> It's so nice to not have to spend the first day of a trip wandering around looking for a SIM shop

I went to three different countries this summer and all of them had sim cards available on your way out of the airport. In Armenia, it was in the baggage claim.

This is sometimes true. Like in Tunisia where they give a free SIM in baggage claim. But I crossed a lot of land borders through west africa where it would be a day or two of traveling before I could find an official store that had a physical SIM.

Experiences differ.

Also all EU sim cards roam in the whole of the EU automatically.

I did not notice this in Ireland, but I may have missed it. It was this easy in London though.

A lot of asian countries have similar convenience for physical SIMs, order online and just pickup at a stall at the airport.

Can you actually get a European sim without showing ID? That would kind of surprise me, there has been a big push to get rid of anonymous phone numbers.

Swype by Yallo is the eSIM I've used.

My Telecom Italia SIM ran out of roaming data while I was in Switzerland, and there was no way to top up. Swype had a first month free promo, so I signed up from my Airbnb. I did have to send a photo of my documents, but the total time from download to data was less than 30m.

I took a quick (1 week) work trip to Germany this summer. I was trying to figure out how to get a SIM before getting on the train, when I remembered I still had the eSIM in my phone. I downloaded the app and bought data - $15 per month + $3 per day (since I was roaming). Not only was it super convenient, but I had unlimited data with roaming. I don't think even local cards get you that.

For short trips to Europe, I definitely recommend Swype for its convenience.

> I did have to send a photo of my documents

Didn't the parent ask about not having to show ID to get a SIM card?

I’m fine with showing ID but if I’m traveling I of course do not have a local ID and if it’s online it’s basically impossible to properly check ids.

Depends on the country. UK has no national identity cards, you can buy a (prepay) SIM in the supermarket and pay cash if you like.

Here in Latvia you can buy sims from all major providers without any ID for as low as 0.99€. The caveat is that you have to top up them regularly because they have expiry times depending on the amount you top them up.

Depends, I think you can get them in Tesco pretty easily, and the MVNO I was talking about was giving numbers for their data plan from the UK, but with roaming all over Europe.

I think it's more difficult in Germany than a lot of other countries.

In France, providers will require you to provide KYC information within 14-30 days of obtaining the SIM, or it will be deactivated. Suitable for a short-term travel use case.

In Sweden there are usually stands where you can pick up sims for free, in airport outside shops etc.