I'm in Greece and about to buy a sim card. Seems the main choices are Vodafone or Cosmote. Is one of these better for traveling in the rest of Europe (like in Italy, France, Germany, Switzerland, etc.)?
Posted by
2498 posts
Posted by
Northamptonshire, England
32921 posts
it may be a third party or local provider in Greece, but for what it is worth (maybe nothing) I have travelled extensively in Italy, France, Germany, Switzerland (and even some of etc. LOL) and I've never seen or heard of Cosmote.
Granted I wasn't looking, but I'm usually fairly observant.
Vodafone is all over Europe.
Posted by
OP
California
75 posts
Good to know.
I was just reading that most data allocations expire in 90 days or so, I guess this is most useful for people spending a lot of time here on one trip. I'm only in Greece on this trip, but will be returning to Europe in the summer--and so I guess any data I have left after this trip will have expired by then...
Posted by
OP
California
75 posts
I clearly have been overthinking this. I stopped by the Cosmote store and they gave me a sim with 12 GB for only 12 Euros. I popped it into my phone and it works great. It will be more than enough for me for the time I'm here in Greece and was inexpensive enough that it really wasn't worth worrying about whether something was "better." If it doesn't work or as expired by this summer, I can just buy a different sim from Vodafone or another company...
Posted by
Louisville, Ky
207 posts
I used Cosmote without issue this summer in Greece. I was in three different parts of the country and driving between two of them.
I chose it based on this mapping that shows extent of coverage for the various carriers in different areas of Greece
https://www.nperf.com/en/map/GR/-/7814.Cosmote-Mobile/signal/?ll=38.35306967336674&lg=24.490000000000013&zoom=6
Posted by
OP
California
75 posts
Wanted to provide an update: The Cosmote SIM cards we got worked great during our trip in Greece.
But flashforward 5 months to the present. I'm about to leave to for England and France and wanted to see if I can use my existing Cosmote SIM cards. I understand they should work at least in France. But I'm finding the web site and app impossible to navigate. You pretty much need to be fluent in Greek-and the way they have their web site configured, auto-translate doesn't work. Using a phone with the Google Translate camera function helped, but it seems that even after only 5 months my PIN number (and presumably the account with it) are "expired."
I guess I will just need to toss them in the trash. In retrospect I should have gone with Vodafone, and that is what I'll try to get to replace them.
Edit: We're leaving for Europe in a day--Going to start with London, than take the train to Paris, and moving on to other E.U. destinations. It looks like the Vodafone SIM cards you get in London on a "pay as you go" bundle do NOT provide coverage in the E.U. You can get coverage but it's pretty short and (relatively) expensive. I'm seeing 10 pounds for 8 days. So unless someone has a better suggestion, it looks like it makes sense to just buy the cheapest "pay as you go" data only bundle in London, and then buy different SIM's in Paris when we get there. (Sadly, our phones do not support eSIM. For people who have phones that support eSIM, I understand that is the best option.)
Posted by
358 posts
I have an unlocked GSM phone that I use in Europe and Mexico. I have used TIM in past trips to Italy and seemed to work well. Last September I bought a vodaphone in Italy because the TIM stores had short hours and very long lines. So I bought a Vodafone sim and was happy, especially when using it to navigate walking.
In Denmark I have found the Lebara sim to be the best .
I take my US phone with me but keep it in accommodation, it has information that is far too valuable to risk it being lost or stolen .