Questions
Everything people ask before they buy an eSIM for the Camino
Nineteen questions, answered as plainly as we can manage. If yours is not here, the short version is usually: install it at home, switch it on in Spain, and buy days rather than gigabytes.
Before you buy
Whether this works for your phone, your route and your dates.
Almost every phone released since 2019 does — iPhone XS and newer, recent Pixels, Samsung Galaxy S20 and newer. Look in Settings for an "Add eSIM" or "Add mobile plan" option; if it is there, you are fine. Phones bought on a carrier contract are occasionally locked, which is worth checking before you fly rather than after.
Pick your route in the finder and the catalogue filters itself down to plans that cover every country the route crosses. A Camino Francés starting in Saint-Jean needs France as well as Spain; a Portugués needs Portugal as well as Spain. That is the arithmetic the finder does for you.
At least as many as your walk takes, and the route pages tell you what that is. Days count from the moment the eSIM first connects to a network on the trail, so a 30-day plan bought in March and activated in May still gives you 30 walking days.
Most pilgrims use far less than they expect: maps downloaded the night before, messages, the odd photo upload over cafe wifi. 1 GB per week is comfortable for that. If you are streaming, video-calling home every evening or working as you walk, filter for 10 GB and up instead.
No. Checkout works as a guest — you get the eSIM by email and a private link to your order page. Creating an account only means your past orders are in one place and "buy again" is one click.
Setting it up
What happens between paying and having data in Spain.
By email, within minutes of payment being confirmed. It also lives on your order page, so you can open it again from a phone on the trail without digging through your inbox.
When the eSIM first connects to a network in Spain, Portugal or France — not when you buy it and not when you install it. Install it at home the week before, leave the line switched off, and enable it when you land.
You can, but you need internet to do it, and airport wifi at 6am after a delayed flight is a bad moment to find that out. Scan the code at home while you are on your own wifi; nothing starts counting until you switch the line on.
Yes. These are data-only eSIMs, so your usual SIM stays active for calls, texts and bank verification codes. Turn mobile data off on your home line and on for the eSIM, and you will not pay a cent of roaming.
No. An eSIM profile installs onto one device and cannot be moved to another afterwards. Two walkers need two plans — or one phone acting as a hotspot for the other, which most plans allow.
On the Camino
What coverage is actually like once you are walking.
No, and nobody selling you a SIM can honestly promise otherwise. Spanish and Portuguese networks are good in towns and along main valleys. Between villages on the Meseta, on the high stages of the Primitivo and along parts of the Norte you will drop to one bar or none — on any network, on any SIM, ours included.
Download tomorrow's stage tonight, offline maps included, while you are on albergue wifi or in town. That single habit removes almost every practical problem a thin signal causes.
The connection stops; nothing is charged automatically and no overage appears on your card later. Prepaid means prepaid. If you need more, buy another plan and install it the same way.
Tethering works on the plans we sell, and it is a common way for a couple to walk on one plan. Bear in mind it drains the host phone's battery quickly, which matters on days between albergues.
Payment and orders
Money, receipts and what happens if something goes wrong.
By card, through Stripe. Prices are charged in euros; where we can tell roughly where you are, we show an approximate conversion next to the price as a courtesy — it is informational only and never what Stripe actually charges.
Card details are entered on Stripe's own checkout and never touch our servers. We store the order, the eSIM and your email address, nothing else.
If an eSIM has not been installed and activated, write to us and we will refund it. Once a profile has been installed on a device it cannot be returned to stock, which is a limit of how eSIMs work rather than a policy we chose.
Check spam first, then open your order page — the code is always there as well as in the email. If the order still shows as pending an hour after payment, contact us with the order number and we will chase the supplier directly.
No. We sell eSIM data and organise it around the routes; the Cathedral, the Pilgrim's Office and the various friends-of-the-Camino associations have nothing to do with us.
Plans for your route
Choose a route and we'll show only the plans that cover all of it.
All 27 routes, grouped by how busy they are.
Pick your Camino first
A Francés from Saint-Jean needs France as well as Spain; a Portugués needs Portugal. Tell us the route and the list below fills itself in.
Browse all routes