You’ve booked your flights, packed your bags, and are ready to soak up the sights, sounds, and snacks of your next adventure. You’ve budgeted for accommodation, meals, tours, and maybe a cheeky shopping spree.

But have you budgeted for… mobile roaming?

If your itinerary includes the US, Canada, Australia, Turkey, or the UAE, you might want to. These destinations have a well-earned reputation for serving up some of the steepest roaming charges on Earth. And trust me — nothing says “holiday mood over” like opening your post-trip phone bill and seeing numbers that look like the cost of a used car.

Why roaming still hurts in 2025

You’d think by now, with all our tech advancements, roaming would be cheap everywhere. We’ve got 5G speeds in the desert, video calls from the beach, and even the odd satellite internet connection in the middle of nowhere. But cross the wrong border, and suddenly your provider is charging you as if each megabyte of data has been blessed by royalty.

It comes down to one thing: wholesale agreements. Your home network has to pay the local network for letting you piggyback on their towers — and in many countries, those wholesale rates are high. In the EU, regulations keep them in check. Outside the EU? It’s a Wild West of pricing.

The top five roaming money traps

1. United States — The €10 per MB club

America is full of incredible travel moments — standing in Times Square, road-tripping Route 66, or watching the sunset in Yosemite. But check your email over roaming here, and you could be billed €10 for just one megabyte.

To put that into perspective: loading a simple map on Google Maps can take 1–3MB. That’s €10–€30 gone before you’ve even started navigating. Stream a five-minute YouTube video? Congratulations, you’ve just spent €300.

Some European providers offer daily passes for around €8–€12 per day in the US, which sounds better — until you multiply that by a two-week trip.

2. Canada — Not far behind at €8–€12 per MB

Canada is known for being friendly, polite, and stunningly beautiful — but not for cheap mobile usage. The “Big Three” (Rogers, Bell, Telus) dominate the market, and competition isn’t fierce enough to drive prices down.

Many EU-based plans charge €8–€12 per MB here, which is almost identical to US rates. That means snapping and sending one high-resolution photo to your family could easily set you back €50.

Even if you get a “North America roaming pass” from your home carrier, you’re still looking at around €10 per day — and those passes usually have data caps that can vanish faster than your coffee in a Toronto winter.

3. Australia — €7–€10 per MB

Australia’s distances are epic, its beaches endless, and unfortunately, its roaming charges pretty legendary too. The big three — Telstra, Optus, and Vodafone — know exactly how essential connectivity is for tourists, especially those road-tripping through remote areas.

Rates here often hover around €7–€10 per MB. That’s about €25 just to refresh Instagram a few times while waiting for your fish and chips in Sydney Harbour. If your home carrier offers a daily roaming add-on, it’s typically €8–€10, and watch out — speeds can be throttled once you hit 500MB or 1GB.

4. Turkey — €6–€9 per MB

Turkey is a dream destination — you can go from the bazaars of Istanbul to the beaches of Antalya in a single day. But if you go unprepared, your phone bill will be almost as jaw-dropping as the view from Cappadocia’s hot air balloons.

Turkey’s main operators (Turkcell, Vodafone Turkey, Türk Telekom) charge high wholesale rates, and that trickles down to you. Many EU providers set Turkey’s roaming at €6–€9 per MB. A quick WhatsApp call home to tell someone you arrived safely? That could cost €20–€30.

And the worst part? Many travelers assume Turkey’s partial location in Europe means EU roaming rules apply — they don’t.

5. United Arab Emirates — €9–€12 per MB

The UAE’s tech infrastructure is world-class — you’ll find superfast 5G in the middle of a shopping mall, on the beach, and even on the metro. But using it on roaming? That’ll cost you.

Etisalat and du, the country’s two main operators, set high wholesale rates. For tourists, that often translates to €9–€12 per MB. That’s €100 just for checking a few restaurant reviews and uploading one sunset shot of the Burj Khalifa.

Daily roaming bundles are available from many carriers, but they’re usually around €10–€15 per day, and still with limited data.

The bill shock stories are real

I’ve heard every version of the roaming horror story:

• The couple who used their phone to stream music in their Dubai hotel room and racked up €1,200 in charges in a week.
• The backpacker in Canada who left Google Photos backup running in the background and came home to a €900 bill.
• The family in Orlando who let their kids watch cartoons in the hotel room on mobile data — €2,500 gone in four days.

These aren’t myths — they’re the painful reality of modern travel when you don’t plan your mobile use.

How to dodge these roaming disasters

If you’re headed to one of these five destinations, here’s how to stay connected without handing over your holiday budget to your mobile provider.

1. Get an eSIM or local SIM
An eSIM lets you instantly connect to a local network at local rates. Plans for the US, Canada, Australia, Turkey, and UAE start as low as €5–€20 for a week with 1–3 GB of data—far cheaper than €10 per MB. You can buy them before you travel and activate them as soon as you land.

2. Use Wi-Fi whenever possible
Hotels, cafés, airports, even city centres often have free Wi-Fi. Use it for calls, messages, and uploads. Just make sure it’s a secure network (or use a VPN).

3. Turn off background data
Apps love to sync and update in the background, chewing through data before you even unlock your phone. Disable background data for non-essential apps before you fly.

4. Download before you go
Maps, music playlists, translation packs, Netflix shows — all can be downloaded offline. That way you’re not burning data just to get the basics.

5. Check your carrier’s travel passes
Sometimes, your home provider offers daily roaming bundles for these destinations. They’re not dirt cheap, but €10/day for 500MB–1GB is still better than €10/MB.

The bottom line

The US, Canada, Australia, Turkey, and the UAE are spectacular travel destinations, each with their own unique magic. But they also have something else in common: eye-watering roaming charges that can turn your dream trip into a financial nightmare if you’re not careful.

The bad news? Those rates aren’t likely to drop anytime soon.
The good news? With eSIMs, Wi-Fi, and a bit of preparation, you can avoid the bill shock entirely.

Think of it this way — for the cost of one high-res photo uploaded over roaming in the UAE, you could pay for an entire week of local data on an eSIM, plus a round of drinks to toast your smart travel move.

So, before you jet off, do yourself a favour: plan your connectivity. Your future self — and your bank account — will thank you.