Jenesis Travel
Thailand eSIM
Land with working data. Set it up at home in two minutes, switch it on when you touch down, and keep your own number.
Staying Connected
Sorted before you land
The first hour in a new country is the one where you most need a working phone — the transfer driver calling, the hotel address you saved, the map from the taxi rank. It is also the hour you are least equipped to sort one out, standing in an arrivals hall with your luggage and no signal.
A travel eSIM removes that hour entirely. It is a second line you add to your phone before you leave home, alongside your normal SIM rather than instead of it. Nothing to collect, nothing to swap, and no tiny plastic tray key to lose. Our store covers Thailand with 124 plans, and a further 203 countries for wherever you go next.
Our eSIM store is operated by our partner netdoi, who process the payment and provide the eSIM. We earn a commission on plans bought through it, at no extra cost to you.
Three Steps
How it works
01
Choose your plan before you fly
Pick Thailand, pick the amount of data, and pay. It takes a couple of minutes and there is no physical SIM to post, collect, or lose.
02
Scan the QR code at home
Your QR code arrives by email straight away. Scan it while you are on wifi to add the eSIM to your phone. This does not start the clock.
03
Land connected
Switch the line on when you arrive and your phone finds a Thai network by itself. No airport counter, no queue, no passport photocopy.
Sizing It Right
How much data do you actually need?
The honest answer is less than most people buy, because Thailand has generous free wifi in hotels, cafes, malls, and airports. These are the daily figures worth planning around.
Maps, messaging, ride-hailing
~500MB a day
Getting around, staying in touch, the odd photo to the family group chat.
Social, browsing, some video
~1GB a day
The realistic middle for most holidays, with hotel wifi taking the heavy lifting.
Working, streaming, tethering
1–2GB a day
A laptop on the eSIM, or one phone carrying the whole party as a hotspot.
A note on your own number
The eSIM carries data only. Your usual number stays live on your normal SIM, so WhatsApp and iMessage carry on as they were. If your bank sends one-time passcodes by SMS, leave your home line switched on to receive them and set the eSIM as your data line.
Before You Buy
Questions we get asked
Most phones sold since 2018 do. On iPhone that means the XS, XR, and everything after; on Android, recent Google Pixel and Samsung Galaxy S and Note flagships, along with a growing number of mid-range models. Two things catch people out: the handset must be carrier-unlocked, and iPhones bought in mainland China do not have eSIM hardware at all. You can check in seconds — on iPhone, Settings, General, About, and look for an EID number; on Android, Settings, About phone, or dial *#06# and look for an EID in the list.
You can roam, and if your home plan includes Thailand at a sensible rate, that is the simplest option. The reason most travellers do not is cost: pay-as-you-go roaming from the UK, Europe, Australia, and North America is routinely charged per megabyte or at a daily fee that runs well past what a full trip of eSIM data costs. The other reason is timing. An eSIM is bought and installed before you fly, so you land with working data instead of hunting for an airport counter with your luggage.
For maps, messaging, ride-hailing, and the occasional photo upload, most travellers use around 500MB a day. If you are streaming video, working from the hotel, or tethering a laptop, plan closer to 1 to 2GB a day. For a typical ten-day holiday that means a 5GB plan for light use and 10 to 20GB if you expect to lean on it. Hotels, cafes, malls, and airports across Thailand have reliable free wifi, which takes a real bite out of what you use.
Yes. A travel eSIM is a second line on your phone, sitting alongside your normal SIM rather than replacing it. WhatsApp, Signal, Telegram, and iMessage all stay tied to your usual number and work over the eSIM data, so nobody needs to know you are travelling. What a data-only eSIM does not do is receive ordinary SMS or calls to your home number. If you rely on SMS one-time passcodes from your bank, leave your home SIM switched on for incoming texts and set the eSIM as your data line.
Travel eSIMs connect through Thailand's main operators, AIS and True, and switch to whichever has signal where you are. Coverage is genuinely strong: 4G and 5G reach across Bangkok, Chiang Mai, Phuket, Krabi, Koh Samui, and the main islands, and 4G follows most of the road network in between. Where it thins out is what you would expect — national parks, the further reaches of Khao Sok, and some dive sites off the smaller islands.
Install before you leave home, while you are on wifi, because adding an eSIM needs an internet connection and a QR code. Installing is not the same as starting the clock: most plans only begin counting validity when the eSIM first connects to a network in Thailand, so you can set it up a week ahead and still get the full period. Switch it on once you land and the phone finds a Thai network on its own.
On most plans, yes, and it is the reason to size up. Tethering a laptop for a morning of email uses far more than a day of phone browsing, and sharing with a partner roughly doubles consumption. If one phone is going to carry the whole party, buy the larger plan rather than two small ones.
Support comes from netdoi, who operate the store and provide the eSIM, and their details arrive with your QR code. Most problems are one of two things: data roaming left switched off for the eSIM line, or the phone still set to use the home SIM for data. Both are a toggle in your phone settings. If you are travelling on a Jenesis itinerary and you are properly stuck, message your planner on WhatsApp and we will help you sort it out.
Our eSIM store is operated by our partner netdoi, who process the payment and provide the eSIM. We earn a commission on plans bought through it, at no extra cost to you.
Planning Your Thailand Trip
Connectivity Is the Small Part
Data is the easy thing to get right. The route, the timing, the hotels that suit how you actually travel, and someone in Bangkok to call when a plan changes — that is the part worth a conversation.
Free initial consultation · Bangkok-based support · No package pressure