Best eSIM Providers for Your Colorado Trip

Getting mobile data set up before you land makes the first few hours in Colorado (rental car pickup, navigating to your hotel, finding the county clerk’s office) much less stressful. A travel eSIM is the easiest way to do that without hunting for a physical SIM card on arrival. Here’s how four popular providers compare for a US trip, confirmed directly against each provider’s own site.

Airalo

Airalo is one of the most widely used travel eSIM providers. Setup is done entirely in an app before you travel, so you can have data ready the moment you land.

• Unlimited-data US plans: 3 days (€10.50), 5 days (€16.50), 7 days (€22.50), 10 days (€30.50), 15 days (€41.50), 30 days (€61.00), as priced on Airalo’s own site, which shows euros rather than dollars; check the app for your local currency’s exact price before buying.
• Data-only. No phone number, no SMS.

Holafly

Holafly also sells unlimited-data US plans, at a similar price point to Airalo, with one practical difference: it discloses a fair-use policy up front rather than leaving it implicit.

• Unlimited-data US plans: 3 days ($11.90), 5 days ($20.50), 7 days ($27.50), 10 days ($36.50), 15 days ($50.50), 30 days ($73.90).
• Fair-use policy can throttle speeds for up to one day if you use an unusually high amount of data, then restores; also includes 1GB/day of hotspot sharing and a 1GB monthly “backup” data allowance.
• Runs on AT&T and T-Mobile. Baja California is excluded from coverage; mountainous or desert areas may see unstable signal, which is worth knowing if your ceremony site is remote.
• Data-only. No phone number, no SMS (though it supports WhatsApp calling over data).

Nomad

Nomad takes a different approach: instead of one unlimited price, it offers both unlimited-data short-term plans and fixed-data-cap plans priced by the GB, which can be cheaper if you only need data for a few days of errands rather than a full unlimited plan.

• Unlimited-data plans: 3 days (€9.51), 5 days (€13.83), 7 days (€19.89), 10 days (€27.67), 15 days (€38.04), 20 days (€44.96), also priced in euros on Nomad’s site.
• Fixed-data plans (30-day validity): 1GB (€4.32), 3GB (€8.65), 5GB (€13.83), 10GB (€21.61), 20GB (€31.13), 50GB (€38.91); longer-validity options go up to 100GB over 365 days (€103.75) for a couple planning far ahead.
• Runs on T-Mobile, AT&T, and Verizon — the widest network selection of the four.

Some secondary sources report that select Nomad plans include a phone number and SMS, which would be an exception to the data-only rule below. We haven’t confirmed this directly against Nomad’s own plan pages, so don’t rely on it without checking the specific plan you’re buying.

Saily

Saily (from the makers of NordVPN) is the most granular of the four on pricing: instead of mostly-unlimited tiers, its core lineup is priced by exact data amount, which rewards knowing roughly how much data you’ll actually use.

• Fixed-data plans: 1GB/7 days ($3.99), 3GB/30 days ($8.99), 5GB/30 days ($13.99), 10GB/30 days ($22.99), 20GB/30 days ($36.99).
• Unlimited-with-daily-cap plans also exist (5GB/day of full speed, then throttled), running from 5 days ($19) to 30 days ($72).
• Data-only. No phone number, no SMS.

Saily’s own site blocked automated fetching, so these figures are drawn from a third-party eSIM comparison database rather than confirmed directly against saily.com. Cross- check the current price in the app before buying.

The limitation almost every travel eSIM shares

Whichever provider you pick, know this going in: most popular travel eSIMs (Airalo, Holafly, Saily, and similar) are data-only. You get mobile internet, but no dialable phone number and no SMS capability. That’s fine for maps and email, but it matters the moment a Colorado form asks for a phone number, since there’s no number to give it. See our post on what to do instead when that comes up; the apostille request form is the most common place couples hit this.

The takeaway

For a straightforward Colorado trip where you mostly want maps, email, and messaging apps working from the moment you land, Airalo and Holafly’s unlimited short-term plans are the simplest option and land at a similar price. If you know you’ll use relatively little data, Saily’s or Nomad’s fixed-GB plans can be noticeably cheaper. If network coverage in a specific remote area matters (say, a ceremony site well outside Denver), Nomad’s three-network coverage is worth a look over providers that rely on a single carrier.