Travelling with children, friends or colleagues multiplies the plans, and the ways to get separated: a station platform, a crowded market, a phone with a flat battery. What helps most in that moment is not improvising but having agreed it beforehand: where you meet, how you find each other and who each person calls if something goes wrong in another country.
This guide explains how to prepare a family or group trip so that nobody is left without help or without a connection: the plan if someone gets lost, each person's embassy, one eSIM per phone in a single payment, and the group map, with meeting points and location sharing by consent.
Key facts for family and group travel
- A plan if someone gets lost: agree a meeting point before you leave and what each person does if you get separated.
- Each person's embassy: in a group with several nationalities, each person is helped by the embassy or consulate of their own country.
- One eSIM per phone: an eSIM is installed on one phone, so each person needs their own, with their own QR code.
- One payment: in the Telcomia cart you buy several eSIMs and choose who each one is for.
- Location by consent: each member decides whether to share their location and who sees it; coordinates are deleted after 72 hours.
Before you leave: the plan if someone gets lost
- Agree a meeting point for each day, easy to recognise and away from the busiest area.
- Decide what each person does if they get separated from the group: go to the meeting point, stay where they are or ask the venue staff for help.
- If you travel with children, take a photo of them at the start of the day and write your phone number on their wrist.
- Save the destination's emergency numbers and each person's embassy details.
- Install each eSIM at home, on Wi-Fi, before you leave.
Each person's embassy
Consular protection depends on each traveller's nationality, not on the group. If your group includes people from several countries, each of them should know their own embassy or consulate at the destination.
On the Telcomia safety page, each person chooses their nationality and the country they are travelling to and sees their embassy or consulate, the 24-hour consular emergency line verified against official sources, directions and the emergency numbers.
If you are an EU citizen and your country has no embassy or consulate in a country outside the EU, you can ask the embassy or consulate of any other EU country for help, and it must assist you on the same terms as its own nationals.
One eSIM per phone, in a single payment
An eSIM is a profile installed on one phone, not a card you pass around: a family of four needs four eSIMs. Before you buy, check that every phone supports eSIM and is unlocked.
In the Telcomia cart you add several eSIMs and pay for them together. For each one you choose who it is for: 'For me' or 'Someone else', with their name and, if you like, their email. If you add their email, we send them their QR code; if you leave it empty, it comes to you so you can pass it on.
Each QR code can be installed only once, so scan it on the phone that will use that eSIM.
The group: a map with meeting points
When you finish your purchase, tap 'Create a group with them': each eSIM is already assigned to its person. You can also create the group from My eSIMs, or add someone with just their name and email.
Each person receives a link. When they accept it, they see their eSIM with its QR code, without creating an account. To join the group and see the map, they enter their email and a 6-digit code; this is needed only the first time.
On the group map, the organiser adds stops with a name and a time, such as 'Leave the hotel' or 'Museum at 10:00', up to 20 at a time. Each stop opens your phone's navigation to the exact spot, and when the itinerary changes, every member sees it on their map with a notice.
Sharing your location with the group, by consent
Location is not shared with the whole group by default. Each member decides:
- Whether the organiser can check it without asking each time. If they turn this off, Telcomia asks them before sharing anything.
- Who sees it: only the organiser, which is recommended; the organiser and the whole group; or the organiser and the people they choose. They can change it whenever they like.
The organiser can ask everyone for their location with one tap. To appear on the map, each member opens Telcomia on their phone and responds. Every check is recorded and coordinates are deleted after 72 hours.
If someone gets lost or needs help
- Go to the meeting point you agreed and ask for their location from the group map.
- If they do not turn up, tell the venue staff and the local police straight away: the UK government advises reporting a missing person as soon as possible to the authorities in the country where it happened.
- In the EU, 112 works in every country; elsewhere, the Telcomia safety page shows each country's number.
- If someone loses their passport, they should report it to the police and contact their embassy or consulate, which can issue an emergency travel document to get home.
Emergency information without a connection
With a Telcomia eSIM active on your account, the app saves an emergency pack for your trip on your phone: your embassy's details, the emergency numbers, the risk level, the destination's warnings and the emergency phrases with their pronunciation. It opens even when your phone has no data and no signal.
During the trip: alerts and flights
- Telcomia alerts you if the risk level at your destination rises during your trip.
- In the Flights section you add the flight number and date, and Telcomia alerts you to delays, gate changes and cancellations.
- For some destinations, Telcomia brings official weather warnings and recent earthquakes together on one page.
Questions travellers ask about family and group travel
Can we share one eSIM between several phones?
No. An eSIM is installed on one phone, so each traveller needs their own.
Can I buy the whole family's eSIMs in one payment?
Yes. In the Telcomia cart you add several eSIMs, choose who each one is for and pay once. Each person receives their own QR code.
Does each person need an account?
Not to use their eSIM: the link they receive shows their QR code. To be in the group and on the map, they enter their email and a 6-digit code the first time.
Can the group organiser always see where I am?
No. Each member decides whether to share their location and who sees it, and can change it whenever they like. Coordinates are deleted after 72 hours.
What do we do if someone in the group gets lost abroad?
Go to the agreed meeting point and ask for their location from the group map. If they do not turn up, tell the venue staff and the local police straight away, and then their embassy or consulate.
The short version
Before you leave, agree a meeting point and what each person does if you get separated, and make sure everyone knows their embassy. Buy one eSIM per phone in a single payment, create the group with them, and use the map for your stops and, with consent, to see where everyone is.
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