The Honest Pick
If you are flying into Asia and want data working the second the wheels touch the tarmac, buy a regional eSIM before you leave home. The best value in 2026 is Saily — the travel eSIM built by the NordVPN team — whose Asia & Oceania plans start at $4.99, cover 22 countries, and keep a genuinely useful 5 GB/day at full speed on unlimited plans (the highest high-speed daily cap of the major eSIM brands). Airalo is the bigger name and the safer default if you want the widest country list and a long track record, but for most remote workers Saily is now the cheaper, faster-out-of-the-gate choice.
That is the arrival answer. The longer-stay answer is different: if you are parking in one country for more than about two weeks, a local SIM beats every eSIM on price and gives you a real phone number — AIS in Thailand, Viettel in Vietnam. The exception is Japan, where a tourist-friendly local voice SIM is a hassle and a data eSIM is honestly the smartest move.
So the real recommendation is a two-step play, not a single winner. Land on an eSIM. Decide within your first few days whether the stay justifies switching to a local SIM.
Airalo, Saily, and local SIMs compared
Real 2026 prices. eSIM prices are the app rates; local SIM prices are tourist packages bought on the ground.
| Option | Price (30 days) | Data | Coverage / network | Where to get it | Local number? |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Saily Asia & Oceania | From $4.99 (1 GB); Unlimited tiers | 1–25 GB or Unlimited (5 GB/day full speed) | 22 countries, roams on local networks | App, before you fly | No |
| Airalo Asialink | $25 for 10 GB; $26 for 7-day unlimited | 10 GB, or unlimited at 3 GB/day then 1 Mbps | 18 countries incl. Japan, Korea, SE Asia | App, before you fly | No |
| Airalo Japan | $11 / 5 GB, $18 / 10 GB, $25 / 20 GB | Fixed data | KDDI + SoftBank, 5G | App, before you fly | No |
| AIS (Thailand) | 299–1,199 THB (~$8–33) | Unlimited on most tiers | Best urban + rural coverage in Thailand | Airport, 7-Eleven, AIS shops | Yes |
| Viettel (Vietnam) | ~300,000 VND (~$13) | Unlimited 4G/5G + 100 min | Widest coverage in Vietnam, incl. remote areas | Airport counters, Viettel stores | Yes |
Get connected before you land
The single best connectivity decision you can make is boring: install an eSIM at home, on your own Wi-Fi, days before departure. Activation on some plans is instant; on others it takes a few minutes and occasionally a support message. You do not want to discover that at an airport at 1 a.m. after a twelve-hour flight.
With an eSIM already installed, you step off the plane, toggle it on, and you have maps, ride-hailing (Grab, Gojek, Bolt), your accommodation's check-in chat, and a working connection for that first Uber-to-hotel scramble — all before you have found an ATM, let alone a SIM counter. This is where a good travel eSIM earns its slightly higher per-gigabyte cost. It is buying you a frictionless first 24 hours, not a month of cheap data.
For that arrival window, Saily is the pick I keep coming back to. A 1 GB Asia plan is a couple of dollars, enough to get you settled, and if you are country-hopping the regional plan follows you across borders without a new purchase. Airalo does the same job well; it simply costs a little more for comparable data. Either one solves the real problem, which is not "cheapest data in the country" but "am I online the moment I land."
Airalo for Asia: what it actually does well
Airalo's genuine strengths are coverage breadth and reliability. The Asialink regional plan spans 18 countries — Japan, South Korea, Taiwan, Hong Kong, Singapore, Malaysia, Thailand, Vietnam, Indonesia, the Philippines, India and more — so one purchase carries a multi-country itinerary. Country-specific plans are deep: Airalo lists nearly 20 Japan options alone, running on KDDI and SoftBank with 5G.
Setup is polished. QR-code install, a clean app, top-ups without swapping anything physical, and support that generally replies within a day. For a nervous first-time eSIM user, Airalo is the low-regret choice — it almost always just works, and the sheer number of reviews behind it means few surprises.
Where Airalo shines specifically:
- Japan. With no easy tourist voice SIM, a data eSIM is the right tool anyway, and Airalo's Japan pricing ($11 for 5 GB, $18 for 10 GB) is competitive on strong networks.
- Multi-country trips. Two or three countries in a fortnight? The regional plan beats juggling three physical SIMs.
- Countries with painful SIM registration. Where local activation means queues or waiting periods, skipping it entirely is worth a few dollars.
Where Airalo costs you
Two honest limitations, and they matter for remote work.
The unlimited plans are not really unlimited. Airalo's "unlimited" Asia plans cap full-speed data at 3 GB per day, then throttle to about 1 Mbps. That 1 Mbps is fine for messaging and email but painful for video calls, large uploads, or screen-sharing — exactly the things a working nomad does. By comparison, Saily's unlimited tier holds full speed to 5 GB/day, and Holafly sits around 4.5 GB. If your work is video-heavy, the daily cap is the number to check, not the headline price.
No local phone number. Every Airalo Asia plan is data-only — no SMS, no voice. Increasingly this bites: local bank apps, food-delivery accounts, ride-hailing verification and some coworking or visa portals want an SMS to a local number. A data eSIM cannot receive that code. For a two-week trip you will rarely notice; for a base you are setting up in, you will.
On raw price, Airalo also loses to local SIMs the moment you settle. Airalo Thailand 10 GB is roughly $16; an AIS unlimited tourist package is $8–13 with a real number thrown in. The eSIM is buying convenience, and convenience stops being worth the premium once you have a week to walk into a phone shop.
Saily: the cheaper regional play
Saily has quietly become the value leader for Asia. Coming from the NordVPN team, it leans on that security pedigree with built-in ad-blocking and a "virtual location" feature, but the reason to pick it is simpler: it is cheaper than Airalo for comparable data, it covers 22 Asia-Pacific countries on one regional plan, and its unlimited plans keep full speed longer (5 GB/day). Thailand plans start at $2.99, Asia regional at $4.99.
It is data-only, like Airalo, so the phone-number caveat applies equally. And Airalo still edges it on total country count and sheer volume of user reviews if you want maximum reassurance. But for a remote worker landing in Bangkok, Hanoi, Bali or Tokyo who wants online-on-arrival at the lowest sensible price, Saily is the one I would install first and Airalo the strong backup.
When a local SIM wins
Thailand. AIS has the best all-round coverage, with TrueMove H close behind. Tourist packages run 299–1,199 THB (~$8–33), almost all unlimited data, and you get a Thai number. Buy at Suvarnabhumi or Don Mueang arrivals counters, any 7-Eleven, or an AIS shop — passport required for registration, which takes a couple of minutes. For a month or more, this crushes any eSIM on price.
Vietnam. Viettel is the coverage king, reaching remote and mountainous areas the others miss; Vinaphone and Mobifone are solid urban alternatives. A ~300,000 VND (~$13) tourist SIM gives 30 days of unlimited 4G/5G plus call minutes. Grab it at the airport counter or a Viettel store with your passport.
Japan. Here the usual logic flips. Tourist-accessible voice SIMs are awkward and identity rules are strict, so most travelers — locals-in-the-know included — just run a data eSIM on KDDI or SoftBank. Airalo or Saily is the sensible answer for the whole stay, not just arrival.
The verdict
- Short trip or multi-country hop (under ~2 weeks): eSIM the whole way. Saily for best value, Airalo if you want the broadest coverage and longest track record.
- Arrival, always: install an eSIM before you fly so you land online. This step is non-negotiable.
- Long single-country stay (2+ weeks): local SIM — AIS in Thailand, Viettel in Vietnam — for cheaper data and a real phone number.
- Japan, any length: data eSIM. Skip the local-SIM hassle.
Airalo is a good product that many people over-buy. It is the right tool for arrival and for country-hopping, and the wrong tool for a month in one city. Match the tool to the stay and you will spend less and work more reliably.
Quick checklist
- Install a Saily or Airalo eSIM at home before departure
- Check the daily full-speed cap if your work is video-heavy (3 GB Airalo vs 5 GB Saily)
- Confirm your phone supports eSIM (iPhone XS+; most 2019+ Android flagships)
- Bring your passport if you plan to buy a local SIM on the ground
- Decide within your first few days: is this stay long enough to switch to a local SIM?
ANH verdict: land on an eSIM, then let the length of your stay decide whether a local SIM is worth the walk to the shop. Verify live prices before you buy — plans change fast.
Last updated: July 2026