel line off. Keep the eSIM on the phone until you’re sure you’ve finished with the plan, because its code works only once.