# eSIM for Guernsey

Viasimo's Guernsey eSIM starts at $5.99 for 1 GB over 7 days, running on Sure with 5G where available. Plans last 7 to 30 days, arrive by email in minutes and install from your phone's settings, with no app.

Canonical page: https://viasimo.com/destinations/guernsey/

## Guernsey eSIM prices

| Plan | Data | Days | Price | Price per GB |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 GB, 7 days | 1 GB | 7 | $5.99 | $5.99 |
| 3 GB, 30 days | 3 GB | 30 | $12.99 | $4.33 |
| 5 GB, 30 days | 5 GB | 30 | $20.99 | $4.20 |
| 20 GB, 30 days | 20 GB | 30 | $56.99 | $2.85 |

## Which networks does the Guernsey eSIM use?

- **Sure**: 5G

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

The operator list comes from the network partner that carries this eSIM. Verified October 30, 2026.

## eSIM Details

- **Data**: 1 GB – 20 GB
- **Validity**: 7–30 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
- **Connects via**: United Kingdom
- **Unused validity**: 180 days before it must be installed

## Guernsey: what to know before you land

Source: https://viasimo.com/destinations/guernsey/#destination-guide · Researched October 2026 by Viasimo

Guernsey's mobile market is small and consolidating: Sure, the largest operator and the network your eSIM uses, bought rival Airtel-Vodafone in 2024. In October 2025 the regulator moved to award 700 MHz and 3.6 GHz spectrum to Sure and JT, with a 5G rollout across Guernsey, Alderney and Sark expected to begin in 2026, so 5G is still building here.

### Guernsey: quick facts

| Fact | Guernsey |
| --- | --- |
| Emergency number | 999 or 112 |
| Main airports | Guernsey Airport (GCI) |
| Plug types | Type G (230V) |
| Currency | Pound sterling (GBP); Guernsey pound notes and coins also circulate |
| Apps worth having | Aurigny, WhatsApp, Google Maps |

### Sure, JT and Airtel-Vodafone in the Bailiwick

(Guernsey · https://viasimo.com/destinations/guernsey/#guide-sure-jt-and-airtel-vodafone-in-the-bailiwick)

For years Guernsey had three mobile networks. Regulator figures from 2020 gave **Sure** about 55% of the market, **Airtel-Vodafone** about 24% and **JT** about 21%, with Airtel-Vodafone offering data-based services only. Sure, owned by Bahrain's Batelco and now trading under the Beyon group, completed its purchase of Airtel-Vodafone in November 2024. Coop Mobile is also active locally.

What this means for you:

- Your eSIM connects to **Sure**, the incumbent with the largest share of mobile customers across the Bailiwick, which covers Guernsey, Alderney, Sark and Herm.
- Guernsey is part of the UK's telephone numbering plan. Local mobiles use +44 numbers and landlines use the **01481** area code, so a Guernsey number looks like a UK one. That does not mean your UK plan treats the island as the UK: Guernsey is a Crown Dependency and operators set their own roaming terms for it.
- Because your eSIM is data only, calls to local restaurants, taxis and ferry offices go through your home SIM at whatever rate your operator charges for Guernsey. Booking online or by messaging app avoids that.

### Guernsey's 5G timetable: spectrum awards in 2025, rollout from 2026

(Guernsey · https://viasimo.com/destinations/guernsey/#guide-guernsey-s-5g-timetable-spectrum-awards-in-2025-rollout-from-2026)

5G arrives late in the Channel Islands. In October 2025 the **Guernsey Competition and Regulatory Authority (GCRA)** said it intended to approve applications from **JT (Guernsey)** and **Sure (Guernsey)** for spectrum in the **700 MHz and 3.6 GHz** bands, the two main 5G bands. Final licences are issued by the UK regulator Ofcom on the GCRA's recommendation, and the GCRA said rollout across Guernsey, Alderney and Sark was **expected to begin in 2026**.

For a visit in 2026, that has a few practical effects:

- **4G does most of the work.** Expect 4G to carry your maps, bookings and video calls, and treat any 5G you see as a bonus while masts are upgraded.
- **Coverage changes during the year.** New equipment is going onto existing masts, so recent reviews of where signal is strong may be out of date in either direction.
- **The 700 MHz band matters most for coverage.** Lower frequencies travel further and penetrate buildings better, which is what helps on cliff paths and in granite cottages. Higher-capacity 3.6 GHz is more likely in St Peter Port first.

The GCRA also publishes mast audit results for Guernsey and Herm, Alderney and Sark.

### Flying Aurigny from Guernsey Airport (GCI), including to Alderney

(Guernsey · https://viasimo.com/destinations/guernsey/#guide-flying-aurigny-from-guernsey-airport-gci-including-to-alderney)

**Guernsey Airport (GCI)** is in the parish of Forest, about 2.5 nautical miles south-west of St Peter Port, and is run by the States of Guernsey. **Aurigny**, the island-owned airline, is based there and flies to Alderney, Jersey, London Gatwick, London City, Birmingham, Bristol, Edinburgh, Exeter, Manchester, Southampton and Paris Charles de Gaulle, with seasonal routes such as Dublin and Grenoble. **British Airways** flies to London Heathrow.

The Alderney hop is short and popular: about 29,573 passengers used it in 2025, making it the airport's seventh-busiest route. A few things to sort on your phone before you fly:

- Aircraft on island routes are small, and fog regularly delays or cancels flights. Turn on notifications in the Aurigny app or by email so you hear about changes before you set off for the airport.
- If you are heading to Alderney, check whether your data plan covers it. It is part of the Bailiwick of Guernsey but a separate island with its own masts.
- Save boarding passes to your phone's wallet, so they work without data at the gate.

The airport is close enough to St Peter Port that a taxi or bus ride is short, but book transport ahead in summer.

### Sources for the Guernsey guide

- [GCRA press release: JT and Sure spectrum awards (October 2025)](https://www.gcra.gg/sites/default/files/media-release/Press%20Release%20-%20JT%20%20Sure%20Spectrum%20Awards%2010_10_2025.pdf)
- [Mobile networks – Guernsey Competition and Regulatory Authority](https://www.gcra.gg/consumers/mobile-networks)
- [Telecommunications in Guernsey – Wikipedia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Telecommunications_in_Guernsey)
- [Sure (company) – Wikipedia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sure_(company))
- [Guernsey Airport – Wikipedia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Guernsey_Airport)

## Seven days in the Bailiwick of Guernsey: St Peter Port, Herm, Sark and Alderney

7-day itinerary · 7 days · Source: https://viasimo.com/destinations/guernsey/#itinerary

A slow island week for walkers and history lovers: St Peter Port as a base, Guernsey's cliff paths and west coast bays, the Occupation sites, day trips by boat to Herm and car-free Sark, and a short flight to Alderney.

**When to go:** May to September for calm crossings, open attractions and long evenings; Victor Hugo's Hauteville House and many small museums open only in the main season, and fog can delay flights and ferries at any time of year.

### Day 1 in Guernsey: St Peter Port and Castle Cornet

- **Base:** St Peter Port
- **Getting there:** Guernsey Airport is about 15 minutes by taxi or bus from St Peter Port; ferries from Poole, Portsmouth and St Malo arrive at the town harbour.
- **Plan:** Explore St Peter Port's steep lanes and the covered Market Halls, then walk out along the breakwater to Castle Cornet, which has guarded the harbour for 800 years; a noonday gun is fired daily in season. In the afternoon, visit Hauteville House, where Victor Hugo lived in exile and wrote Les Misérables, and finish in Candie Gardens above the town.
- **Mobile signal:** Sure 4G is reliable across St Peter Port. 5G is only starting to roll out in the Bailiwick, so expect 4G for most of the trip.

### Day 2 in Guernsey: The south coast cliff path

- **Base:** St Peter Port
- **Getting there:** Fermain Bay is about 30 minutes on foot from the town centre.
- **Plan:** Walk the south coast cliff path west from Fermain Bay, a sheltered cove reached by footpath from St Peter Port, past Jerbourg Point and Icart Point towards Petit Bôt Bay. Stop on the way at Saints Bay and Moulin Huet, painted by Renoir in 1883. Take a bus back from the coast road when you are ready; the path has plenty of steps.
- **Mobile signal:** Generally good 4G on the clifftops, but you can lose signal in the deeper wooded valleys and coves such as Petit Bôt.

### Day 3 in Guernsey: Herm

- **Base:** St Peter Port
- **Getting there:** Travel Trident boats from St Peter Port take about 20 minutes.
- **Plan:** Take the morning boat to Herm, a small car-free island about 5 km off Guernsey. Walk the coast path around the island in two to three hours, passing Shell Beach and Belvoir Beach on the east side and the Common in the north. Visit the tiny St Tugual's Chapel, then return to the harbour for a late afternoon boat back to St Peter Port.
- **Mobile signal:** Usable 4G on most of Herm, which is close enough to pick up Guernsey's masts; expect weaker signal on the east-facing beaches.

### Day 4 in Guernsey: The west coast and the Occupation

- **Base:** St Peter Port
- **Plan:** Head inland to the Little Chapel in St Andrew, decorated with broken china and shells, then visit the German Occupation Museum in Forest to understand the island's five years under German rule. In the afternoon, drive or bus to the west coast: Fort Grey's shipwreck museum at Rocquaine Bay, then the beaches at Vazon and Cobo for sunset. At low tide, walk the causeway to Lihou Island, checking the tide times first.
- **Mobile signal:** Good 4G inland and on the west coast. The causeway is tidal, so download the tide tables rather than relying on signal to check them.

### Day 5 in Guernsey: Sark

- **Base:** St Peter Port
- **Getting there:** Ferries from St Peter Port take about 50 minutes.
- **Plan:** Take the ferry to Sark, where cars are banned and you get around by bike, on foot or by horse-drawn carriage. Climb the harbour hill to the village, hire a bike and ride to La Coupée, the narrow ridge linking Sark to Little Sark. Visit the gardens of La Seigneurie, then return in time for the evening sailing. Sark is a dark-sky island, so stay overnight if you can.
- **Mobile signal:** Patchy on Sark, with gaps around the coves and on Little Sark. Agree a meeting point and return boat time with your group before you split up.

### Day 6 in Guernsey: Alderney

- **Base:** Alderney
- **Getting there:** Aurigny flights from Guernsey take about 15 to 20 minutes; there is also a seasonal ferry.
- **Plan:** Fly to Alderney, the northernmost Channel Island. Walk the cobbled main street of St Anne, then follow the coast past Victorian forts and German fortifications to Braye Bay. Visit the Alderney Museum, and in summer look out for gannets on the rock stacks of Les Etacs from the cliffs at the western end of the island. Ride the Alderney Railway if it is running on your day.
- **Mobile signal:** 4G in St Anne and around Braye; expect weaker signal on the more remote cliffs and beaches.

### Day 7 in Guernsey: Back to Guernsey and departure

- **Base:** St Peter Port
- **Getting there:** Aurigny's Alderney flights use small aircraft and fog causes delays, so leave a buffer before onward flights or ferries.
- **Plan:** Fly back to Guernsey in the morning. If you have time before your onward connection, visit Sausmarez Manor in St Martin, home to the same family for centuries, with sculpture gardens and woodland walks. Alternatively, visit La Valette Underground Military Museum in tunnels built during the Occupation, just south of the harbour.
- **Mobile signal:** Good 4G at the airport and in St Peter Port. The tunnels at La Valette have little or no signal.

### Staying connected on this Guernsey route

- Turn on Aurigny flight notifications for the Alderney hop; fog regularly delays small aircraft.
- Guernsey uses +44 numbers but is not in the UK, so check whether your home plan charges roaming here.
- Download tide times for Lihou and the boat timetables for Herm and Sark before you set out.

### Sources for the Guernsey itinerary

- [Visit Guernsey (official tourism site)](https://www.visitguernsey.com/)
- [Visit Sark](https://www.sark.co.uk/)
- [Alderney Airport – Wikipedia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alderney_Airport)
- [Herm Island (official site)](https://www.herm.com/)

## About this eSIM

The thing to get straight before anything else: Guernsey is a Crown Dependency, not part of the United Kingdom and not part of the EU. Mobile plans treat it as its own place, which is why so many visitors arrive expecting their domestic allowance to carry over and discover it does not. Check that Guernsey is named specifically in whatever plan you buy, and check separately whether Jersey and Alderney are included if your trip touches them, because the Channel Islands are not interchangeable.

### Getting online when you land

Sort the profile out before you travel, at home, on wifi you trust. The crossing is short, whether you come by air into Guernsey Airport at Forest or by sea into St Peter Port, and the arrival process is quick enough that you will be outside looking for a bus or a taxi before you have thought about your phone.

Switch the travel line on once you are on the ground and give it a moment to attach. Confirm that data roaming is enabled for that line, not just globally, since that per-line switch is the thing that most often leaves a new eSIM showing signal and moving no data.

Leave your home line running for calls and codes. If you are coming from the UK it is worth actively disabling data on that line for the trip, so your handset does not quietly default back to it out of habit.

### The networks you'll be on

Your phone selects a local network by itself and holds onto it; there is nothing to configure. The island is small, densely populated by rural standards and well served, so expect a normal modern data experience across the built-up parishes rather than anything you need to nurse along.

If the connection sulks after a ferry crossing, where the phone may have spent an hour hunting, airplane mode off and on gives it a clean re-attach. That fixes the majority of post-crossing stalls without a restart.

### Where coverage holds, and where it thins

St Peter Port, St Sampson, the Bridge, Vale and the parishes across the middle of the island are solid, and the road network is short enough that you are rarely far from a populated area. The airport side around Forest and St Andrew is fine.

The south coast cliff path is where it gets interesting. The path itself runs along steep, exposed cliffs cut by deep wooded valleys, and in those valleys, down at Petit Bôt or Moulin Huet, the signal can fall away entirely while it is perfectly fine on the top a few minutes later. The same applies to the old occupation tunnels and bunkers, which are solid rock and concrete and will kill any connection completely.

The smaller islands need realistic expectations. Herm is a short hop and lightly served. Sark has no cars, no street lighting and deliberately little infrastructure, and while you may well get something in the main settlement, it is not a place to rely on being reachable. Alderney is a separate island some distance north and may sit outside what your plan covers at all, so verify before you book that flight. On the water between islands, and out at Lihou when the causeway is under the tide, assume you are offline.

### What you'll actually use data for here

Tides run the day here. The tidal range is enormous, and it determines when the Lihou causeway is walkable, when the bathing pools are usable, when a beach exists at all and when a harbour dries out. Checking tide times is the single most common thing visitors look up.

Ferry and flight schedules come second, particularly the inter-island boats to Herm and Sark, which are weather dependent and change. Weather itself matters for the same reason: sea fog can close the airport and reshuffle a departure with little warning.

Beyond the logistics, you will use data for opening hours, which are shorter and more seasonal than mainland visitors expect, for bus timetables, for booking dinner in St Peter Port during summer, and for reading up on the occupation sites, Castle Cornet and Hauteville House as you go around them.

### Before you fly

Verify your handset is eSIM capable and unlocked, and install the profile before departure. Download an offline map of the whole Bailiwick, including whichever smaller islands you plan to visit; the files are tiny and they cover you on the cliff paths.

Screenshot your accommodation details, ferry bookings and return flight, and take a screenshot of the tide table for your dates rather than relying on looking it up in a valley with no signal.

Bring a plug adapter if you are arriving from outside the UK, since sockets follow the British three-pin pattern. Pack a power bank for long walking days on the coast path, and carry a card plus a little cash, because some smaller places and honesty boxes at farm gates work on cash alone. Finally, if you are heading to Sark, tell people at home in advance that you may simply be out of contact for the day; that is part of the appeal.

## Frequently asked questions

### Does an eSIM work in Guernsey?

Yes. Your Guernsey 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 Sure. 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 Guernsey?

Yes, where it has been deployed. 5G runs on Sure in Guernsey, 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 there 5G in Guernsey?

It is arriving now. In October 2025 the Guernsey Competition and Regulatory Authority moved to award 700 MHz and 3.6 GHz spectrum, the main 5G bands, to JT and Sure, with Ofcom issuing the licences. It said rollout across Guernsey, Alderney and Sark was expected to begin in 2026, so expect 4G to carry most of your data while 5G builds.

### Which mobile networks operate in Guernsey?

Sure is the largest, with about 55% of the market in 2020, and it bought Airtel-Vodafone, which had around 24%, in November 2024. JT, which held about 21%, is the other main network, and Coop Mobile also operates locally. A travel eSIM that uses Sure connects to the island's incumbent network.

### Does Guernsey use UK phone numbers?

Yes. Guernsey is part of the UK's national numbering plan, so it uses the +44 country code and landlines start 01481. But Guernsey is a Crown Dependency, not part of the UK, and mobile operators set their own roaming terms for it. Check your UK plan before assuming calls and data cost the same as at home.

### How do I get from Guernsey to Alderney?

Aurigny runs scheduled flights between Guernsey Airport and Alderney. It is a short and well-used route, with about 29,573 passengers in 2025. Aircraft are small and fog causes delays, so turn on flight notifications. Check whether your data plan covers Alderney too, since it is a separate island within the Bailiwick.

### How much data do I need for 7 days in Guernsey?

For 7 days in Guernsey, Viasimo sells 1 GB for $5.99. 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.

## Information and verification

- **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.
