eSIM for Greece

Viasimo's Greece eSIM starts at $1.29 for 500 MB over 7 days, running on Nova and Vodafone with 5G where available. Plans last 1 to 180 days, arrive by email in minutes and install from your phone's settings, with no app.

Works everywhere in Greece

Athens
Attica
Central Greece
Central Macedonia
Crete
East Macedonia and Thrace
Epirus

Select your planIn stock

Duration

Quantity

Unlimited data · 3 Days$6.99

Unlimited data · 3 Days ×1

$6.99

Going to more than one country? See regional plans

Does my phone take an eSIM? Check now

Dial *#06# on your phone. If you see an EID number, your phone takes an eSIM. Most phones sold since 2019 do.

Not sure it works on your phone? Check compatibility

Network

Which networks does the Greece eSIM use?

Host networks: Nova / Vodafone

Your eSIM picks one automatically; you do not choose or switch between them.

Data: 500 MB – 50 GB or unlimited
Validity: 1–180 days
Speed: 4G LTE / 5G
Hotspot / tethering: Supported on most devices
Activation: Starts when you first connect in your destination
Speed management: Roughly 2-3 GB per day at full speed, sometimes less depending on the local carrier, then reduced
Top-ups: Add more data from your account, before the plan expires
Text messages (SMS): Data only: use an app for verification codes
Unused validity: 180 days before it must be installed

Setting up Buy, scan the QR code we email you, and switch on the travel line when you land. How it works

Choosing a plan

How much data do you need?

The allowances below are our sizing recommendations, not measurements. The plan beside each one is the cheapest option on this page that covers it.

Recommended data allowances matched to the plans sold for this destination
You are	Plan for	Cheapest plan that covers it
LightMaps, messaging and the occasional lookup	About 1 GB a week	$1.591 GB, 7 days
TypicalMaps, social, photos and some browsing	About 3 to 7 GB a week	$4.595 GB, 30 days
HeavyVideo streaming, video calls and uploads	10 GB a week or more	$8.0010 GB, 30 days
Working or sharingTethering a laptop, calls and cloud sync	20 GB a week or more	$13.99Unlimited, 7 days

Work it out from your own habits

What a week abroad costs

eSIM, local SIM or roaming?

Charged per day

Your carrier roaming

Queue and plastic

A SIM at the airport

$1.29

Viasimo, one bundle

Only the Viasimo figure is a price: it comes from today’s live catalog. The other two rows are directional, not quoted rates.

About this eSIM

Nearly every Greek trip is really two trips joined together: a mainland one with metro lines, motorways and airports, and an island one that runs on ferry timetables and the weather. Data behaves differently in each, and knowing which one you are in saves a lot of frustration. An eSIM installed before you leave covers both without a roaming bill, and it is live by the time you are walking off the aircraft at Athens, Thessaloniki, Heraklion, Rhodes or Mykonos.

Getting online when you land

The install happens at home, not at the gate. Putting the profile on the phone needs a connection once; after that it will wake up wherever you are.

On arrival, turn the travel line on and let it roam. That roaming permission is how the eSIM attaches to a Greek network, and it is the single most common thing people forget. Give the phone a minute after landing to find a mast and register before you assume anything is wrong.

Where you land changes how much this matters. At Athens you have a metro line, a suburban railway and an express bus into the city, and plenty of time to sort things out. At a small island airport the arrivals hall is one room, the taxi rank empties in the time it takes to collect a bag, and having a phone that already works is the difference between calling your accommodation and standing outside with a suitcase.

Keep the home line switched on with its data off, so your usual number still takes texts and calls.

The networks you'll be on

Two host networks carry your traffic in Greece: Vodafone and Nova (the former Wind network), both running 4G LTE and 5G where it has been rolled out. Between them they reach the mainland and the inhabited islands.

Your handset does the choosing and it does it continuously, which is more noticeable in Greece than in most countries: island geography means the mast you can hear changes as you drive around a headland, and the phone will re-attach as it goes. Watching the operator name or the generation flip while you are on a coast road is the system working, not a fault.

Where coverage holds, and where it thins

Athens and Attica are well served, as are Thessaloniki, Patras, Larissa and Volos, plus the motorway routes north and into the Peloponnese. On the islands, coverage tracks population and tourism closely: Heraklion, Chania and Rethymno on Crete, the main towns of Rhodes and Kos, Fira and Oia on Santorini, the port and the beaches on Mykonos, and the resort side of Zakynthos are all fine.

Ferries are the classic gap. You keep a connection leaving Piraeus or Rafina and again as you approach the next island, and somewhere in the middle of open water it goes, sometimes for a long stretch on the routes out to the far Cyclades or the Dodecanese. Download whatever you plan to read before you board.

Inland and uphill is the other gap. The Samaria Gorge and the Cretan mountain roads, the Zagori villages and the Pindus range, the higher Peloponnese, the trails on Mount Olympus, and the small islands with a single village all have real dead ground. Beach coves reached by a dirt track frequently have nothing, which is worth remembering if you are relying on a rental scooter and a phone to get back.

What you'll actually use data for here

Ferries, first and repeatedly. Sailings get cancelled or rescheduled when the meltemi blows, and a cancelled sailing rearranges your whole week, so you want the operator and aggregator apps checking for you rather than a printed timetable that is already out of date. Weather forecasts move from background information to something you actually read.

Archaeological sites and museums increasingly use timed entry, and the Acropolis in particular is a book-ahead proposition, with your ticket living on the phone. Car, scooter and ATV rentals confirm by message, and the pickup point is rarely where you assumed.

Everyday use is the rest: translating Greek script on a sign or a menu, finding out which of a village's tavernas is open outside high season, locating a bank machine on a small island where there may only be one, splitting the bill, and keeping a map running while you drive roads that are narrower and steeper than the satellite view implies.

Before you fly

Set the profile up before you leave, check the handset is unlocked and eSIM capable, and give the line a label you will recognise in settings. Download offline maps for every island you will visit, not just the first one, and save your ferry and flight references somewhere that opens without a connection. Screenshot your accommodation address in Greek as well as English, because a taxi driver on a small island will recognise the Greek. Leave the home number active for verification codes with its data off, and if your plan includes a gorge walk, a mountain village or a boat day, tell someone where you are going before you lose the signal to say so.

Unlimited runs at full speed up to a fair-use limit, then continues slower.

Before you buy

Important to know

This is a data-only eSIM. It carries no calls or SMS on its own number.
Your existing number stays on your primary SIM, so calls and verification texts keep working.
Your phone must support eSIM, and some carrier-locked phones cannot install one.
Signal varies with location, terrain, congestion and your handset. Dense urban areas are consistently better served than remote ones.
5G only works where the host network has deployed it and your phone supports it. Everywhere else it falls back to 4G LTE.
The eSIM selects a host network automatically. You cannot pick or switch between them.
Unlimited plans run at full speed up to a fair-use limit, then continue at a reduced speed. Read the fair usage policy

Looking for more information?

Frequently asked questions

Does an eSIM work in Greece?

Yes. Your Greece eSIM connects automatically the moment you arrive, with no roaming fees and nothing to set up at the airport. The host networks it can use are Nova, Vodafone. Coverage runs on 4G LTE and 5G where the network has rolled it out, and falls back to 4G elsewhere.

Do I get 5G in Greece?

Yes, where it has been deployed. 5G runs on Nova, Vodafone in Greece, and your eSIM uses it automatically on a 5G-capable phone, dropping back to 4G LTE outside covered areas. No country is covered everywhere, so 5G availability varies by location.

Is Wind the same as Nova in Greece?

Yes. Wind Hellas merged with Nova in January 2023 under United Group, and its mobile service now carries the Nova name. If your phone shows Nova in the status bar, you are on the former Wind network, which this eSIM uses alongside Vodafone. Cosmote is the third Greek network.

Which mobile network is fastest in Greece?

Opensignal's March 2026 report puts Cosmote ahead on download speed at 71.9 Mbps, against 51.6 Mbps on Vodafone and 45.6 Mbps on Nova. Vodafone, which this eSIM uses with Nova, won for reliability and time on network, and its users were connected to 5G 91% of the time, the highest figure in Greece.

Will I get wildfire alerts on my phone in Greece?

Greece's 112 Emergency Communication Service sends location-based alerts, including evacuation orders, to phones in the affected area. Make sure emergency alerts are switched on in your phone's notification settings, keep the phone with you and follow 112 Greece on X. Fire risk is highest from April to October.

Do I need a helmet to ride a quad bike in Greece?

Yes. Helmets are compulsory for drivers and passengers, and police can fine you and take your licence if you ride without one. Not wearing a helmet may also invalidate your insurance. Provisional licences are not accepted, and many travel policies exclude quad biking, so check your cover before you hire.

What is the emergency number in Greece?

Dial 112 for ambulance, fire and police anywhere in Greece. Dialling 999 from a UK mobile also connects you to the Greek emergency services. You need a voice line for this, and this eSIM is data only, so keep your home SIM switched on while you travel.

How much data do I need for 7 days in Greece?

For 7 days in Greece, Viasimo sells 500 MB for $1.29, 1 GB for $1.59, and unlimited data for $13.99. Our sizing recommendation, not a measurement: maps, messaging and the occasional lookup, about 1 GB a week; maps, social, photos and some browsing, about 3 to 7 GB a week. The data calculator on this site works it out from how you actually use your phone.

Installing, keeping your number, topping up and hotspot work the same everywhere: see how it works →

Know before you go

Greece: what to know before you land

In Greece this eSIM uses Vodafone and Wind, which has traded as Nova since its 2023 merger, with 5G where available. Opensignal's 2026 data shows Vodafone users spend more time on 5G than anyone else in the country. During the April to October wildfire season, make sure your phone can receive the government's 112 emergency alerts.

Emergency: 112
Plugs: CF 230V
Currency: Euro (EUR)

Main airports

ATH Athens International Airport Eleftherios Venizelos
SKG Thessaloniki Airport Makedonia
HER Heraklion International Airport
RHO Rhodes International Airport

Apps worth having FerryhopperFREENOWUberViberWhatsApp

Vodafone and Nova versus Cosmote in Opensignal's 2026 data

Greece has three mobile networks: Cosmote, part of the OTE group, Vodafone, and Nova. Nova is the former Wind Hellas, which merged with Nova under United Group in January 2023 and moved its mobile service to the Nova brand, so if your phone or a shop sign says Nova, that is the Wind network this eSIM uses alongside Vodafone.

Opensignal's March 2026 report, based on data from October to December 2025, shows how they compare:

	Cosmote	Vodafone	Nova
Download speed	71.9 Mbps	51.6 Mbps	45.6 Mbps
Coverage experience	8.4	7.6	6.6
Reliability	873	902	889
Time on any network	96.8%	98.3%	96.1%
Time on 5G	85.9%	91.0%	88.3%

Cosmote leads for raw speed and coverage experience, and took 10 awards. Vodafone won reliability and time on network outright, and its users were on 5G 91% of the time, the highest in the country. For a traveller, speeds of 45 to 50 Mbps are plenty for maps, video calls and uploading photos, and having two networks means your phone has a second option on an island where one mast is out of range.

112 alerts in the April to October wildfire season

Wildfire risk in Greece is high from April to October, and the government's Emergency Communication Service sends location-based warnings, including evacuation orders, to phones in the affected area. The UK Foreign Office advises setting your phone to receive these alerts and keeping it with you, because they are sent to wherever the phone physically is.

To check alerts are switched on:

iPhone: Settings, Notifications, then turn on Emergency Alerts at the bottom of the screen.
Android 11 or later: Settings, Notifications, Advanced settings, Wireless emergency alerts.
Samsung: Settings, Apps, Messages, Notifications, Emergency notifications.

Follow 112 Greece on X for official updates, and call 112 if you see a fire or are in immediate danger. Causing a wildfire in Greece is a criminal offence even when accidental, so take glass and litter away, put cigarettes out properly and don't light barbecues. If you are staying near forest, the Foreign Office suggests a grab bag with your phone, chargers, documents, money and medicines, and a power bank charged every night.

Earthquakes, quad bikes and getting help on the islands

Greece is earthquake country, and tremors are felt regularly. The civil protection site mysafetyplan.gov.gr has a map of assembly points near you; it is in Greek, so use your browser's translate feature, and look up the nearest point to your hotel when you arrive. In a strong quake, follow local instructions and call 112 if you are in danger.

On many islands the transport of choice is a quad bike or scooter, and the rules catch out visitors:

Helmets are compulsory for drivers and passengers, and riding without one can invalidate your insurance and lead to a fine or loss of your licence.
Provisional licences aren't valid for driving or hiring any vehicle in Greece.
Quad biking is often treated as an extreme sport by travel insurers, and hire companies' insurance usually covers third parties only, so check your cover first.

Keep your phone charged and mounted when you ride, and share your location with someone before heading down a dirt track to a remote beach. Calls to 112 reach ambulance, police and fire services, and if you dial 999 from a UK mobile you are connected to the Greek emergency services. As this eSIM is data only, use your home SIM for those calls.

Researched October 2026 · 4 sources

insights.opensignal.com Greece Mobile Network Experience Report, March 2026 (Opensignal)
en.wikipedia.org Wind Hellas (Wikipedia)
gov.uk Greece travel advice: safety and security (GOV.UK)
gov.uk Greece travel advice: getting help (GOV.UK)

7-day itinerary

Seven days in Greece: Athens, Delphi, Naxos and Santorini

A first-timer's week that pairs ancient sites with island time: two days in Athens, a day trip to Delphi, then ferries across the Cyclades to Naxos for villages and beaches and to Santorini for the caldera, flying home from the island.

Length: 7 days
Bases: 3

When to go May, June, September and early October are warm enough for swimming without the peak heat and crowds of July and August; ferry timetables thin out from late October, and the wildfire season runs from April to October.

Day 1 Athens

Acropolis and Plaka

Metro line 3 from Athens airport to Syntagma takes about 40 minutes.

Take the metro from the airport into the centre. Climb the Acropolis early or late in the day to avoid the heat, seeing the Propylaea, the Parthenon and the Erechtheion with its caryatid porch. Then visit the Acropolis Museum at the foot of the hill, where the originals of many sculptures are kept. Spend the evening in the lanes of Plaka and Anafiotika below the rock.

Signal Vodafone and Nova both have 5G across central Athens; reception is good on the Acropolis itself, though it slows when the site is crowded.
Day 2 Athens

Ancient Agora and the National Archaeological Museum

Walk the Ancient Agora, where the Temple of Hephaestus stands almost intact, and the reconstructed Stoa of Attalos. Continue through Monastiraki to the Roman Agora. After lunch, spend two or three hours in the National Archaeological Museum, home to the Mask of Agamemnon and the Antikythera mechanism. End with sunset from Lycabettus Hill, reached by funicular from Kolonaki.

Signal Strong 4G and 5G above ground; the Athens metro has coverage in stations and most tunnels, so you can stay connected between sights.
Day 3 Athens

Day trip to Delphi

Delphi is about 2.5 hours from Athens by car or KTEL bus; organised day tours also run daily.

Travel to Delphi on the slopes of Mount Parnassus, the ancient sanctuary of Apollo and a UNESCO site. Walk the Sacred Way past the treasuries to the Temple of Apollo, the theatre and the stadium above, then visit the museum for the bronze Charioteer. Below the road, see the circular Tholos at the sanctuary of Athena Pronaia before heading back.

Signal Coverage is good in Delphi village and at the site entrance; it weakens on the mountain road through Arachova and in the upper reaches of the stadium.
Day 4 Naxos

Ferry to Naxos

Piraeus to Naxos takes about 3.5 hours by high-speed ferry or 5 to 6 hours on a conventional ferry; book ahead in summer.

Take a morning ferry from Piraeus to Naxos, the largest of the Cyclades. In the afternoon, walk out to the Portara, the huge marble doorway of an unfinished temple of Apollo on the islet joined to the harbour. Explore the Kastro, the Venetian quarter at the top of Naxos town, then watch the sunset from the Portara or the beach at Agios Georgios.

Signal Expect signal to drop in and out at sea between islands, with 4G returning near Syros or Paros and strong again in Naxos town.
Day 5 Naxos

Inland Naxos: Halki, Apeiranthos and the Temple of Demeter

Naxos town to Apeiranthos is about 45 minutes by car.

Hire a car for the mountain villages. Stop at the restored Temple of Demeter near Sangri, then Halki, with its Byzantine churches and citron distillery, in the Tragaea valley. Continue to Apeiranthos, a marble-paved village on the slopes of Mount Zas. Return via the long sandy beaches of Plaka or Mikri Vigla on the west coast for a late swim.

Signal 4G is usable in the main villages, but expect gaps on the mountain roads below Mount Zas; download an offline map of Naxos first.
Day 6 Santorini

Santorini: Fira to Oia on the caldera rim

Naxos to Santorini takes about 1.5 to 2 hours by ferry; the port at Athinios is a 20-minute drive below Fira.

Take the morning ferry to Santorini. From Fira, walk the caldera-edge path north through Firostefani and Imerovigli to Oia, about 10 km with views down into the flooded volcanic crater. Arrive in Oia in time for sunset, though it is crowded; returning by bus or taxi to Fira afterwards takes some planning.

Signal Good 4G and 5G along the caldera rim; reception can be weaker in the bays below the cliffs and at the port of Athinios.
Day 7 Santorini

Akrotiri and departure

Akrotiri is about 25 minutes' drive from Fira; the airport is about 15 minutes from Fira.

Visit Akrotiri, the Bronze Age town buried by the volcanic eruption around 1600 BC, now under a protective roof. Afterwards, see the Red Beach from the viewpoint, staying back from the unstable cliffs, or swim at the black-sand beach of Perissa. Leave time to reach Santorini airport for your flight.

Signal Reliable 4G at Akrotiri and the airport; coverage on the southern beaches is generally good.

Staying connected on this route

Save ferry tickets offline and check sailings the evening before; strong summer meltemi winds can delay or cancel crossings.
Keep 112 emergency alerts enabled on your phone during the wildfire season, as they go to wherever your phone is.
Download offline maps of Naxos and Santorini before the ferry, as signal drops at sea.

Itinerary sources · 4

insights.opensignal.com Greece mobile network experience report, March 2026 – Opensignal
whc.unesco.org Acropolis, Athens – UNESCO World Heritage Centre
whc.unesco.org Archaeological Site of Delphi – UNESCO World Heritage Centre
gov.uk Greece safety and security – GOV.UK

Where this comes from

Information and verification

Each block below says what was checked and when. Anything we cannot date, we do not claim.

Prices and plans: Every price and allowance on this page is read from the live catalog, not typed in.; Verified October 30, 2026
Host networks: The operator list comes from the network partner that carries this eSIM.; Verified October 30, 2026