Best eSIM for Greece

Activate dual SIM mode on your phone before landing in Athens so your home number stays active for banking verification codes and two-factor authentication. Assign your eSIM as the primary data line and keep your domestic SIM for incoming SMS only — this avoids roaming charges while ensuring you never miss a security alert from your bank during transactions in euros.

Greece operates on UTC+02:00 (UTC+03:00 in summer), which means it is one hour ahead of Paris, seven hours ahead of New York, and just two hours behind Dubai. Keep this in mind when scheduling video calls home. For local calls, all Greek numbers use the country code +30, and landlines in Athens typically start with 21. Download Google Translate with the Greek offline language pack before your trip — the Greek alphabet can make reading road signs and restaurant menus surprisingly tricky for visitors.

If you plan to rent a car and explore the Peloponnese or drive from Thessaloniki to Meteora, download offline maps in Google Maps or Maps.me while connected to hotel Wi-Fi. Greece drives on the right, but mountain roads on islands like Crete have narrow curves where reliable GPS guidance is essential. An eSIM for Europe with consistent data access makes real-time navigation far more dependable than spotty café Wi-Fi along the way.

Picking up a physical SIM card at Athens International Airport (Eleftherios Venizelos) is possible from Cosmote, Vodafone, or Nova kiosks located in the arrivals hall. However, Greek regulations require you to present a valid passport or EU ID for registration, and queues during peak summer months can stretch past 30 minutes. At smaller gateways like Thessaloniki Airport Makedonia or island airports in Mykonos and Santorini, operator shops are limited or absent entirely.

Free Wi-Fi is available in most Athens hotels and popular café chains, but signal quality drops significantly on remote islands like Milos or Naxos. Public Wi-Fi hotspots in ferry terminals and bus stations across the Peloponnese tend to be slow and unreliable. Pocket Wi-Fi rental services exist in Athens but remain uncommon compared to destinations in Asia, and daily fees often exceed €8.

EU roaming regulations keep costs manageable for European travelers, but visitors from outside the EU can face charges above €10 per GB. An eSIM eliminates airport detours, passport checks, and language barriers in local shops — you activate your plan before landing. If your trip extends to neighboring countries, options like an eSIM for Albania offer the same hassle-free convenience across borders.