eSIM Thailand

A local SIM card is easy to find in Thailand — it's sold at the airport, in shopping malls, and in the country's many 7-Eleven stores (there are well over ten thousand of them), usually at a lower price than in the arrivals hall. There are a few requirements to keep in mind, though: registration calls for your passport and a photo of your face taken on the spot, and you can buy at most five cards per document. An eSIM lets you skip these formalities — you buy the card online, set it up before you fly, and have internet access as soon as you land, with no need to look for a shop after a long flight and no need to remove your own SIM. You get a single price known in advance, a full data allowance, and your existing number stays in the phone for calls and texts.

You can book rides around Thai cities through the Grab app — Uber does not operate in Thailand, so Grab is the main tool for ordering a taxi. In city traffic, the motorbike taxis known as motorsai work well; you'll spot their drivers, in their distinctive coloured vests, on street corners. In Bangkok there is also urban rail: the MRT metro and the elevated Skytrain (BTS). Booking rides, navigation, and buying tickets all work most smoothly when you have your own data on your phone from the moment you leave the airport. It's worth being careful with tuk-tuks — these days they are more of a tourist attraction than a means of transport, and you should agree on the fare before the ride begins.

Internet in Thailand is fast and stable in the big cities and on the popular islands — in Bangkok, Chiang Mai, Phuket, and on Koh Samui. Coverage is weaker in the far north and in the national parks, where there are fewer masts. The weather matters too: during the rainy season (from May to October), heavy downpours can weaken the signal, so it's worth downloading offline maps before longer trips. Having data on hand is especially useful then — it lets you keep an eye on the forecast and your plans for the day as you go.

It depends on how you use your phone. For maps, messaging, and social media, a few gigabytes is usually enough for a week; if you often watch video or work remotely, an unlimited data plan is a good choice — you then never have to think about usage at all. There are packages from 1 to 20 GB, as well as unlimited data for periods of 3 to 30 days; you can also share the data with other devices over a hotspot.

It's best to set the eSIM up before you leave — any internet connection is enough for installation (wi-fi or mobile data), and you have a full 365 days from the purchase to do it. Simply adding the profile to your phone doesn't start anything — the eSIM activates only when you first use data on the ground, in Thailand. How you install it depends on your device: when the QR code appears on a separate screen (a computer or a second phone), you just scan it with the camera; when you buy directly on the phone you'll travel with, you copy the activation code you receive and paste it into Settings → Mobile Data → Add eSIM. The plan's validity period — for example 7, 15, or 30 days — starts from that first activation, not from the moment of installation, so you can prepare everything well in advance.

Partly, yes. Some websites are blocked in Thailand, but otherwise access to the internet is largely unrestricted — with one important exception: you should avoid publicly commenting on the Thai monarchy, as strict lèse-majesté laws (concerning insults to the crown) apply. Pornography is also banned. Using a VPN is legal, though it's worth choosing a reputable service. On public wi-fi it's better not to log in to online banking — your own encrypted data from an eSIM is safer.