Best eSIM for the Balkans: my personal experience

I recently spent 2.5 weeks travelling in the Balkans, and before I travelled, I wasn’t sure what to do eSIM wise. I was taking trains around and travelling solo, so I knew I wanted full connectivity wherever I went.

I also didn’t want to have to bother with both fumbling around with data when I crossed borders or getting a physical eSIM each time I entered a new country. There had to be a better way, surely?

Ultimately, after a lot of research, I bought a Holafly SIM – you can use my link here for 5% off. However, there were a few nuances, so let’s break them down in this post.

Table of Contents

Top tips for connectivity in the Balkans

Get an eSIM that covers all Balkan countries. Entire regional SIM cards are available, and it’s a massive help if you’re taking public transport and crossing borders like I was!
Set up your eSIM before you enter the region. You should just then need to press a button when you enter, and then get signal!
Be mindful if you’re travelling in Kosovo. My data didn’t work there.

Holafly Balkans eSIM

Holafly has a Balkans eSIM that works in the following countries:

Serbia
Bosnia and Herzegovina
Montenegro
North Macedonia
Albania

Croatia and Slovenia, while in the Balkans, come under EU data now as they’re both in the EU.

And at the time of writing, most eSIMs don’t seem to be working in Kosovo (I also checked Airalo).

What was set up like?

I’m really not great with tech, but I found set-up really easy. I just downloaded the app, bought my SIM card and connected it – steps were easy to follow and my phone was already configured correctly.

And the best thing was, once it was set up I didn’t have to do anything when I entered a new country! For example, on the Belgrade to Bar train, when I crossed the Serbian/ Montenegrin border, my phone just switched automatically. I didn’t do a thing.

Check out the Holafly Balkans eSIM here and get 5% off

Reliability of data

I had no problems with data in the cities and towns I was staying in. When I was on some long train journeys and bus journeys, signal dipped a bit, but that is to be expected. Generally, I was pleased with how reliable the data was – it was always there when I needed it.

Connectivity in Kosovo

I already knew that it would be a bit more difficult in Kosovo. It wasn’t a listed country on my Holafly plan – and I tried to buy extra roaming data with Three (my UK network), which didn’t work. I wasn’t sure why (as Three had said it would work!), so I had a little look online, and found this on a Reddit forum:

“This can happen in small countries like Kosovo. Global eSIM providers rely on local operators (e.g. IPKO/VALA) via IPX hubs. When global eSIMs are sold much cheaper than local SIMs, many users switch to eSIMs. Local operators earn very low margins from roaming traffic, so to protect their business they may enforce policy restrictions and block certain IMSI ranges. This can cause multiple eSIM providers to stop working at the same time”

So, I ended up without any data in Kosovo. This wasn’t a huge deal – I connected to WiFi as much as possible and was only without it a couple of times – but might have been more of a problem if I was going to remote areas.

So, what eSIM is best for the Balkans?

Bearing my experience in mind, I’d say that Holafly Balkans eSIM is excellent. While it’s not cheap, it saves a lot of hassle of trying to connect eSIMs or buy physical SIMs in multiple countries!