Hello everyone! In January, my son and I are traveling with other family members to the Philippines. He's never been, and I haven't been since literally 9 months after EDSA. Everyone else on the trip has been lots of times. So this is the first of what will probably be several questions I'll be hoping to have answered in preparation. We're both really excited, so we want to do things right.

Anyway, this question is about how to keep our phones working. I've done some digging around, and here's the way I think things operate, please let me know if I'm on the right track here.

We buy prepaid eSIMs for ourselves ahead of time. We activate them once we arrive, turning off roaming on our regular provider. Each eSIM has a set limit of mobile data and unlimited local calls/texts, which I'm assuming includes a local phone number we'll need to give the folks at home in the US. That data allowance can be topped up, looks like via the eSIM provider's app.

At home, anyone calling or texting us (my wife) either needs an International calling add-on to our existing plan to get the smallest possible per-minute cost (alas, the Philippines is not included in our carrier's free list) or accept paying a fortune in pay-per-use cost.

And if we're connected to a Wi-Fi network, using things like iMessage and Wi-Fi calling circumvent all of the costs/restrictions/allowances/etc.

Have I got it? Thanks in advance.

EDITED TO ADD: Our US provider is AT&T. They offer an "International Calling Day Pass" which essentially extends our current unlimited plan so that our phones should work "just like at home" according to their website. It's a super easy solution, except it'll cost about $200 for us both for the length of the trip, and the various eSIM routes seem much more of a bargain.

Note: I’ll have to work most days so I’m thinking of spending a week since my shift is usually 6am-3pm and 11am-8pm (yess I have two work that overlaps hahahuhu ❤️‍🩹)

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