Sim Card in South and Central America

[SueMo]

We will be taking a cruise in a few weeks beginning in Lima and ending in Miami.  We have a four day pre cruise trip to Cusco and Machu Picchu planned as well.  Has anybody who has traveled to South and Central America used a Sim Card for text and data?  If so, how did it work and where did you purchase it?  I know you can buy one at Lima airport, but is it good for just Peru, or will it work for other countries as well?

[TwoSue]

5 hours ago, SueMo said:

  I know you can buy one at Lima airport, but is it good for just Peru, or will it work for other countries as well?

We just spent five days in Chile before our cruise and a week afterwards in Argentina. We bought two separate SIM cards in the two countries. They were pretty cheap, so it was fine. You may be able to find an eSIM that works in more than one country, but my phone wasn't compatible.

[terry&mike]

We were on a land trip in Ecuador, Peru and Bolivia in April/May of 2022. We added an international plan to my cell phone and relied on that for phone and data (using wifi when it was available). It was quite inexpensive. 

[SueMo]

Thanks for the responses.  Our cell phone international plan charges 12 cents per megabyte, which is hard for me to get my head around.  We would only be using data for messaging our kids when we don't have internet access, or to use google maps to walk from point A to point B in the cities.  I found out online that you use less than one megabyte for a 20 minute trip using google maps, so I think that actually would be pretty inexpensive.  Thanks again!

Edited February 24, 2023 by SueMo
missing word

[terry&mike]

18 hours ago, SueMo said:

Thanks for the responses.  Our cell phone international plan charges 12 cents per megabyte, which is hard for me to get my head around.  We would only be using data for messaging our kids when we don't have internet access, or to use google maps to walk from point A to point B in the cities.  I found out online that you use less than one megabyte for a 20 minute trip using google maps, so I think that actually would be pretty inexpensive.  Thanks again!

The plan we purchase, gives us free data up to a certain amount. I was also worried about exceeding data as I'm thinking how the heck do I calculate that??? On our January trip in Thailand, Vietnam and Cambodia (it was 5 weeks, so I bought a 30 day plan, then a plan for a few extra days), hubby found out how to see how much data I was using, and I was way under what I could use. This is with me using it every day to check email, facebook, upload some photos, send and receive a few texts here and there, plus use the map function to get around, and research restaurants and other things.

 

One tip is this, make sure you close out every app (and web page) that you open when you are done using them, especially maps programs/apps, as it does continue to run in the background if it hasn't been closed and use data. 

[dawnvip]

You can get pretty good rates with an eSIM if your phone is new-ish.

Depending on how long your cruise is, and how much data you typically use, the regional plans are likely your best bet. Note that most eSIMs are for data only, so you would need to text your family with messenger or whatsapp, etc.

 

https://www.airalo.com/latin-america-esim as an example of what is available. 

[DCThunder]

AT&T Wireless considers 19 countries in South and Central America to be part of their Premier cell phone plan meaning service is identical to here in the US.  I'd get off the ship, shut off Airplane mode, and automatically connect to the cell network with no additional charge.

[soccermom4]

We had T-Mobile and had no problem connecting in all of the South American ports.  Had unlimited data and texts included in our normal US Plan.  Like @DCThunder said, just turned off Airplane mode and got "Welcome to Ecuador" etc.  No issues at all.

[DCThunder]

Interestingly enough, AT&T doesn't consider Aruba as "South & Central America" but Caribbean.  So in Aruba, I got charged $10 for the day we were there, just as if I was in Spain or England.

[SueMo]

We ended up switching to T-Mobile.  They have a 55+ Magenta plan that allows cell data and unlimited texts that we plan to use on our next trip to Europe in August.

[Shella73]

I see the OP is all set, just popping in to add we have Xfinity. We traveled to Chile(Santiago, San Antonio,Puerto Montt, Punta Arenas,  Puerto Chacabuco.) The daily Global pass for $10.00 a day that we were told would work did not. AT ALL. It charged the phone line every day, they claim to see data move on the line every day, but unless we were on WiFi the phone did not work

 

 

 We also traveled to Argentina Ushuaia. 1st place we had service. Global Pass worked great.  Falkland Islands, We did not have a travel pass for our network.

Montevideo,Uruguay,Buenos Aries,Argentina, PUERTO IGUAZÚ, and Rio De Janeiro  all had great service.

 

Our trip was from December 29 to Jan 22. We are STILL trying to get the money refunded from Xfinity for the days they charged us for the Global pass that did not work. We had 5 lines involved in this.

[Nebr.cruiser]

I don't know if this applies, but after a bad experience with Sim cards in Australia/New Zealand (they never worked for any of the three of us; possibly our fault? not being tech minded, ), we just used WhatsApp.  Of course, we really only needed it to call family, especially my husband's 97 year old very anxious Mother.  (WHy would anyone want to go so far away?)

[darlak8]

On 2/24/2023 at 2:00 PM, SueMo said:

...use google maps to walk from point A to point B in the cities.

@SueMo I know you're set now with T-Mobile but did you know you can download Google Maps for offline use?  When online open the app and click on your face in the top right corner, select Offline maps, Select your on map and download it. 

[SueMo]

4 hours ago, darlak8 said:

@SueMo I know you're set now with T-Mobile but did you know you can download Google Maps for offline use?  When online open the app and click on your face in the top right corner, select Offline maps, Select your on map and download it. 

Yes, I know you can download maps, but I prefer being able to follow the blue line in real time so I know exactly where to turn and how long it will take to arrive at my destination. I have been using Google maps in real time on my current British Isles cruise getting around Copenhagen and Roskilde in Denmark, using it in Dublin to find my way to the nearest dart train station after a tour there, and will definitely be using it again in my Glasgow and Edinburgh stops.  It really gives me the ability to independently tour a city without the stress of getting lost or looking for street names.  I really love having cell data in our travels!

[mcmarya]

There is an app called Organic Maps (says hiking and biking but works for everything!) which allows you to download maps for offline use and also provides the blue line you like. For offline purposes I find it works better than downloading Google Maps of areas I will be visiting. For me it replaced Maps.me which used to work wonderfully but is now kind of worthless.  We rarely have cell service outside the US but Organic Maps (or previously Maps.me) has gotten us around many places around the world.  It even has voice-driving directions.  We bought a sim card in Brazil recently but only used it for Uber.  For getting around we used Organic Maps.  The only thing you will not have is current traffic info and any changes that have occurred after the most recent update if you are using offline.

Edited August 15, 2023 by mcmarya