The Best eSIM for Turkey: Airalo, Nomad or Holafly?

türkiye Airalo esim

If you're looking for the best e-Sim for Turkey, you've come to the right blog - if I do so humbly say myself. I am lucky enough to have an enormous amount of free time on my hands, so before I went to Turkey I researched e-Sims like it's no one's business. Except now I can make it your business and hopefully help you out! No matter if you're looking for a Turkey e-Sim as a tourist or if you're looking to stay longer like I am - we can probably sort you out. I have primarily travelled in my life as a budget travel so I was looking for the cheapest e-Sim in Turkey, but because cheapest is not always best, I made sure to look at other options, too.



Best eSIM for Turkey: An Introduction

The beauty of getting a Turkey e-Sim online before you go is that once you land at the airport (or get off at the bus station), you are ready. We are living in the future people! No more struggling to communicate - Google will translate anything you like in any language (Google Translate's photo translation feature is really handy!) No more haggling with the predatory taxi drivers who hang out at arrivals looking for naive tourists - Uber will take you where you want to go with an upfront set price. No more wondering where you are - Google Maps can show you. But first you need the internet, right? Now I have been travelling for the past ten years and mostly as a budget (read: cheap) traveller. Hence I have tried many different 'internet whilst abroad' options. This includes:

  • relying on free access public wi-fi (sporadic and unreliable);
  • travelling with a Dongle (too heavy - I'm a minimalist, 'travel-with-only-one-backpack' kind of person), 
  • trying to go without the internet in an even more minimalistic way (inconvenient and sometimes even downright dangerous), 
  • and, of course, by opting for local tourist SIMs (a different kind of inconvenient... more about this regarding Turkey later).

Recently, a company reached out to me to ask if I wanted to trial their e-Sim in return for an honest review. We never managed to reach an agreement, but the idea of an e-Sim really intrigued me. Firstly, I was like, what even is an e-Sim? How would that even work? And then when I learnt about it in more detail, I was truly impressed. Still, the budget (cheap) traveller in me was like, well, I am cheap, no matter how cheap an e-Sim is, I am cheaper. But I still kept the e-Sim at the back of my mind. Then, we arranged a trip to Türkiye. Our flight would be landing in the evening and I knew now was the time to trial an e-Sim. But which e-Sim to try? With so many out there, I thought it would be an excellent opportunity to use my phone to try one and my boyfriend's phone to use another, so I could act like a true travel blogger and compare them for you. So without further ado, let's find the best e-Sim to use in Turkey / Türkiye!


Wait... What Is an e-Sim?

Well first of all, what actually even is an e-Sim? An e-Sim is a virtual or digital version of an actual in real life physical SIM card. So you can have the advantages of the sim without that little bit of plastic you shove in your phone. Some e-Sims work exactly like your normal Sim does, others (for example the ones I'm reviewing today) 'just' give you internet access - you won't be able to call or text people with it, but in this day of Whatsapp, Facebook, Uber and Airbnb you probably won't need to call or text people. As a millennial, I rarely read my texts - whereas my Whatsapp is always open.

best esim for turkey

The big advantage of an e-Sim for a traveller is that you can land at the airport (or arrive at the bus station or train or dock) of a brand new country and instantly be connected to the world wide web. For 'digital nomads' or really just anyone who's addicted to their phone and going abroad this is truly a game changer.


Can I Use an e-Sim on My Phone?

Well that depends on your phone. E-Sim websites like Airalo have a long list of phones that their e-Sim is compatible with. But the easiest way to check (on an Android phone) is to:

  1. scroll down, 
  2. click settings, 
  3. click connections, 
  4. click sim manager and see if there is an e-Sim option.

I don't know how to do it on apple, soz. I'd love to say that most new phones have an e-Sim option but that's not true. When I bought my new (as in refurbished new because I don't want to financially support new phones) phone last year I specifically chose one that had an e-Sim option, and it was annoying, because I'd find a phone I'd like an then find out it didn't have e-Sim compatibility. Anyway... hopefully your phone has an e-Sim option, it's best to check now. Because if you don't, there's not much point you reading this blog post. (Though of course, I'd be touched if you did.)


Which Is the Best e-Sim for Turkey? Our Three Contenders

I am spending three months in Turkey so although as far as my knowledge goes all three of these e-Sims work in most countries and places, I don't know for sure if that's true though, as I didn't research it and I personally only tried them in Turkiye... so from now on I'm going to be talking exclusively about my experiences with eSIMs in Turkey:


1. Airalo, Probably the Best e-Sim for Turkey

Airalo was the first e-Sim website that popped up when I googled 'Turkey e-sim'. I like the Airalo website - it's clear and cute with little cartoon-like animations that are pleasing to this millennial's eyes. It was easy to find what I wanted - an e-Sim that would work in Turkey. It was right there on the front page. Once on the page I had lots of options to choose from:

Airalo esim turkey

Even though I'm going to be in Turkey for 3 months, I chose just the 7 days e-Sim option, because I am comparing e-Sims and want to know which is the best e-sim for Turkey before I make a more long-term commitment - play the field ladies! My next question was, 'what's a Gb?' (read: Gigabyte) or rather 'is one Gb enough for me and my needs?' and a quick googling told me that yeah, it probably would be. One Gb is enough for texting, short calls (not video calls though), some map browsing (try to avoid looking at photos on Google Maps) and downloading like one short video (which would not be needed) and perhaps a couple of photos (which can be really useful if your new landlord is sending you 'how-to-get-into-the-apartment' instructions via photos or hand-made drawings, lol). But this is a good time to note that you should turn off any and all your unneeded notifications so you don't waste your one Gb of data on pop-ups from that Duolingo owl.


Airalo discount code

The price for 7 days / 1 gb is $4.50 which I actually thought was really cheap (to be able to get off an airplane and go straight into uber is priceless). I used the discount code LAURA0542 which made it even cheaper - $3 cheaper in fact, meaning that I paid $1.50 You can use the discount too. I was happy to see that you can pay with PayPal on Airalo. But even though I was happy to see that I actually just ended up paying with my revolut card, but it's nice to know there are options. After my research was finished it turned out that even as the $4.50 / week option  Airalo was the cheapest e-sim in Turkey. Of course once I used the discount code and made it $1.50 / week it definitely made it by far the cheapest option.


Installing Airalo

But does cheapest = best? The next step is to install the e-Sim. And this was the tricky thing for me because I didn't know if I should do it before I get there (and potentially waste my new internet in the wrong country) or install the e-Sim when I got there (and potentially not be able to install it without internet and potentially not be able to use it and thus ruin the experiment).  What I did in the end was wait until the night before my trip to buy and install it, which was a good idea on paper, but in practice I made the mistake of accepting a couple of palinkas before I did this, so the experience was fuzzy. Still, I managed it and it was good to install it before I got there, because it did need the internet to install the first step.

The second step needs to be done in the country and luckily doesn't need the internet. The second step comes with clear instructions on your Airalo app. But still, I found it confusing because apparently clear instructions just don't work for me. I managed it, but as this is an honest review, I'd honestly have preferred it if it just worked without me having to follow any instructions. As to the concept of running out of internet before you get there (and my other fear - accidentally logging onto my original sim's internet whilst in Turkey), this is easily solved - under Mobile data you can chose to just have it off, and when you have it on you pick the e-Sim, not your original sim.


Does Airalo work with Whatsapp?

One thing that worried me about Airalo, was that one review I read online said that their Whatsapp wasn't compatible with the e-Sim, because their Whatsapp was connected to their original number not their Airalo number and thus it kind of rendered it useless for them, as they wanted to use it for Whatsapp. I also wanted to use it for Whatsapp, so I would be able to text my airbnb guy in the taxi. But I figured I'd risk it - if it didn't work I could always text him through the airbnb app, text through a real text, or just not text him at all (and instead take the time to think about my codependency tendencies). In the end it turned out that using the Airalo e-Sim I actually COULD use Whatsapp! So I don't know if they updated their product, or if it just didn't work for the country that that review lady was in, or if maybe she was just doing it wrong. Long story short. Whatsapp worked for me with Airalo.


Does Airalo work in Istanbul?

I got out of the airport in Turkey, snootily dismissed the taxi drivers and used Airalo to call an uber. My card wouldn't work (because of my card not the internet), so I freaked out before realising I could just pay with cash. The uber driver arrived and took me to my apartment, whilst I Whatsapped my landlord that I was on the way. All in all, during this 1 hour journey (Istanbul is gigantic) I used 24 mb, leaving me with 1000mb left for the week (because 1024 mb = 1 gb). So for sure it was enough to get from the airport to my place (which is what I wanted). Mission accomplished. For the rest of the week I went around struggling in a new city using things offline before suddenly remembering that I did indeed have internet and could use it. It was useful af. I felt like a travel queen. The internet was fast and I had no issues with Airalo.


So... what's the best e-sim for Turkey? Is it Airalo?

After my experience I'm inclined to say that Airalo is the best e-sim for Turkey - the website and app are easy to use, it's by far the cheapest e-sim in Turkey, the internet was fast and worked for all my needs. And although the set up was slightly confusing that's more on me (and palinka) than Airalo all in all, I was impressed and thus recommend it to you. If I was a normal person, I wouldn't have bothered trying Nomad. But I'm not normal, I'm a blogger and I wanted to be a good blogger and actually try it, so I can report back to you:


2. Nomad eSim Review in Turkey

Nomad was the second e-Sim option that popped up when I looked up Turkey e-Sims for Turkey. My first two impressions of it left me disappointed. First, the name. Nomad for me is an insurance company. An insurance company I don't like. So not only am I biased against it, I was also predicting problems if I wanted to google something about the e-Sim, I would get answers about insurance. Annoying. My second issue was the website itself, to my eyes it's ugly. It's background is dark and I think that just screams late 90s and not in the good way. Anyway, these things are not important, but my first impression was that I liked it less than Airalo. Hence why I downloaded the Airalo app for my phone and the Nomad app for my boyfriend's phone. Nomad's website was harder to navigate but I managed to find Turkey. Nomad also offered 1 gb for 1 week - but this time at $6. But $6 is not so much more than $4.50 so no worries. I tried using discount codes like NOMADTUE and MELI23HJ but neither of them worked.

You can also pay with PayPal like with  Airalo, but like with Airalo I decided to instead pay with card. I got all the way to the payment section before my mind stopped me (which considering I'd had a lot of palinka by this point, was impressive). I suddenly thought - it's probably worth checking my boyfriend's phone is compatible with e-Sims. I checked, and it is not. So I didn't buy the  Nomad e-Sim. Again,double check your phone is compatible with an e-Sim!

I did notice though that the active/start system for Nomad seems much clearer than on Airalo - you just do it before you go (also needs wifi) and it connects once you get there. But as I haven't, yet, tried it myself, I don't know for sure - watch this space! [Update: a few weeks later in Turkey I needed the internet again, so although I wanted the convenience of using Airalo again, I decided to be a good little travel blogger and trial a second e-sim in Turkey for you. So I went back to Nomad. Although I still disliked their website, I found that their app was much more aesthetically pleasing. So I signed up with email. Then came the decision time - did I want 1 GB, 7 days for $6 or 10 GB, 30 days for $15 (the later working out at just $1.5 / GB). To keep the experiment 'clean' I was going to go for 7 days, but then I saw that there was 15% off for 10GB and off with the code NOMADCNY24 so I went with that. I didn't want to use my card on my phone, and have to verify it and get locked out, so I went back to the dreaded website, logged in and tried to buy my internet.]

cheapest esim turkey

It said I had to click on my app to confirm the purchase, so I did that, looked back at my computer screen and it had logged me out of Nomad. The money was pending out of my account and after ten minutes was rejected by Nomad. I figured it was my fault for having ad blocker on so I tried again and the same thing happened. Then I realised it wasn't me, it was them. Although they returned my money too me both times (phew), it was an absolute waste of time where they were simply unable to sell me internet. I don't know if it was a glitch or if it was because I was buying in Turkey or buying from Turkey. I've read that other bloggers had success with them, but honestly at this point I don't know if those bloggers even used Nomad. Long story short, Nomad logged me out every time I was trying to buy internet, making my money pend out of my account, before they rejected it ten minutes later. It was really annoying and I personally cannot recommend them at all. I then went back to Airalo and bought a months worth of internet from them, which has been working for me really well.


3. Holafly in Turkey Review

Lastly, we have Holafly, who I'm also inclined to be biased against because my professional relationship with them never went through. But really, I want to be useful to you so let's talk about them. The good news is they say you can definitely use you Whatsapp number with them, so that's nice. The bad new is they are more expensive - although this is for unlimited data which obviously has it's advantages if you want to stream lots of videos a day. But if you're only going to be using it to get around with uber and maps and translations you don't need unlimited - 1 Gb / week is all you need imo. I haven't used Holafly yet, so it's a stretch to call this a review. All I can say is I'd generally recommend Airalo to you, but if you absolutely need unlimited internet then try Holafly and let me know how it goes.


E-Sim Alternatives for Turkey and Beyond!

I'm honestly sold on the whole e-Sim thing, it's convenient, it's easy and it's cheap. I do have experience with other methods of wifi travel though, which I touched on in the introduction. Please allow me to elaborate here.


1. Public wifi / cafe wifi

In the past I have relied on the airport wifi to help me get a taxi, or I've skipped from the train or bus station to a cafe to use wifi. This has worked for me mostly in the past but it can be frustrating - the internet is not always guaranteed to even exist and if it does it's often laggy or unsafe. Furthermore, it takes time to go to a cafe, find out if they have wifi, order a coffee etc - it's okay if you arrive in the morning but if you arrive at night (like I did in Turkey) and you just want to get off the plane / bus and to your place as quick as possible - invest in an e-Sim. You'd basically pay that same price for a coffee anyway, and the e-Sim will last you at least a week - unlike the coffee which will last you to your next poop.


2. Local sim in Turkey

When I lived in Thailand and Malaysia I started getting local sims so I could have internet on the go like I do in my home country. This worked well on the one hand - I didn't have to rely on unreliable public wifi and it was good to have a local number. On the other hand, there were some disadvantages: 1)  you have to get it in the country, you can't get it before hand so there's no 'just getting off the plane and being ready to go' like you have with the e-Sim option. You can sometimes get them in the airport, but not always, and even when you can, if you're like me the last thing you want to do when you get off a flight is boring sim stuff. 2) you have to get a new sim in each country - fine if you don't travel a lot but annoying to collect if you go to many countries because 3) some countries are really strict with sim cards for some reason - for example Thailand. There I had to present my passport and they made it clear I wouldn't be allowed a new number and I shouldn't lose my sim card (which of course I have lost). All in all, I think e-Sims are more convenient than local sims, but if you are looking for a local number for texts and calls or there for a long time in one place then maybe go for a local sim. Important note: I didn't get a local sim in Turkey, but I was reading in an expat group that after 90 days, if your phone is from outside of Turkey, they will block your imei and you need to pay a tax (approx 30k lira) to get it unblocked. If this is true then it's definitely not worth getting a sim in Turkey - use wifi, a dongle or an e-Sim.


3. Dongle

When I went on a press trip to the USA and Canada a couple of years ago I was sponsored by a dongle company. A dongle is like a portable internet provider that you can turn on and connect your phone (or even your laptop) to. The internet is better quality than your average airport / cafe internet and you can rely on it. It is light-weight, however it is still another thing to carry around with you - and another thing to charge. What's more, they sent mine to me in the post, which was really convenient, and they have convenient drop off points for when you get back - for e.g. in Stansted airport. But, the drop-off points are not everywhere - which I discovered when my contract was up with them and they expected me to send it back from Thailand to the UK. Which would have cost me like $60. In the end I made a fuss and they just let me keep it, but I think that was just because I'm a privileged blogger. All in all, I made good use of the dongle and I did like it, but if you have an e-Sim option I can think of no reason to use a dongle over an e-Sim (unless of course if you're offered a dongle for free or for money like I was lol). And of course, if your phone doesn't have an e-Sim option and you want to have the convenience of internet as soon as you arrive you should definitely get a dongle.


4. Travel without internet

Last, and least lol, we have travelling without the internet - without a dongle, without an e-Sim, without a local sim, just raw dogging it and only using your hotel / hostel / airbnb wifi. It's certainly possible, I've done it myself many times in many countries. It certainly has that old timey charm to it 'oh a world before the internet' etc. But just like you could travel without a phone, but why not just have one, it's the same with internet, in my honest opinion. No, you don't need internet all the time when you're out and about soaking in the culture, and yes we could all probably benefit from some off-time. But when it comes to ordering taxis and using maps, the internet is an advantage that you deserve, baby. If it's a cost cutting thing that's putting you off getting an e-Sim (or a dongle, or a local sim), take it from me - you will actually save money - you're less likely to be ripped off by taxis, you're not going to get lost, you will no doubt save time and money in numerous ways. Or at least that's what it's been like for me.


Wrap Up: What's the Best eSIM for Turkey?

To put it simply, I have only used Airalo in Turkey and I have had zero issues with it. The set up was slightly annoying (but undoubtedly less so if you're not drunk or hungover), but for $4.50 - or rather $1.50 with the discount code LAURA0542 - it is so worth the money and I highly recommend it. Although I neither liked Nomad's name nor website, it nevertheless is also a fair price (albeit more expensive than Airalo), it also was easy to navigate - up until the point they logged me out of their website whilst in the process of trying to buy it. I like to try and accept my share of the blame wherever appropriate, but in this case it's on them - they were rubbish and I hate them. Maybe you will have better luck. Holafly was also a website I haven't personally used and I'm not sure why I would because I'm not sure when I'd ever need unlimited internet (because I have that in apartments and hotels and at home etc). But if I did need unlimited internet I would try them out.


All in all, my big take away is that e-Sims are really convenient for travel and I will be using them from now on. And I'll be using Airalo when I do it. But what about you and your experiences? (Second and third photos by Anna Berdnik and Fatih on Unsplash)

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ABOUTME

We overland. We eat plants and fungi. We live outside as much as possible. We are all connected. A female travel blogger overlanding and writing about ecotourism, ethical and sustainable travel, socially conscious travel and housesitting. An online travel magazine since 2015.

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