00:05okay guys today i want to tell you about one of the biggest travel mistakes i've ever made
00:10and it wasn't missing a flight or booking the wrong hotel or even getting scammed all i did
00:16was turn on my phone okay so this story goes back quite a long way back in 2010 i was
00:23in my early
00:2420s and i did a trip with three of my friends to central america which i knew nothing about by
00:31the
00:31way didn't do any research before i left uh social media wasn't really a thing i wasn't watching
00:36youtube or following people on instagram for travel tips and stuff like that i didn't even know where
00:42central america was but we flew into mexico with the plan of buying a van and driving it all the
00:50way down to panama now 40 year old me understands how much of a risky situation that was and at
00:58the
00:58time i didn't really understand how dangerous and just how dodgy that was like buying a van in mexico
01:05and crossing all those borders in central america i'm talking about honduras el salvador nicaragua
01:11and didn't speak a word of spanish so all we had with us was lonely planet guides and maps that
01:18we
01:19would buy at each town we went to this was right before the iphones came out or maybe around the
01:24same time i didn't have one i had like a flip phone that you could get internet on but it
01:29was really
01:30slow and basically what i would do was use the internet at any of the backpacking hostels that
01:36we would stay at to check in go on facebook go on my emails to speak to friends and that
01:41was pretty
01:42much it i can't tell you the amount of times we got lost because we didn't have any gps
01:46like i said we were just using maps and we were kind of just figuring it out as we went
01:51and to be
01:51honest being 25 at the time it was pretty fun it was pretty exciting but it was also costly because
01:57a couple of times during the trip we were staying places that didn't have computers didn't have
02:03internet didn't even have wi-fi so i had to turn my phone on just to let my mom know
02:07hey like i'm okay
02:08i'd give her a call just to say look don't worry haven't been kidnapped we're still good and i had
02:14a
02:14phone plan back home in australia that let me do global roaming but what i didn't know was every
02:19time i turned my phone on i was getting charged like 20 30 40 50 100 dollars every single time
02:26it
02:26ended up adding up to about a thousand dollars in a three-month trip but back then it was pretty
02:32much
02:32normal like there was really no alternative if you wanted to travel overseas and stay connected
02:37you just had to use global roaming with telstra or optus or whatever phone service you have
02:42overseas but thankfully fast forward now to 2026 and travel has changed a lot these days i rely on
02:48my phone for pretty much everything especially being a digital nomad we work everywhere we go and
02:53so we need things like google maps we need it to book accommodation we do online banking with our phones
02:59we try and find restaurants we try and find atms we use it for google translate like literally travel has
03:06gotten so much easier because these days we can use an e-sim a few years ago i didn't even
03:12know what
03:12an e-sim was having data on my phone has gone from a luxury to something that i feel like
03:18i just can't
03:18travel without anymore and so that's why we use air low now for all of our travels if you haven't
03:23heard
03:23of it before air low is an app that lets you purchase an e-sim before you travel so you
03:27can connect to
03:28mobile data in over 200 countries and regions without paying expensive roaming fees or searching for a local
03:35sim card when you land honestly if i had air low back in 2010 when we were traveling it would
03:41have
03:41been so much easier but part of me kind of is happy that i was able to travel before all
03:47of this technology
03:48so let me show you how easy it is to get started with air low all you do is open
03:53up the app search
03:54for the country you're traveling to or if you're visiting multiple countries they also have regional plans
03:58as well so if you're traveling all through asia you can just buy an asia e-sim choose the amount
04:03of
04:03data you need purchase your e-sim and then follow the instructions it's pretty much that simple it
04:08just takes a couple of minutes then once you arrive at your destination you simply activate the e-sim and
04:13you're connected you're ready to go there's no airport sim card queues no hunting around shopping
04:18centers trying to find a mobile phone shop and no swapping physical sim cards your regular sim can stay
04:24in your phone while using air low for data so you can still keep your normal number if you want
04:29and one of the cool parts is if you run out of data they will send you a reminder to
04:33your phone
04:33and you can just top up in the app you don't have to purchase a brand new e-sim so
04:36we've been using
04:37air low for a little while now and it's become one of the apps that i just install before we're
04:42going
04:42anywhere and for me it just removes all of the unnecessary stress because i know i've got it ready
04:47before we leave and that's coming super handy because lately we've been traveling and landing places
04:52later at night and i can order an uber straight away from my phone i don't have to worry about
04:57being
04:58connected and i can follow the maps while we're in the uber to make sure we're going to the wrong
05:02place trust me we've gone to the wrong place more than once and if there's any discrepancies and the
05:08uber drops us off at the wrong hotel or destination like we're connected we're not just stranded on the
05:13side of the road and it takes all the stress out of the first like two to three days because
05:18you're
05:18not worrying about getting connected as soon as you land so we can get straight into sightseeing and
05:23going to nice restaurants and finding all the cool stuff in the local cities and honestly the speed
05:28has been surprisingly good like i use my phone to stream videos or listen to podcasts as well and
05:35the speed's been amazing everywhere we've gone and you can even tether it to your computer so if you are
05:40someone that works on the go even if you just need to check emails or something like that and you're
05:45in
05:45a place that doesn't have the best wi-fi you can use your elo e-sim and tether it to
05:49your computer so
05:50you can stay connected and keep working one thing i would definitely recommend is installing it before
05:56you leave don't wait until you get to wherever you're going to buy an e-sim because the whole
06:00point is making it more convenient for you from the minute that you land i've tried buying local sims in
06:06different countries over the years and to be honest like sometimes yeah it's not too bad it can be easy
06:11but sometimes it's really difficult you got to go into a phone shop usually you have to bring your
06:15passport or something like that and then in places like bali you even have to register your phone so
06:20you have to pay like a foreign tax just to use your phone in the country and sometimes this can
06:25take
06:25like a whole morning just getting set up with data and for me honestly like time is everything like
06:31we're super busy as it is with filming content working and looking after our daughter as well as
06:36making travel plans like i just don't need one extra thing on my plate when we're traveling to a new
06:41place so for me that's worth it and it pays for itself it's funny looking back on that trip now
06:46we
06:46were just using paper maps lonely planet and pretty much asking people for directions and trying to
06:53figure out the language on the go if we had this technology like an air low e-sim it would
06:58have made
06:58things very very different and probably would have saved us a ton of time but i'm still glad we did
07:04it
07:04so if you've got a trip coming up and you want to stay connected i definitely recommend air low we
07:08give it
07:09five stars all you need to do is download the app you can use our link in the description or
07:14the qr code
07:14on the screen but if you're going to buy an e-sim from air low make sure to use code
07:18lloyd and mandy
07:19because you're going to get 15 off your purchase safe travels and we'll see you in the next one cheers
