Mobile use in turkey, can't use esim help

[Elledeco]

I'm heading to Turkey on Saturday and have discovered my phone doesn't support am esim and EE want to charge me 9 pounds a day for data roaming.
Is there any other way of using my mobile out there ?

Can you get a pay monthly only sim with someone like o2? I think this is one of those rare moment a trip to the high street is required, go in store to o2.

I am with them and they don’t charge me extra to go abroad and use my phone.

I'm with O2 as well but I don't think it covers all countries, I vaguely remember some TS and C's, worth checking out other network though

Get a local sim when you arrive or alternatively find someone who will cover it in your package. Not everyone supports all countries and most high street packages only get EU coverage.

This appears to be an esim for Turkey.

https://maya.net/esim/turkey?gad_source=1&gclid=EAIaIQobChMIupnR7fCqhwMVB5NQBh3maQDWEAAYASAAEgL9_vD_BwE

The OP's phone doesn't support an esim

Take the hit. I get charged £3 a day in EU and £6 outside it. Holidays are expensive.

Failing that only use your phone connected to WiFi.

The OP’s phone doesn’t support eSIM.

OP- take a look online at the facilities airport you are using. In many airports there will be a desk where you can pick up a local sim or a pocket WiFi.

Try searching the name of the airport with the words SIM or pocket WiFi and see what you get.

Ah sorry, I read it the wrong way round, I was thinking of provider...
...actually I don't know what I was thinking!

This is what I ended up doing in Turkey. Put it down as part of the holiday cost. It’s annoying but £9 is a couple of drinks a day on hols.

I put mine in airplane mode and use WiFi, I can use credit to pay for any times I switch it on (giffgaff) is this possible?

As mentioned above, get a sim on arrival at the airport. I used Turkcell before switching over to an esim. Amazon is selling an EU and Turkey Sim card with 10GB for £27.50. Lebara is also worth looking at.

A sim or pocket WiFi at the airport will be maybe £30. if the OP is there for two weeks £9 per day is over £120. It will be much more economical to buy a sim at the airport. If my phone didn’t have eSIM capability then I’d personally go for the pocket WiFi option so that I was still on my own phone number.

I also recommend installing the Skype app and adding a little bit of credit in case you need to call your bank/credit card company or make some other call urgently at any point. That will allow you to call a phone number over WiFi. That lesson was learned the expensive way.

Where are you staying? Won't they have WiFi?

If you are going to a holiday resort then you will have the option of renting a WiFi box. Just back from Icmeler (near marmaris) and I pre booked it. Young lad delivered it to our hotel and it connected 2 phones plus 2 iPads. Also left a power bank plus a charger. Cost for 2 weeks was £45 and the wifi box is smaller than a cigarette packet and you just take it out and about wherever you go.
I did call my elderly mum 4 times, no idea what that is going to cost on Vodafone. Next months bill!

Buy a local SIM when you arrive. Check your phone is unlocked to all networks before you go, you can Google how to find this out. Don't forget the sharp pointy tool for removing your SIM card. Places like the Trip Advisor forum usually have good advice for which company to go with. We're in Montenegro and we've paid 15€ each for 500GB data for a fortnight. EE wanted nearly £9 a day for 150mb! Can't make calls or text but WhatsApp works fine.

I'm on Voxi and they do an 8 day roaming package that covers Turkey for £15. It includes 2gb data plus a small amount of calls and texts. I connected to wifi and used whatsapp for messages/calls etc where possible but found that the roaming package was enough to cover any use I needed in places where that wasn't possible.

I know this may seem a bit nasty, but why do you need your mobile on holiday? Take a break from it a really have a relaxing time. The world is unlikely to stop just because your can't access your emails or scroll through social media.

Every bar and restaurant has WiFi, just ask for the code. Use WhatsApp rather than text

Why shouldnt someone on holiday want to use their phone? Holidays ate for relaxing and doing what you want, if that's scrolling on your phone you'd be a bit weird to not do that.

Where did anyone say that it was a question of not stopping the world? If your intention was to sound smugly superior you've achieved it

It's not something I would do personally but thats no reason for everyone else not to do what they choose on holiday

This is such a silly thing to say. Not everyone is on a resort holiday and there are all kinds of practical things you might want phone data for on holiday
The last holiday that I went on I used the data on my phone more than at home for a whole load of things that had nothing to do with checking emails or scrolling social media.
Just a few things we used it for:
Google maps for navigating and for checking train times, carriages etc.
Google translating conversations with staff at train stations.
Using Google translate to read packaging in a pharmacy when someone needed medicine.
Using Google translate to read signage and restaurant menus.
Using live chat in my banking app to get my credit card unblocked when a transaction triggered the fraud department.
Location sharing with our group when we needed to find each other again in built up areas.
Ordering in restaurants where you had to scan a QR code.
Using theme parks apps that you needed to use to book fast passes and to check queue times.
Googling how to buy train upgrades for the first class carriage.

Because I have an elderly dad going through chemotherapy, and I work in cancer services for the NHS in senior management so need to keep in touch.
So yes, a break would be lovely. But patients also want to be seen and waiting lists etc need to be vetted everyday. Leave or no leave. The many threads slagging off the NHS on here confirm that.

Thank you all for some really good suggestions x