When visiting the Caribbean most people like to go on ahead and travel to several islands on their trip. In doing so, they can end up realizing that getting cell coverage on that particular trip could be more challenging than usual. The simple reason behind this is that each island can be a new country, and abide by its own set of rules. At the same time many people’s Caribbean vacation starts on a cruise. That’s a whole other challenge to deal with. You may not be able to solve your coverage issues on a cruise with a caribbean SIM card. That being said, on land your best bet may be to precisely get a regional SIM card and have that as your local SIM card for the duration of your trip.
The good thing about regional SIM cards, and particularly data only ones, is that you’re probably not going to have to worry too much about roaming. Since they can’t charge you more on the prepaid plan you’ll either have coverage or you won’t. Now, the most obvious issue that you need to deal with is to make sure that whatever Caribbean SIM card you end up choosing it’s able to grant you coverage in all of the different countries that you’re going to want to visit. We are going to go over some of the options on the market. To then compare prices and help you figure out what the best option for you might be.
- Caribbean SIM Card – Are There Regional SIM Cards For This Area?
- Caribbean SIM Card – Regular SIM Options
- Caribbean SIM Card – eSIM Cards
- Sticking With Your Regular Plan
- Will These Options Grant Me Coverage On A Cruise Ship?
- What To Do When Returning Home
Caribbean SIM Card – Are There Regional SIM Cards For This Area?
If we’re honest about it this is the main concept that we wanted to talk about in this article. Just because if you have to get a SIM card, particularly a traditional one, for each island that you’re going to visit it can turn into a mess. You would have to go through the whole SIM switch process a bunch of times, keep track of mini SIM cards that all look alike to try and make sure you have the right one in use to be able to get coverage in the specific country that you’re in. With a regional Caribbean SIM card you just need one card and you’re going to be able to get coverage in virtually all of the islands that you visit.
We are going to be looking into the specific options that are available in a bit. Other than the price tag and the amount of coverage that you can get with each option it’s super important to make sure that you find all of the countries that you’re going to visit on the list of countries where that particular Caribbean SIM card is able to get you coverage. If that’s not the case then you really should continue to look for an option that offers coverage everywhere throughout the Caribbean. One thing that we do want to say about a regional Caribbean SIM card is that you may not get the same quality coverage throughout the whole area. This has to do with the available networks on each island and how the company you’re getting coverage from is connected. Make sure to keep that very much in mind.
Caribbean SIM Card – Regular SIM Options
Right off the bat we found a major issue with traditional SIM card options for a Caribbean SIM Card. The problem is that these regional SIM cards that are very popular offered by Orange the world renowned wireless service provider have half of the Caribbean islands on their North America regional SIM card and the other half in their South America option. Another thing that you can do is just avoid any issues and get a global SIM card and just make sure to see that all of the countries that you’re going to be traveling to are on the list.
In any case, the Orange SIM card that we were referencing is going to cost you 50 dollars from a respectable retailer online and you’re going to be getting 10GB of data with a credit validity of 14 days. We would say that this particular option is the high end of the spectrum when it comes to price. The problem with some of the other options out there is that they offer for example Jamica coverage for 15 dollars. On the surface that seems like a better deal, and you could get even better quality of coverage. However, that’s 15 dollars per island if you visit more than 3 in less than 15 days. The 50 dollars on one card starts to make a lot more sense.
Caribbean SIM Card – eSIM Cards
Another option that you’re going to have is to get a regional eSIM card for coverage in the main Caribbean island countries. We just want to stress once again that literally even within the same island you can have two countries, Haiti, and the Dominican Republic are a perfect example of this. Crossing borders can make coverage completely different from one side versus the next. That’s why we tend to recommend regional eSIM or SIM card options. For example Airalo offers a Caribbean SIM Card or eSIM option for users of the platform. The positives for this option is that you’ll get coverage on 22 islands with the same eSIM card. That’s more islands than you get with the Organe regular SIM card. We must note though that Cuba is not included with this eSIM option.
The eSIM that Airalo offers for the Caribbean though is quite a bit more expensive than the regular SIM card that Orange is offering. Airalo gives you 1GB of coverage for 15 dollars. Yes, you are paying a premium price for the comfort of not having to make a SIM switch and not having to worry about getting another card for each country that you visit. If you’re going to be in the Caribbean for a while this can be a problem. Also, this eSIM doesn’t include Mexico in its coverage, so you’d have to change eSIMs if you head over to Cancun. They are counting on the comfort level of having an eSIM to boost their sales.
Sticking With Your Regular Plan
Did you go ahead and read the fine print on your contract before you traveled abroad? The thing with the Caribbean is again you can find yourself in different countries in a heartbeat particularly if you’re trying to get coverage as you make land on a cruise. If you stick with your regular plan you may be just fine if you make land in Cancun or Isla Mujeres in Mexico. Yet, if you make your way to the Dominican Republic the coverage is not going to be the same, and you’re going to have to decide if you want to go with a travel pass or potentially face that rath of roaming fees.
Whether or not sticking with your regular plan is a good idea comes down to where you’re visiting, for how long, and how much coverage are you really going to need. The thing is, on a cruise if you make land in Puerto Rico, and the US Virgin islands you could be getting coverage from your regular service provider at no extra cost. That would leave only part of your trip as a challenge if you will. If you’re just visiting four islands where you would need to pay for the daily travel pass to get coverage, are you ok with having to pay 40 dollars extra for your trip? If you’re going to be staying in the area for 2 weeks and those 10 dollars a day stack up to over 100 dollars then of course you’ll probably want better options.
Will These Options Grant Me Coverage On A Cruise Ship?
A Caribbean SIM card is not guaranteed to get you coverage on a cruise ship. There’s really no better way to put this when you’re far from the shore the best way to be able to get coverage is going to be through the onboard wifi or some type of alliance that the cruise line may have with your regular service provider. Verizon has partnered with multiple cruise companies in order to give their users an option to be able to get coverage while on a cruise ship. That’s one of the options that you’re going to have. These days most cruise ships understand that people are going to be looking for coverage while at sea. They tend to offer either free wifi or wifi packages for travelers. The availability of these is going to vary literally from ship to ship.
Now it is entirely possible that if you’re coming in towards the shore you’ll start getting coverage with your local Caribbean SIM card or even your regular phone. It’s not like with airplanes where you literally won’t find any signal until you hit the ground for the most part. These Caribbean SIM card options that we’ve discussed are mainly going to help you when you make land, and not necessarily when you’re out at sea. Actually you may want to keep tabs on the coverage that you are getting particularly if you’re using your regular plan. There is a chance that you’ll end up getting hit with roaming fees even if you just see a couple of text messages trickle in. It may be a good idea to keep your phone on airplane mode and just connected to the onboard wifi or keep your regular data off.
What To Do When Returning Home
When you get back home you’re pretty much going to be in the clear there’s not that many issues that you could come across. If you got a regular SIM card all that you need to do is switch the SIM card back to your regular one and you should have normal coverage. If you got an eSIM then just make sure that you activate the eSIM from your regular service provider. Depending on the type of eSIM that you got you may want to delete the SIM card or just leave it there for future trips.
With the data only SIMs that Airalo brings to the table for example you’re not going to have too much of an issue. Those don’t carry a phone number really that may be worth keeping. Now, if you’re a person who is going to travel to a particular country and you get a local SIM card and you’re interested in keeping that number then you need to find a way to continue charging your prepaid account. This is meant to ensure that your phone number doesn’t fall back into the pool of numbers that the company has to be able to reuse. Instead the number can potentially still be active to your account if you will.
Caribbean SIM Card – Conclusion
If you’re going to visit multiple islands within a period of one week or more it’s going to make total sense to get a Caribbean SIM card. The prices for some of these options may seem a bit steep, but if you get a regional SIM card you won’t have to worry about finding a local SIM card on every single island that you visit. Also, after the week abroad the phone bill that you can rack up from your regular plan can really start to add up. That’s probably never something that you want to have happen at any point.
Remember that these SIM cards are only going to help you get coverage when you’re on land in Caribbean islands. Some cards call themselves regional options, but divide the region rather awkwardly, and that can be a problem. If you’re on a cruise and you want to see how you can get coverage there you may want to check out the article that we’ve written on that specific topic.