What Sint Eustatius actually is
Sint Eustatius — everybody on the island calls it Statia — is a special municipality of the Netherlands. It has been one since the Netherlands Antilles was dissolved on 10 October 2010. It is not a country, and it is not part of a country called the Netherlands Antilles, because no such country has existed for sixteen years. Older travel pages and older eSIM catalogues that still file Statia under "Netherlands Antilles" are describing something that no longer exists.
Status
Special municipality of the Netherlands since 10 October 2010, with Bonaire and Saba. The three are the Caribbean Netherlands, or BES islands.
Country code
ISO BQ, shared with Bonaire and Saba. That shared code is why catalogues so often hand you a Bonaire plan when you asked for Statia.
Money
The US dollar, legal tender since 1 January 2011. Not the euro, not the Caribbean guilder that Curaçao and Sint Maarten use.
Dutch, but not European. Statia is in the Caribbean, roughly 900 km from Curaçao and Bonaire and about 25 minutes' flight from Sint Maarten. It is outside Schengen and outside the EU roaming area, so a Dutch or other EU plan with "roam like at home" does not follow you here — that is exactly the assumption that produces a four-figure roaming bill. If you are still untangling which Dutch Caribbean island is which, our Netherlands Antilles guide lays out all six of them side by side.
Which network you actually get
There are two Sint Eustatius plan families in the wider eSIM market, on two different operators, and only one of them is live. This matters more than it sounds, because a plan you cannot buy is not an option and a plan sold on a dead operator is worse than no plan at all.
Sint Eustatius island plans — Digicel — available
Five sizes: 1 GB / 7 days, 2 GB / 15 days, and 3, 5 and 10 GB / 30 days. Every one is active in our catalogue, and every one declares Digicel, 4G. These cover Sint Eustatius and nothing else.
The Telcell-based Statia family — not available
A second Sint Eustatius family exists upstream, built on Telcell N.V., in the same five sizes. Every plan in it is currently inactive, so it cannot be sold and we do not list it. If you see that family advertised as an option for Statia anywhere, check whether it can actually be bought before you rely on it.
Discover Global — Digicel on Statia, TelCell on Sint Maarten — available
The global family carries coverage rows for both islands, which is what makes it the practical answer for anyone flying in through SXM. See the next section.
Leave network selection on automatic
Statia is a small island within reach of several operators' towers, and phones will happily latch onto one your plan has no agreement with. The symptom is distinctive and misleading: full signal bars and no working data. If that happens, go into network selection, switch back to automatic, and toggle airplane mode. Do not manually pick a network unless our support tells you which one.
On network codes. We are not publishing a mobile network code from our own coverage rows for Statia, because our BES-island rows carry a code belonging to a different territory altogether and we would rather say so than quote it. For reference, the published register for MCC 362 — which covers Bonaire, Sint Eustatius, Saba, Curaçao and Sint Maarten — lists Eutel N.V. at 362-31 for Sint Eustatius, Telcell N.V. at 362-51 for Sint Maarten, and Flow at 362-59 and 362-60 across the BES islands and Sint Maarten. Source: Wikipedia, Mobile network codes in ITU region 3xx.
The Sint Maarten leg — the thing most Statia guides get wrong
There are almost no direct flights to Sint Eustatius from anywhere except Sint Maarten. Winair runs the short hop from Princess Juliana (SXM) to F. D. Roosevelt Airport (EUX) — about 25 minutes, roughly nineteen non-stop flights a week. Which means nearly every visitor to Statia spends part of a day, and sometimes a night, on a completely different island.
And Sint Maarten is a different destination on a different operator. It is a constituent country of the Kingdom of the Netherlands, not a Dutch municipality; its mobile network is TelCell, not Digicel; it does not share the BQ country code. So the Sint Eustatius island plan gives you nothing at all during the connection.
If you buy the island plan
- Works on Statia from the moment you land at EUX
- ✕No data at SXM — not in the terminal, not in the taxi, not overnight if you misconnect
- •Fine if your connection is short and you are happy on airport Wi-Fi
If you buy a Discover Global plan
- Coverage rows for Sint Eustatius (Digicel) and Sint Maarten (TelCell) on the same plan
- Also covers the long-haul stopover on the way in, wherever it is
- •Costs a little more than the island plan at each size — compare in the prices section
One thing worth knowing about overnight misconnections. Winair's SXM–EUX schedule is thin enough that a delayed inbound long-haul can leave you on Sint Maarten until the next morning. That is the moment you want working data — for a hotel, a rebooking, a message home — and it is precisely the moment an island-only plan has none. If your inbound arrives late in the day, the global plan is the sensible purchase.
Sint Eustatius eSIM prices
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Quick facts about Statia
The island
- Status: Special municipality of the Netherlands since 10 October 2010
- Main town: Oranjestad
- Population: 3,348 on 1 January 2026 (CBS, Statistics Netherlands)
- Area: About 21 km²
- Languages: Dutch is official for administration; English is what people speak
- Currency: US dollar, since 1 January 2011
- Time zone: Atlantic Standard Time, UTC−4, no daylight saving
Getting there and getting online
- Airport: F. D. Roosevelt Airport (EUX)
- How you get here: Winair from Sint Maarten (SXM), about 25 minutes
- Network our island plans declare: Digicel, 4G
- Island plan sizes: 1, 2, 3, 5 and 10 GB
- Covers Sint Maarten too: only the Discover Global family
- Emergency: police 911, fire 912, hospital 913
- Landmark: The Quill, a dormant volcano, 601 m
Setting up your eSIM
Check your phone takes an eSIM
iPhone XS/XR and newer, recent Samsung Galaxy S and Z models, Google Pixel 3 and newer. If the phone was bought from a carrier it may also need to be unlocked.
Pick island-only or global
Sint Eustatius plan if Statia is the whole trip. Discover Global if you are connecting through Sint Maarten, which nearly everybody is.
Install at home, on Wi-Fi
The QR code arrives by email. Scan it before you fly — Statia has one small town and there is no airport SIM counter to fall back on.
Turn on data roaming for the eSIM line
A travel eSIM is always a roaming line. With roaming off for that line you get signal and no data, and it looks like a broken eSIM.
Leave network selection automatic
On arrival at EUX, let the phone choose. Manually picking an operator is the fastest way to full bars and zero data.
Keep your home SIM active for calls
A data-only eSIM cannot dial 911, 912 or 913. Keep a voice-capable line switched on, with data turned off on it.
Before you leave the house
- • Screenshot or save the QR code — you may need it again and email is no use offline
- • Download offline maps of Statia and of the Quill trails
- • Save the three emergency numbers as contacts, not as a note you have to find
- • If you are diving, confirm your operator's emergency arrangements directly with them
Coverage on Statia, honestly
An earlier version of this page carried a table grading the signal at Fort Oranje, on the Quill summit, at Zeelandia Beach and at half a dozen other spots, plus a "90% of populated areas" progress bar. None of it was measured and none of it had a source, so it is gone. Here is what we can actually stand behind.
What the data supports
- • Every Sint Eustatius plan in our catalogue declares one network, Digicel, and one technology, 4G.
- • No plan for Statia declares 5G. Anything promising you 5G here is reading an inflated record.
- • Coverage on an island of 21 km² is built around Oranjestad, the airport and the populated coastal strip.
What we will not claim
- • A percentage of the island covered. We have no measurement, and neither does anyone quoting one.
- • Signal grades at individual beaches, trails or dive sites.
- • Download speeds in Mbps. Nobody has published a credible figure for Statia.
The practical version. Plan for good connectivity in and around Oranjestad and the airport, and plan for none at all on a forested 601 m volcano and on the wilder Atlantic side. Download your maps first, tell someone your route, and carry the assumption that the Quill crater is offline. That is a sensible way to treat any small volcanic island, and it costs you nothing if the signal turns out to be better than you expected.
How much data different Statia trips use
Statia is small and quiet, and that shows up in data use. There is no mass tourism, no cruise traffic and not much to stream about — most visitors get through a long weekend on a gigabyte or two. The bands below are matched to the plan sizes we actually sell for the island: 1, 2, 3, 5 and 10 GB. If your trip includes a Sint Maarten stay rather than a same-day connection, read the Sint Maarten section first — the island plans do not cover it.
Two or three days, same-day connection
In on the morning Winair flight from SXM, out a couple of days later. Maps, messaging, a handful of photos.
Data needed
Around 1 GB
Plan that fits
1 GB / 7 days island plan — or a global plan if you want data during the SXM layover too.
Worth knowing:
- ✓Download the offline map of Statia before you leave home
- ✓Messaging and maps are the whole data budget on a trip this short
- ✓Photos will wait for guesthouse Wi-Fi — you do not need to upload from the trail
- ✓If your inbound long-haul arrives late in the day, buy the global plan instead
Hiking The Quill and Boven
A few days built around the national park: the crater trail, the Boven hills in the north, Zeelandia on the Atlantic side.
Data needed
1-3 GB
Plan that fits
2 GB / 15 days, or 3 GB / 30 days if you are staying longer.
Worth knowing:
- ✓Assume no signal in the crater and on the higher trails — download maps first
- ✓Tell somebody your route and your expected return time before you set off
- ✓Offline maps use storage, not data, so load them on Wi-Fi the night before
- ✓Keep a voice-capable line active: a data-only eSIM cannot dial 911, 912 or 913
Diving week
Shore and boat dives in the marine park, including the historic anchorage and wreck sites off Lower Town.
Data needed
3-5 GB
Plan that fits
3 GB or 5 GB / 30 days.
Worth knowing:
- ✓Dive video is the thing that actually moves the number — everything else on Statia is small
- ✓Upload from the guesthouse rather than from the dock if you shoot a lot of footage
- ✓Confirm your dive operator's emergency and evacuation arrangements with them directly, in writing
- ✓Surface intervals are when your messages catch up; nothing needs to be live
History-first visit
Fort Oranje, Lower Town, the Honen Dalim ruins, the museum. Reading as much as walking.
Data needed
2-3 GB
Plan that fits
2 GB / 15 days or 3 GB / 30 days.
Worth knowing:
- ✓Reading and looking things up is light on data — it is photos and video that add up
- ✓Oranjestad is where connectivity is concentrated, and it is where most of the history is
- ✓The whole island is an archaeological site: look, photograph, do not dig
- ✓Statia Day is 16 November, if you want to be here for it
Working remotely from the island
A few weeks on Statia with real work to do. Video calls, file sync, a second screen of tabs open all day.
Data needed
10 GB and up
Plan that fits
10 GB / 30 days, the largest island plan. Beyond that you are into global plans or a top-up.
Worth knowing:
- ✓Base yourself in or near Oranjestad — that is where coverage is built
- ✓Ask your accommodation about its internet before you book, and get the answer in writing
- ✓Video calls are the biggest single consumer; audio-only where you can get away with it
- ✓Turn off automatic cloud photo backup, or a week of diving footage eats the plan
A note on these numbers
These are ranges built from ordinary app usage — maps, messaging, browsing, the occasional upload — not from measurements taken on Statia, and we are not going to pretend otherwise. Nobody publishes per-trail signal data or average speeds for an island of three thousand people. What is firm is the shape of the decision: a gigabyte or two covers a short visit, video is what moves the number, and the biggest island plan tops out at 10 GB.
The island itself
Statia is not a resort island and does not pretend to be. There are no cruise berths, no casinos and no chain hotels — the economy runs on an oil storage terminal, a medical school and a small, steady trickle of divers and hikers. What it has instead is an unusual amount of history for 21 km², and a volcano with a rainforest in its crater.
Nature
- The Quill: a dormant volcano, 601 m, whose last known eruption was around 1,600 years ago. A rainforest grows inside the crater.
- Quill/Boven National Park: designated in 1998; it covers The Quill in the south and the Boven hills in the north.
- Zeelandia Beach: the long Atlantic-side beach. Rough water — it is a walking beach, not a swimming one.
- Statia National Marine Park: protects the waters around the island, including the historic wreck and anchorage sites.
History
- Fort Oranje: where the island answered the American brig Andrew Doria on 16 November 1776.
- Lower Town: the remains of the 18th-century warehouse district along the bay, partly underwater.
- Honen Dalim synagogue: built in 1739 and now a ruin, one of the oldest surviving synagogue structures in the Americas.
- St. Eustatius Historical Foundation Museum: the island's own account of the Golden Rock years.
A word on diving costs. Statia is a genuine diving destination, and that is exactly where guides like this one tend to start quoting resort Wi-Fi charges and dive-package prices that nobody can source. We are not going to. Dive prices, boat schedules and what any given guesthouse charges for internet change constantly and vary by operator — ask the operator directly, in writing, before you book.
Troubleshooting
Full signal bars, but nothing loads
The classic symptom of being registered on a network your plan has no agreement with. On a small island inside a shared mobile country code, this is easy to do by accident.
- Settings → Mobile network → Network selection → switch to Automatic.
- Toggle airplane mode on, wait fifteen seconds, toggle it off.
- If it still will not attach, restart the phone.
eSIM installed, no data at all
- Check data roaming is ON for the eSIM line. Travel eSIMs always roam; this is the most common cause by a wide margin.
- Check the eSIM, not your home SIM, is selected for mobile data.
- Check the plan has actually started — some plans begin on first network attachment, not at purchase.
It worked on Statia and died on Sint Maarten
That is not a fault — that is the island-only plan doing exactly what it says. Sint Eustatius and Sint Maarten are separate destinations on separate operators. Either buy a Discover Global plan for the trip, or add a Sint Maarten plan for the connection.
No signal on the Quill trails
Expected, and not something an eSIM can fix. Download offline maps before you set off, tell somebody your route and your expected return time, and do not count on being reachable from the crater.
Emergency numbers
On Sint Eustatius
- Police:911
- Fire:912
- Hospital / ambulance:913
Published by the Statia Tourism Development Foundation, the island's own tourism board.
Direct lines
- Police station:+599 318-2333
- Fire station:+599 318-2360
- Queen Beatrix Medical Center:+599 318-2211
- Tourism office:+599 318-2433
Do not carry Sint Maarten's numbers to Statia. You fly through Sint Maarten, and its numbers are different: there, 911 is police, 912 is the ambulance and 919 is fire. On Statia 912 is fire and 913 is the ambulance. Save both sets separately. And remember that a data-only eSIM cannot place a call to any of them — keep a voice-capable line active alongside it.
History and how the island is governed
The Golden Rock and the First Salute
In the 18th century Statia was a free port and one of the busiest trading hubs in the Caribbean — the "Golden Rock". On 16 November 1776, the American brig Andrew Doria fired a thirteen-gun salute in the roadstead below Oranjestad, and Governor Johannes de Graeff ordered Fort Oranje to answer with eleven. It is generally recorded as the first salute by a foreign government to the flag of the United States, and the island still marks the date as Statia Day.
Direct rule, and its end
This part is recent and worth knowing if you read about Statia politics while you are there. In February 2018 the Dutch parliament approved an administrative intervention: the island council was dissolved and a government commissioner was appointed, following a report finding gross neglect of duties. Local structures were restored in stages — a new island council in 2020, the power to appoint the executive council from October 2022, control of its own budget from 2023 — and the process concluded on 10 April 2024, when Alida Francis was sworn in as Island Governor. Source: Rijksdienst Caribisch Nederland.
Practical etiquette
- Greet people. On an island of three thousand, walking past without a "good morning" is noticed.
- English works everywhere; Dutch is the language of paperwork.
- US dollars throughout. Card acceptance is patchy outside the main businesses — carry some cash.
- There is no mass tourism here, and no infrastructure built for it. Adjust expectations accordingly.
Protected ground
- The whole island is an archaeological site. Do not dig, and do not pocket what you find.
- The waters are a national marine park — look, do not take, including from wrecks.
- Stay on the marked trails in Quill/Boven National Park.
- Zeelandia is a turtle-nesting beach. Keep off the dunes at night.
Frequently asked questions
Is Sint Eustatius part of the Netherlands Antilles?
No. The Netherlands Antilles was dissolved on 10 October 2010. Sint Eustatius became a special municipality of the Netherlands itself, alongside Bonaire and Saba — the three are collectively the Caribbean Netherlands, or the BES islands. It is not a country, it has no country of its own to buy a plan for beyond its own island plan, and it shares the ISO country code BQ with Bonaire and Saba. It is in the Caribbean, so it is outside Schengen and outside the EU roaming area: an EU plan with "roam like at home" does not follow you here.
Which network does a Sint Eustatius eSIM actually use?
The Sint Eustatius island family in our catalogue — 1, 2, 3, 5 and 10 GB — declares Digicel, 4G. There is a second Sint Eustatius plan family in the wider market built on Telcell N.V., but every plan in it is currently inactive, so we do not sell it and this page does not describe it as available. Leave your phone on automatic network selection once you land. If you manually pick an operator your plan has no agreement with, you get full signal bars and no working data, which is the single most common way a working eSIM looks broken.
I am connecting through Sint Maarten. Does one plan cover both?
Only if you buy the right one. Sint Eustatius and Sint Maarten are separate destinations on separate operators — Statia on Digicel, Sint Maarten on TelCell — so the Sint Eustatius island plan covers Statia and nothing else. The Discover Global family is the one in our catalogue whose coverage data lists both islands, so a single eSIM covers the flight out, the layover at Princess Juliana and the days on Statia. It costs only a little more than the island-only plan at most sizes. If Sint Maarten is a same-day connection you can also just live on airport Wi-Fi for the layover and use the island plan on Statia — but then you have no data if the connection goes wrong, which on a nineteen-flights-a-week route is worth thinking about.
How much data do I need for a few days on Statia?
Statia is a small, quiet island with a lot of hiking and diving, so data use is usually low: maps, messaging, a few photo uploads. 1 to 3 GB covers a typical long weekend comfortably. Go to 5 or 10 GB if you are working remotely from the island, uploading dive or hiking video, or staying a full month — the 3, 5 and 10 GB island plans all run 30 days.
What are the emergency numbers on Sint Eustatius?
The island’s own tourism board publishes three: police 911, fire 912, hospital and ambulance 913. Do not reuse Sint Maarten’s numbers even though you fly through it — Sint Maarten uses 911 for police, 912 for ambulance and 919 for fire, so 912 means different services on the two islands. Also remember a data-only eSIM cannot dial any of them: you need a line that can place a voice call, which usually means keeping your home SIM active alongside the eSIM.
Will I have signal hiking The Quill?
We do not publish signal grades per trail, because nobody has measured them and inventing them would be worse than saying so. What is true is that Statia is 21 km² with one small town, coverage is built around Oranjestad and the populated coast, and a 601 m forested volcano is exactly the terrain where mobile signal fails. Download offline maps before you start, tell somebody your route, and treat any data on the crater rim as a bonus rather than a plan.
What currency and language should I expect?
The US dollar, which has been Statia’s legal tender since 1 January 2011 — the Netherlands Antillean guilder is long gone here, and the new Caribbean guilder used on Curaçao and Sint Maarten is not used on the BES islands. Dutch is the official administrative language, but English is what is actually spoken day to day.
Related guides
- Netherlands Antilles eSIM guide — which island is which, since the 2010 dissolution
- Sint Maarten eSIM guide — the island you connect through
- Saba eSIM guide — Statia's sister BES island, also reached via SXM
- All Sint Eustatius eSIM plans