The short answer
You hold a Telstra plan and a ticket to Istanbul, and the question is whether to pay the Day Pass or buy a travel eSIM first. I read Telstra's roaming page on 10 November 2026 and set it against the travel eSIMs I priced on 10 November 2026 and against Ringo Light. For a day I would take the Day Pass. For three days or more I would buy Ringo Light and keep my Telstra SIM in for calls and texts.
Unlimited data at full speed for 2 weeks at $16.99 or 30 days at $26.99, nothing renews. Airalo asks $24.50 for one week and $69 for the month.
10 GB for 30 days at $13, on sale on its own site today against $15 regular. 20 GB is $20.
10 GB for 30 days at $13 on Türk Telekom and Turkcell. Its app and site do not open from inside Turkey, so install before you fly.
Days, not gigabytes, and no daily cap stated for your own phone. $27.50 for a week. Sharing the connection is limited to 1 GB a day.
The Day Pass runs on your own plan at A$10 a day in Turkey, with 2 GB of data a day and unlimited standard calls and SMS, all on one bill.
Prices read on 10 November 2026: Airalo, Holafly, Saily, Nomad, Ubigi, Telstra, European Central Bank, Ringo Light on their own sites or listings, Ringo Light from its catalogue. All in US dollars unless stated. Treat every number as a snapshot.
See the full price index for every country.
Travelling further? Compare the eSIM for Europe and the best eSIM for Europe, all brands priced.
The prices, charted
US dollars, 10 November 2026. Ringo Light sells 2 weeks and Nomad 5 days, so those are the nearest lengths.
The 30-day unlimited plan at each brand. Nomad sells no 30-day unlimited for Turkey. Ringo Light is unlimited data at full speed.
The bucket most people buy for a two-week holiday. Holafly sells no buckets. Ringo Light sells no bucket either: its 2 weeks is unlimited and lasts 2 weeks, not 30 days.
Side by side
Swipe to compare →
Get Ringo Light for Turkey, from $8.99.
Installed once, next to your own SIM. Your eSIM arrives by email in seconds.
- 3 days $8.99
- 2 weeks $16.99
- 30 days $26.99
- 90 days $36.99
We sell data eSIMs for now to fund the full Ringo service. Ringo is self funded. Every plan bought here pays for the build of one plan that works everywhere.
Want to keep your own number abroad?
That is the full Ringo service: one plan that works everywhere, with your own number included.
It is a separate product from Ringo Light and it is still being built, so it is not on sale yet. Join the waitlist to hear when it opens.
What to do in Turkey, and what your Australian phone needs for it
Eight places most first trips from Australia include, from Istanbul to Cappadocia and down the Aegean and Turquoise coasts. Whichever plan you pick, the tip under each one is where your phone matters.
Roam with Telstra, or buy an eSIM
Telstra's International Day Pass lists Türkiye in Zone 2 at A$10 a day, about $7, with 2 GB of data and unlimited standard calls and SMS for each day. On Upfront plans the day ends 24 hours after you first use the service abroad, on other plans at 11.59pm Australian Eastern time, so a late landing at Istanbul can be one day and the next morning a second. Unused data expires at the end of the day, and any call, text sent or data use, background data included, starts the charge. I read all of this on 10 November 2026 and changed it into dollars at the ECB reference rate of that day, A$1 = $0.69.
That makes 3 days A$30 (about $21), 2 weeks A$140 (about $97) and 30 days A$300 (about $207), if the phone is used on every one of them. The page shows no weekly or monthly pass for Türkiye. Ringo Light is one payment: $8.99 for 3 days, $16.99 for 2 weeks and $26.99 for 30 days. A long weekend is about $21 of Day Pass against $8.99, and two weeks is about $97 against $16.99.
Among the travel eSIMs, Ringo Light is also the cheapest unlimited for two weeks and a month. For a week Nomad asks $17 for 5 days, Ubigi $22, Airalo $24.50, Saily $26.99 and Holafly $27.50, and for a month the rivals run $64 to $73.90. For 3 days Airalo charges $11.50 and Holafly $11.90, against $8.99 at Ringo Light.
What Telstra wins is real. One day on a stopover in Istanbul is A$10, about $7, less than any eSIM here. Your Australian number keeps ringing, calls and texts come with it, nothing needs installing, the charge lands on a bill you already pay, and a phone with no eSIM slot works. The page names no hotspot rule and no roaming speed, so I would ask Telstra before I leaned on the laptop. Prepaid customers are sent by the page to separate Pre-Paid roaming that I did not price. I left Optus out, because I did not read its page.
Networks in Turkey, and what changes for a visitor from Australia
Turkey has three big networks, Turkcell, Vodafone and Türk Telekom, and all three cover Istanbul, the coast and Cappadocia well. In the parent table Airalo and Nomad ride Türk Telekom, Holafly Turkcell and Türk Telekom, Ubigi Türk Telekom and Turkcell, and Saily Turkcell or Vodafone. Ringo Light uses a local partner network. For the classic route from Istanbul to Cappadocia and the coast I would not pick a plan on network. Telstra's page does not name the network its Day Pass uses in Türkiye.
The Day Pass carries calls, so Australian calls and texts reach you at A$10 a day, and the page counts a day when you make or receive calls, send a text or use data. Receiving a text alone does not start it. The travel eSIMs here are data only, with no Turkish number. Calls go over apps that use data, such as WhatsApp, and your Telstra SIM can stay in the phone to keep your number reachable. One catch: Ubigi's app and site do not open from inside Turkey, so install it before you fly.
If you want a data bucket: Nomad or Ubigi
- Nomad, $13 for 10 GB. Cheapest 10 GB in the table, tied with Ubigi, at its sale price today ($15 regular). 20 GB is $20. Add-ons top it up.
- Ubigi, $13 for 10 GB. Same price, on Türk Telekom and Turkcell with 5G. One catch: the Ubigi app and site do not open from inside Turkey, so buy and install before you land.
- Airalo, $15.50 for 10 GB. The biggest name, a 1 GB plan from $4, and its Merhaba plan rides Türk Telekom.
- Saily, $15.99 for 10 GB. Cleanest app of the five, and a 20 GB bucket at $22.99. You pay for the app and the Nord account.
- ✓Ringo Light, no buckets. Ringo Light's 2 weeks is unlimited for $16.99 and its 30 days unlimited for $26.99. If you need 10 GB to last a whole month, Nomad or Ubigi at $13 is the better buy, and Nomad sells 20 GB at $20, $6.99 under Ringo Light's 30 days. I would rather you read that here than at checkout.
What Ringo Light is
Ringo Light is Ringo's own data eSIM, and I write for Ringo, so weigh that. It is sold to fund the full Ringo, one plan that works everywhere with your own number ported onto it. For Turkey it sells three trips, all unlimited data at full speed: 3 days at $8.99, 2 weeks at $16.99 and 30 days at $26.99. It is data only, with no number, no calls and no texts, and it sits beside your own SIM. The eSIM arrives by email in seconds with a QR code and installs in one scan, no app. One payment, nothing renews.
The card to buy it is further up this page, just after the side-by-side table.
Pick by trip
Telstra Day Pass, A$10, about $7. No purchase, nothing to install.
Ringo Light unlimited, 3 days, $8.99, against about $21 of Day Pass and $11.50 at Airalo.
Ringo Light unlimited, 2 weeks, $16.99, against about $97 of Day Pass.
Ringo Light unlimited, 30 days, $26.99, against about $207 of Day Pass. Ubigi at $64 if you want its stated 5 GB a day.
Nomad or Ubigi 10 GB for 30 days at $13.
Keep your Telstra SIM in beside the eSIM. The Day Pass carries calls and texts on your number and the travel eSIMs do not.
Frequently asked questions
How we compared, and our sources
Airalo, Holafly, Saily, Nomad, Ubigi, Telstra, European Central Bank, Ringo Light, Ringo Light
We priced Airalo, Holafly, Saily, Nomad, Ubigi and Ringo Light for Turkey on 10 November 2026, all on the same day, in US dollars. Each rival's price comes from its own website where it showed dollars, otherwise from an esimdb.com listing, and every source and its date is listed below. Ringo Light's prices come from the catalogue our checkout charges.
We compare the trips people actually book: a week, two weeks and a month of unlimited data, and a 10 GB bucket. We read each brand's fair use and speed rules and quote them as the brands state them. We did not run speed tests, so this page makes no speed claims for any brand.
Ringo Light is our own product. We put it in the table on the same terms as everyone else, and where a rival is the better buy the page says so.
Left out: Maya Mobile. We could not read its own prices for this country on the day, so it stays out rather than being guessed.
- Airalo: www.airalo.com/turkey-esim?currency=USD, unlimited in dollars on airalo.com, network Türk Telekom (Avea), read 10 November 2026; fixed-data buckets from the esimdb listing dated 5 October 2026
- Holafly: esim.holafly.com/esim-turkey/, prices in dollars from its own page, read 10 November 2026
- Saily: saily.com/esim-turkey/, dollars, read 25 October 2026; not readable on 10 November 2026, figures kept from 25 October
- Nomad: www.nomadesim.com/turkey-esim, dollars, read 10 November 2026; 10 GB at the sale price, $15 regular
- Ubigi: cellulardata.ubigi.com/data-plans-and-coverage/ubigi-esim-data-plans/?destination=TUR&one-off=on, one-off plan list in dollars, read 22 October 2026; the site returned no plan list on 25 October 2026, figures confirmed against the esimdb listing dated 5 October 2026; the same prices stood on the esimdb listing read 10 November 2026
- Telstra: www.telstra.com.au/international-roaming, Telstra International Day Pass page, read 10 November 2026: Zone 2 at A$10 a day with 2 GB of data, unlimited standard calls and SMS, the day ending 24 hours after use on Upfront plans and 11.59pm AEST on others, prepaid sent to separate Pre-Paid roaming, no speed or hotspot rule stated
- European Central Bank: www.ecb.europa.eu/stats/eurofxref/eurofxref-daily.xml, euro reference rates of 10 November 2026, used for the dollar figures (A$1 = $0.69)
- Ringo Light: ringoesim.com/turkey, the catalogue the checkout charges, read the same day
- Ringo Light: our own catalogue, the prices the checkout charges on 10 November 2026.
Written and priced by the Ringo team. Prices change often; if you spot one that has moved, tell us through the contact page and we will update the table.
