Revealed! How to avoid roaming charges on holiday

Can’t bear the thought of a digital detox on your next getaway? Whether you’re checking your flight information or social media scrolling, expensive mobile roaming charges can quickly turn using your phone abroad into a major holiday rip-off.

While getting caught out is all too easy, you can avoid running up a huge bill abroad with these handy tips. From roaming add-ons to local SIM cards, here’s how to stay connected on holiday without any unexpected charges.

Don’t assume ‘Roam Like At Home’ is included

In the days before Brexit, EU 'fair usage' rules introduced in 2017 let you 'Roam Like At Home' throughout the EU, using your UK allowance of minutes, data and texts without incurring roaming charges.

Now that we've left the EU, fairness to roaming customers seems to be less of a priority for British phone companies. Many have grabbed the chance to boost profits by hiking their roaming charges with EE, Vodafone and Three all since reintroducing daily data fees for customers travelling in the EU. Some have also cut their data limits, with hefty charges of up to £3.60 per gigabyte if you go over.

There are a few honourable exceptions – kudos to O2 for being the only major British network provider to offer free EU roaming as part of its packages (up to a 25GB limit). Smaller providers that also offer free roaming on certain plans include GiffGaff and Tesco Mobile (both use the O2 network), Smarty, Tesco Mobile and iD Mobile (all three are part of Three’s network), and Talkmobile, which uses Vodafone’s network. Unfortunately, there is no guarantee they won't introduce roaming charges in the future.

With ABTA’s Holiday Habits report revealing that people are taking more holidays than in previous years, roaming charges of as much as £2.47 per day could seriously jack up the cost of our getaways – that’s more than £138 for a family of four on a two-week break.

Britain has, however, capped roaming charges to £45 per month, and your provider should warn you when you're nearing that limit. After that, you can opt to continue paying for data.

But you may want to keep your contract if it is

Is ‘Roam Like At Home’ already included in your contract? Let your plan roll over instead of renewing. Depending on when you signed up to your contract, you should be able to keep your current inclusions on a rolling contract. O2 customers are currently able to do this.

It may be cheaper to swap to a pay-as-you-go SIM that includes roaming in the EU at no extra cost. Check your options with your provider.

Check for roaming add-ons

To their credit, some mobile suppliers are offering deals to help customers avoid excessive roaming charges. EE offers a 7-day 'Roam like Home' pass for £10 – a £7.50 saving on what you'd pay in daily charges on a week’s holiday. Vodafone has similar 8-day and 15-day European roaming passes for £15 and £20 respectively.

If you don't choose to cancel these passes when you get home, however, you could end up paying them monthly by default, so don't forget.

Switch off some services

Readers who remember a time before mobile devices may be tempted to suggest just switching off your phone while you're away – after all, aren't holidays supposed to be about getting away from it all?

But with mobile devices now virtually essential for everything from airline check-in to renting a car, that's not a realistic option. Instead, there are other no-brainer steps you can take, like switching off your voicemail so you won't pay extra to pick up messages. You're on holiday, remember? And your phone will still flag up missed calls so you can call back if you need to.

You can also disable background data usage for individual apps to prevent unexpected charges.

Consider an eSim or local alternatives

Buying an eSim in advance of your holiday, a local pay-as-you-go SIM card on arrival, or even a cheap burner phone from a local store in your resort, will offer cheaper web browsing and local calls. For those travelling for longer periods, it often works out much cheaper than roaming add-ons.

A more high-tech solution for families is to rent a prepaid MiFi portable 'pocket hotspot', which allows you to connect multiple devices with fast 4G and 5G mobile broadband options. In Spain, for example, this typically costs between €7 and €9 per day, decreasing for longer rentals, so for several people with multiple devices it offers a considerable saving over paying roaming charges. This can also be a good fix if you're renting a villa with a group of friends.

Download before you go

This one seems simple but if you use your phones or tablets to keep the kids entertained on holiday, use your home wi-fi data allowance to download movies and books to your devices before leaving home.

The same thing applies if you use your phone as a GPS. You can download the map data for your holiday area on apps like Google Maps or Navmii in advance, and then view it offline when you’re abroad.

Look for free wi-fi

The easiest and cheapest way to dodge roaming charges in EU countries is of course to use wi-fi. Happily, this is steadily getting easier. Free wireless internet access is pretty much standard in most resorts and city hotels in Europe, though it's worth checking hotel review sites to see if your hotel lives up to its wi-fi claims. You may find that while there's decent access in your hotel lobby, connection from your room or the pool is patchy.

You'll almost certainly want mobile access while you're out and about too, so look for free public wi-fi hotspots – funded by local or national governments – in many destinations. Spain leads the way with more than 93,000 free hotspots at resorts and in popular city break destinations like Barcelona and Madrid. In Italy's most popular cities you'll find free wi-fi courtesy of the local municipality. Portugal's nationwide, government-funded Espaço Internet system has more than 61,000 hotspots in cities and resorts, allowing visitors as well as residents seamless access. Greece (with help from the European Regional Development Fund) is busily creating a nationwide network of free wi-fi spots in cities and island resorts.

*All information correct as of 29 August 2025.