Best eSIM Romania. Top 5 eSIMs to visit Romania

Preparing a visit to count Dracula’s castle? Travelling to Bucharest? Hiking around the Carpathian Mountains? Don’t get blindsided with roaming costs while enjoying your trip. We’ve prepared a list with our top 5 eSIMs for Romania.

Romania is known for its pristine landscapes, its monasteries and monuments and, of course, for Transylvania and its popular legends.

If you’re getting ready to visit this beautiful country, even before packing your bags or as soon as you reach your destination, you should get your hands on the best eSIM plan for you.

Buying a prepaid eSIM card (embedded SIM) will avoid any expensive roaming costs that can ruin your experience.

While getting a physical SIM card without speaking the language can be a whole new experience, we don’t recommend wasting your hard-earned (and limited) holiday time inside a store trying to get a local SIM card only for a few days.

With an eSIM, the entire process is way simpler. Check our list of the best eSIMs to travel to Romania and in a few minutes, you can start using your data.

Best eSIM carriers to travel to Romania

Check the following chart to see our top choices for the best eSIM to travel to Romania.

*Data collected 2024

Orange eSIM Holidays: The best choice for your trip to Romania

Our Top choice, Orange, offers by far the best price per GB of all the eSIM carriers. For a bargain price of 0.83€/GB, this eSIM comes with 30GB of data to be used over the period of 15 days.

Besides, because Orange is a local carrier in Europe, they provide you with a Spanish phone number. This means you get 100 minutes of international voice calls and SMS for additional credit.

To further sweeten the deal, you’ll be able to use your mobile phone as a hotspot via tethering, so you can connect other devices to your mobile phone.

Its only downside is that by law it requires an Identity check, but the process is son simple it won’t be a hassle.

Airalo Noroc: Budget plans with limited gigabytes

Airalo offers cheap options with small GB packages. It is a great deal if you’re travelling on a budget and don’t plan on using too much data.

With eSIM plans offering from 1GB to 10GB of data, the most cost-effective plan in price per GB would be their 10GB offer for 18 USD (approx. €16.87) to use in a period of 30 days.

This carrier uses the Orange 5G or the Vodafone LTE networks, with tethering allowed, but it can only be used in Romania.

Maya: Romania eSim or Europe eSIM.. Mid-tier prices with unlimited options

Our third choice offers slightly more expensive prices than Airalo’s for the same amount of data. Maya doesn’t offer a 2GB plan but offers 2 unlimited data cards: one Romania eSIM to use within the country, and one to be used in 28 countries.

Maya’s prices range from €8 to €14 for their limited data offers, and €55 for their unlimited plans.

Holafly: Expensive and unlimited

Holafly’s costly plans offer, in exchange, unlimited data. While the convenience of this unlimited data is out of the question, you should be sure it is the choice that best suits you, since the plans are limited by their validity.

Its best price per day with €99 for 90 days (€1.1 per day), or the second one (€87 for 60 days) are the only options cheaper (in price per day) than their competition, and are worth it only if you’re staying for 2 months at least.

For this reason, we recommend to plan in ahead the amount of days and data you’re going to spend in Romania.

If you’re planning to work or connect your computer (or any other device) using your mobile phone as a hotspot, you should also know that Holafly doesn’t allow tethering, limiting the advantages that an unlimited offer could provide.

Nomad: Convenience for a higher price

Nomad offers expensive plans with a very limited amount of data. With its lowest price per GB being 1.8 €/GB (10 GB, €18 days) it is our most expensive eSIM carrier. 

The only advantage they offer is that everything you need to travel with Nomad as your carrier can be controlled through the Nomad app. They use a global data provider (Truphone), what makes it a convenient option if you’re travelling to several other countries including some outside of the European Union.

How to buy an eSIM

Purchasing an eSIM is one of its major advantages. The process is entirely done from your own house. 

While traditional physical SIM cards require a trip to the vendor, you can buy an eSIM online.

Once you’ve chosen an eSIM plan, you can go to the carrier’s website and proceed with the purchase process following the instructions provided. After the checkout, you’ll receive an email explaining the process to activate your eSIM.

In most cases, it’s as easy as scanning a QR code and adding a Cellular Plan.

How to know if your device supports eSIM

eSIM technology is pretty new. That means that many mobile phones don’t support it. Before buying an eSIM, make sure your phone has the capability of installing an eSIM.

Most Apple devices since iPhone XR or iPhone 11 support eSIMs, Samsung devices since the 2020 release of the Galaxy S20 have an embedded eSIM and Google phones since the Google Pixel 3 and 3XL also support eSIM technology.

However, this technology is being adopted by more and more brands, so the list of supported devices keeps growing.

We recommend you to check in our list of compatible devices, your device manufacturer, vendor or primary carrier to make sure you’re able to use an eSIM and enjoy its advantages.

How do I activate an eSIM?

Activation on iOs

Settings > Cellular/Mobile data > Add cellular plan > Scan the QR > Enter PIN

Activation on Android

Google Pixel

Settings > Network & Internet > “Add” or “+” icon next to “Mobile Network” > Download a SIM > Scan QR code > Activate eSIM

Samsung

Settings > Connections > SIM Card manager > Add mobile plan > Scan Carrier QR Code > Confirm

Other

Open your Camera or a QR Scanner app > Scan the eSIM QR code > tap on “Cellular Plan Detected” > Add Cellular Plan

Frequently asked questions about eSIM for Romania