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Buying a SIM Card or eSIM in Greece

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With thousands of years of history, exceptional weather, and great food, Greece offers visitors an experience that’s hard to beat. I’ve visited several times over the years, and every time I end up wishing I’d stayed longer.

In this land of grilled meat and feta cheese, staying connected is almost as easy as putting on weight. SIM cards are easy to purchase, and costs can be reasonably low if you buy the right package.

If you only need data, though, travel eSIMs are often cheaper and certainly a lot less hassle to buy and use. However you decide to do it, here’s what you need to know.

Companies

  • I recommend Vodafone for most travelers who want a physical SIM
  • An eSIM from Nomad is the best option if you only need data

There are three cell networks in Greece, operated by Cosmote, Vodafone, and Nova. Various resellers also offer service on one of those three networks.

Cosmote costs the most, but has the best coverage and fastest data speeds. Vodafone has the best prices, but speeds can be limited, especially in popular areas. Nova is somewhere in the middle on speed, coverage, and price.

I’ve used Vodafone in Athens and elsewhere in the past, but was sticking to the western side of Greece on this trip. Starting with a few days on Corfu, my route then took me to and between smaller islands further south in the Ionian Sea on a week-long sailing trip.

After checking the coverage map and availability of stores to purchase both SIM and credit, I went with Vodafone.

Travel eSIM for Greece

While my Vodafone SIM worked well on my last trip, next time I visit Greece I’ll just go with a travel eSIM instead. Prices are good, even for larger data packs but especially for the smaller ones, and it means I won’t need to start my holiday by walking around phone shops.

Of the companies I’ve used and would recommend to others, Nomad generally offers the best prices in Greece. That’s not necessarily true for every size of data pack, though: there’s a table below with the latest prices for easier comparison.

Like most travel eSIMs, it’s data-only: you don’t get a local number. I use apps for everything from communication to transport these days, so the lack of a local number very rarely matters to me, but you might have different needs.

One thing worth noting: if you’re planning to travel to several European countries within a few weeks, it might be worth looking at some of the regional eSIM packages on offer.

There are too many to list each one separately (and they change all the time), but as a starting point, these are the Europe eSIM options from companies I’d actually consider using:

If you’re new to eSIMs, they offer big benefits to travelers in terms of how quickly, easily, and (often) cheaply you can get connected when you arrive in a new country. Most recent phones support them, and you can read all about them here.

How to Buy a Prepaid SIM Card in Greece

Buying a Vodafone SIM and getting service was very straightforward, at least on Corfu. You’ll likely have a similar experience anywhere in Greece that sees enough tourism for English to be widely spoken.

There are a couple of Vodafone stores close to each other in the downtown part of Corfu Town, and I visited the one beside San Rocco square. It’s a small store, but given its location, it sees plenty of tourists.

The outside of a small store in Corfu, Greece, with Vodafone branding on the outside. A pharmacy is alongside.

The staff member asked what I wanted, and offered a few options for my two weeks in the country. Note you’ll need your passport to buy a SIM from a Vodafone store, and the staff will take a photocopy of it.

As soon as I’d finished swapping SIM cards, I received a few text messages from Vodafone, and data started working immediately afterward. The entire process took less than five minutes.

Prepaid SIM and eSIM Costs

Vodafone has a number of different plans and packages available, but for most people visiting Greece, the best option (and certainly the simplest one to understand) is, unusually, the tourist package.

There are two choices: one for €20 that has 20GB of data, 200 domestic calling minutes, and lasts for an oddball 20 days. The other costs €30, with unlimited data and 200 minutes, for 30 days.

I’ve bought several other non-tourist packages from Vodafone in the past, and while I sometimes saved a small amount of money by building my own bundle, it was often surprisingly hard to do.

With “mandatory” top-ups and a fee for the SIM card itself, by the time I actually got a useful amount of data (and sometimes, calls and texts), I’d often spend a lot of time discussing and working out options to save a euro or two at best.

If you decide to do the same, look for the “CU” SIM cards and packages, or just ask the staff member what the current promotions are. Note, too, that a 12% tax is charged on top-ups, which means that your (eg) €10 top-up will only add €8.93 to your balance.

We’ve started to get a few anecdotal reports (see the comments below) of Vodafone stores in heavily-touristed areas refusing to sell anything except the most expensive prepaid packages to visitors.

If that happens to you and the staff member won’t budge, just walk out and choose a different provider, or go for a travel eSIM as discussed below and avoid the problem entirely.

Nomad

Of the travel eSIM companies that I’ve used and would actually recommend to others, Nomad generally has the best pricing in Greece. It’s also worth taking a look at Ubigi: I’ve sometimes seen specials on specific data packs that are even cheaper.

They’re not the only options, of course, and I’ve compared many of the others in the past. Fere’s how the best ones stack up price-wise in Greece.

Validity Period

  • 7 days

  • 15 days

  • 30 days

  • 30 days

  • 30 days

  • 30 days

Data Amount

  • 1 GB

  • 2 GB

  • 3 GB

  • 5 GB

  • 10 GB

  • 10 GB

Price (USD)

  • $5

  • $9

  • $12

  • $15

  • $25

  • $49

Validity Period

  • 7 days

  • 15 days

  • 30 days

  • 30 days

  • 30 days

  • 30 days

Data Amount

  • 1 GB

  • 2 GB

  • 3 GB

  • 5 GB

  • 10 GB

  • 20 GB

Price (USD)

  • $5

  • $9

  • $12

  • $15

  • $25

  • $49

Validity Period

  • 7 days

  • 30 days

  • 30 days

  • 30 days

  • 30 days

  • 30 days

Data Amount

  • 1 GB

  • 3 GB

  • 5 GB

  • 10 GB

  • 15 GB

  • 20 GB

Price (USD)

  • $4.50

  • $8

  • $14

  • $19

  • $27

  • $33

Validity Period

  • 30 days

  • 30 days

  • 30 days

Data Amount

  • 3 GB

  • 10 GB

  • 50 GB

Price (USD)

  • $9

  • $16

  • $55

Topping Up

Vodafone

You can buy top-ups at any Vodafone store (store locator here), as well as thousands of kiosks, service stations, and supermarkets across the country.

Nomad

Topping up with Nomad (or any of the other travel eSIM companies) is done by logging into the website or app. You just select your Greece eSIM, hit the top-up button, and buy the same package again.

The top-up packs have exactly the same pricing and duration as the original eSIMs: there’s little difference between topping up your current eSIM and buying a new one, other than not having to activate it.

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Coverage and Data Speeds

While there are a few parts of Greece where you’ll get 5G service with Vodafone, for now they’re mostly in the major cities. It’s being rolled out rapidly, so you may happen to find it elsewhere on both the mainland and islands, but don’t count on it.

For now, expect LTE service in most places. There’s no 3G any more: it was shut off in late 2023.

Coverage and speed were surprisingly variable on Greece’s western coast. Despite having the largest population, Corfu Town had the worst reception and speed. I had minimal service in much of the old town, probably due to the stone buildings surrounding me, but things improved elsewhere.

Further down the coast, things improved dramatically. On the mainland, and while sailing between Lefkada, Ithaca, Meganisi, and other islands, I had reliable service and generally good speeds whenever I checked. I never lost signal anywhere.

As you’d expect, service was very reliable in Athens, whether I was in a tourist area or anywhere else in the city.

EU Roaming

Greece is part of the European Union, so EU roaming regulations apply. These “roam like at home” rules ended roaming charges across much of Europe in 2017, letting you use a SIM card from any EU country across all the others at no extra charge.

There are some exceptions and limits, however, especially with large data packages. Double-check the exact details at time of purchase, or just use one of the regional European eSIMs I mentioned earlier.

With the Vodafone tourist SIMs I discussed up top, some but not all of your data allowance is usable elsewhere in the EU; roughly 15GB with the cheaper package and 22GB with the more expensive one.


Check out our guides to SIM cards and eSIMs in 75+ other countries here.

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25 Comments

  1. It is true, vodafone has the best coverage

  2. Often it is cheaper to buy sim cards from MVNO operators. They have lower prices for mobile plans with the same coverage as their real operators, but sometime lesser speed. If you don’t need 4G in Greece, I would advise Tazamobile that is a MVNO on Vodafone network in 2G and 3G.
    They have a 4GB pack for only $5 for 30 days. And now they offer a tourist mega pack – 7 GB, 120 min national and international calls for only $ 22 valid for 30 days.

    1. As with many resellers (MVNOs), Tazamobile has cheaper prices, but is less convenient for travelers to buy (actual stores are hard to find, with SIMs and top-ups mostly sold in small kiosks where technical knowledge and levels of English spoken tend to be lower). If the lowest price is most important, it’s worth considering, but otherwise, since it’s the same physical network anyway, I’d stick with Vodafone.

  3. Do you know if these SIM cards can also be used in Italy?

    1. Yes, they can. There’s now free roaming across the EU as well, at least if you’re an EU resident (and quite possibly even if you aren’t). More on that here.

  4. Is there any possibility to buy the SIM card in the airport, and how
    Much time does it need to activate the internet coz I am planning to use the google map instead of gps

    1. Without knowing which airport you’re referring to, I can’t answer that. Activation was pretty much instant.

      1. Can you buy a Vodafone SIM card from Athens International airport? do they have a Vodafone shop at the airport? Or can I buy the SIM Card from other shops there?

        Very helpful post. Thank you so much.

      2. The Vodafone store locator for Athens (prefecture: Attica, region: Athens) suggests the company doesn’t have a shop at the airport. I don’t know for sure whether you can buy it from other airport stores, but have seen a few mentions of being able to buy a SIM (either Vodafone or Cosmote) at the post office in the arrivals area. If that turns out not to be the case, you’ll need to buy it once you get into the city.

  5. Hi Dave,
    I’m traveling to Corfu for 10 days (to a small town called Arillas). Do you think it’s a good idea to use Vodaphone? Or maybe a different company like Cosmote?

    Thanks,
    Eyal

    1. Given the poor data service I had in Corfu (especially Corfu Town), you may well find Cosmote is better there than Vodafone. I didn’t buy a Cosmote SIM, though, so can’t tell you from first hand experience.

  6. Avatar Su Schachter says:

    Any idea if I can buy in SIM in the airport in Rhodes? Thanks!

    1. The Vodafone store locator I linked to above only shows a store in the old town, but whether you can buy a SIM from a different provider at the airport, I don’t know, sorry.

  7. In Greece now and I asked one of those small Bangladesh shops, nice of them to tell me where to go. I got Cosmote for €5 with 100mins of call to other cell companies and 300mins to Cosmote. Plus 4GB data. What a steal! But be aware to try the sim in the spot coz the first one he gave me didn’t work… after going back to the shop, it took him some time to find the perfect sim that actually works.

  8. Hi Dave
    We are Kiwis going to Europe in June. I am starting the trip in Croatia and my husband in the UK.
    We will be travelling between countries quite a bit and will be in Europe for 12 months.

    Ideally, I would like the same phone number for the whole trip. I understand a sim bought in one country now works throughout Europe.

    Should I just buy a sim card in Croatia and then keep topping up via the Croatian provider’s website? Could my husband buy a SIM card for me in the UK (I read that 3 is the best provider in the UK but you need a UK credit card to top up!) Do you have another suggestion?
    Thanks Toni

    1. Dave Dean Dave Dean says:

      Hi Toni,

      Be sure to check out the article I linked in this (and all other SIM card posts for EU countries), where I give more detail on the ‘roam like at home’ laws in the EU. Note that it applies only in the EU, not all of Europe.

      There are caveats you need to be aware of, particularly around how long you can use a given SIM outside the country of purchase. In short, don’t expect to use one for a year as you roam all over the continent unless you spend significant time in the country of purchase as well.

      You’ll probably have more luck using a Croatian SIM for a few months than a UK one, due to the issues you mention with international credit cards. Check out our Croatia SIM post for details, but our writer was able to use her Spanish credit card to top up without issue on the provider’s website. You will want to check with the vendor that your (presumably) New Zealand card will also work in the same way, but it at least seems more likely.

  9. Avatar Diane Cranson says:

    HI, I’ve just been told that there’s now a law that to buy a sim card in Greece you need a Greek address and a tax number. Is this correct? In the past I’ve always bought a sim there and just needed my passport.

    1. If so, it’s very recent and news to me. It’s always been just a passport for me as well.

  10. I was wondering, if I bring my Samsung S7 from Canada and purchase this temporary sim card, will it reset my phone to factory settings?? It happens here when we swap sim cards, not sure if the same thing happens with those temp sim cards.

    1. Installing a new SIM card should never reset a phone to factory settings. About the only thing I can think it could do is change your existing APN settings (if you have any), which you’d then need to re-add when you put your old SIM back in again.

  11. Avatar Gabrielle says:

    Hello !

    Do we need to go back to the store where we bought the sim card ton end the contract or can we just throw away the card before leaving the country ?

    Thank you very much

    1. Hi Gabrielle,

      There’s no contract as such — you’re just prepaying for service for eg. a month in advance — so you can throw the card away before you leave. No need to go back to the store.

  12. Avatar Ben Regan says:

    Note that Vodafone shop in Santorini insists that the only possible package is voice + unlimited data for 1 month priced at 32 euros. They refused to sell anything else, even though Vodafone website suggests that there are currently a variety of other cheaper deals available.

    1. I guess if I was going to pick the one phone store most likely to try to take advantage of tourists in Greece, it’d probably be the one on Santorini!

      1. EXACT same treatment for me in Chania, Crete. The Vodafone website still says you can get the Vodafone International package at “any Vodafone shop” but at this point that seems to be misleading at best: https://www.vodafone.gr/prepay-sim-card-greece/

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