The eurotrip that almost got ruined by terrible advice: "you'll manage with wifi"

Before we started building itineraries for other people, we first had to survive our own. And the one that really shaped us was a backpacking eurotrip, years ago now, back when we still believed some advice someone gave us with total confidence:

"You don't need a data plan, you'll manage with wifi."

Huge mistake.

The theory sounded reasonable

On paper, it made sense: hotels with wifi, cafés with wifi, even the main squares in some cities promised free wifi. Why pay for roaming when "everyone has wifi now"?

The theory lasted exactly until we got to Venice.

The reality: lost, socially drained, and starving

Venice isn't a city — it's a maze that also looks identical on every corner, apparently designed so that no mental map could ever work. With no data, unable to pull up a live map, we ended up walking in circles for hours, arguing over whether the bridge we'd just crossed was the same one from twenty minutes ago (it was).

The solution we came up with was, in hindsight, ridiculous: walk into random restaurants hoping they had free wifi, order the bare minimum off the menu so we wouldn't feel bad about it, and use those five minutes of signal to figure out where we were, send a "still alive" message, and load the map before the connection dropped.

The funny thing is, in the middle of that chaos, we did find places we never would have found on purpose — a tiny trattoria with no English on the menu, a wine bar that didn't show up in any guide. We found real gems. But we found them while suffering, not exploring — and that difference is exactly what we solve for every client today.

What changed after that trip

Since that eurotrip, we've never left the country again without an eSIM activated before boarding the plane. No more depending on some random restaurant's wifi charity, no more losing an entire afternoon walking in circles around a beautiful city that deserved to be enjoyed, not survived.

We've used Holafly (placeholder affiliate link — swap it for your real Holafly affiliate link) on every trip since, no exceptions. And that's why it's the first thing we recommend to our clients when we build their itinerary: not as an optional "extra," but as something as basic as bringing your passport. Your entire itinerary — maps, reservations, emergency protocol — lives on your phone. It's useless if you don't have signal to open it.

Venice taught us the lesson in the most uncomfortable way possible. We're telling you here so you don't have to learn it the same way.