Seeking help with eSim cards and carriers for traveling mainland Greece and the Greek islands

Just went through this on our recent trip to Greece. Firstly, you need to own your Verizon-bought phone so that it can be unlocked. Without that, you are bound to their roaming plan if you are unable to stick with wifi. They changed their policy earlier this year, where if you bought your phone through them, after 60 days they'd unlock it. Not so anymore.

If that hurdle is overcome, you can add an e-sim app like Airalo (what I used) and it was much more economical and worked like a charm. There are others. Check out some yt vids and see what others have used. Directions on downloading apps without your phone reverting to Verizon and dinging you for roaming are also out there. Best of luck and happy travels!

Note that you can buy Sim/eSim cards that provide both voice and data in various quantities,
or just voice minutes, or just data.

But if you engage the Sim card for voice, you are in essence changing the phone # your
phone is tied to, so any phone calls you originate will not appear to come from your home
phone #, but from the "local" phone # programmed into the eSim. And any phone calls
to your home phone # will not be answerable. This means that you may miss texts for
things like 2-factor authentication.

At the same time, if you leave your home Sim card on for voice, you will incur the daily
Verizon charge as soon as you turn the phone on if it is not in airplane mode. Of course,
you can turn it on just when you need it, but you'll incur Verizon's charge for that day.

You might consider using one phone with the eSim and most of the data needs that you
refer to above, and keeping wi-fi calling at the hotel as an option for dealing with needs
involving your home #.

Your issue is not specific to Greece, and I would be somewhat less worried about which
network provider(s) your Sim has access to (unless you're going to be in some really
rural areas) as opposed to making sure you know exactly what you're getting and what
you're paying for. Last thing you want is a big surprise on your phone bill after you get back.

(note: I think I have this right, but hopefully others will pipe in and confirm or correct. I have
Google Fi, so don't have to deal with any of it)

Been using Esims for the past few years. I have AT&T and their international plan is $12 per day.
I never make phone calls so the extra expense is not worth it.
If phone is unlocked, very easy to download esim prior to arrival.
I normally turn off my primary esim, turn on travel esim.
Peace of mind that you won't be charged for international rates.

Won't be able to receive phone calls or sms texts. iMessages work.

For Greece, going to use sim local based on feedback from FB, connects to 3 carriers vs 1.

Google you tube videos on how to set up eSIM.
Very easy

Our Verizon phones are unlocked, so no problem there. I called Verizon and was told that there would not be a charge for SMS messages with our current calling plan, but we will be charged the $12/day if we respond to the message. We also need to make sure that we have “Data Roaming” turned OFF on the Primary (home) line so we don’t incur data charges by Verizon. (I’ll have to think about whether we would want to set up this option or not. Turning our primary sim off is a sure way to not have to worry about being charged international rates.)

Thanks 'Craigbagspacked' for your suggestion of using Sim Local for Greece. I remember looking at Sim Local, but I have looked at so many eSim – data only plans and reviews, it’s hard to keep them all straight. This is the feedback I was hoping for. I'll look at them again. Do you happen to know if you can add data while on your trip with Sim Local’s esim? (This is not a deal breaker, but I thought I would look into that too…)

Betty, not sure if there is a "top up" option. I plan on buying way more data than I need.
Always buy another plan if you run out of data.
Good luck!