Xena Kat’s Guide to Using Your Phone in Greece 📱🇬🇷

Before you leave for Greece, FIGURE OUT WHAT YOU’RE DOING WITH YOUR PHONE. 😂 Do not wait until you land in Athens, turn off airplane mode and start pushing buttons to see what happens. Check with your cell phone provider before you leave and find out exactly what your international plan includes, how much it costs per day, whether calls and texts are included and how much high-speed data you get. Depending on your carrier, how long you're traveling and how important it is to keep your regular number working, it may make perfect sense to simply keep your normal phone service active.

We use Verizon, and for us the international charge has been around $10 a day per phone. That may not be the cheapest possible way to have phone service in Greece, especially when we're staying for several weeks, but I have businesses at home and I NEED MY PHONE TO WORK. 😂 I need clients, family and other important people to be able to call and text the same number they've always used. For me, paying the extra money can be completely worth it. Sometimes saving money isn't worth making your life more complicated.

An eSIM is a great option if you do not need people to contact you while you are away, and depending on how long you're staying, it can save quite a bit of money. We tried Vodafone in Greece, and the pricing can make a lot of sense for an extended stay. We actually found that the Vodafone service worked in some areas where our U.S. phones didn't have service, which was another unexpected benefit.

I especially think an eSIM can make sense for kids and teenagers who NEED their phones because apparently surviving Greece without social media would be completely unreasonable. 😂 They probably aren't waiting for business calls or important clients to reach them on their regular U.S. number. They want data. They want Instagram, TikTok, Snapchat, messaging, YouTube and whatever socials they are using and makes their phone battery mysteriously disappear by lunchtime. 😂 For them, paying a daily international fee instead of $30 a week, just to maintain their regular U.S. service may not make as much sense as getting an eSIM with plenty of data.

One thing we learned, though, is to understand what is happening to everyone's regular phone number when you set up the eSIM. Some travel eSIMs are data-only, while others may give you a local Greek number. Depending on your phone, carrier and how you configure the two SIMs, your regular U.S. number may still be available or calls and messages to it may not work the way they normally do. In our case, switching things around definitely complicated regular calls and messages.

If someone gets a Greek phone number, SAVE THAT NUMBER in everyone else's phone. 😂 Don't assume you're going to remember which random Greek number belongs to which child. Put it into your contacts as soon as everything is set up and make sure everyone in the group has the numbers they may need. If their regular U.S. number isn't active with the setup you're using, calling or texting that old number obviously isn't going to help you when you're trying to find them.

The nice thing is that setting up an eSIM is generally pretty easy on a compatible phone, and when the trip is over, you can remove the travel eSIM from the phone. Just make sure the regular line is set up properly again before deleting anything you might still need. This is another reason I would rather deal with the setup when everyone is together and connected to Wi-Fi instead of trying to troubleshoot six phones while somebody is yelling that we're late for dinner. 😂

You also don't necessarily have to make the same decision for everyone in the family. Mix and match based on what each person actually needs. Someone like me who needs to remain reachable for businesses at home may be better off keeping normal U.S. service active. A teenager who primarily wants data may be perfect for an eSIM. Another adult may be able to keep their U.S. line available for calls and texts while using an eSIM for data, depending on the phone and carrier. Check your particular phone and provider before you leave because there are several ways to configure dual-SIM phones, and you don't want to accidentally trigger international charges you were trying to avoid.

And here's something I REALLY recommend if you're going to be driving around Greece: DOWNLOAD YOUR MAPS BEFORE YOU GO. 🗺️

Do not assume you're going to have cell service everywhere. Make sure you are charging and bring extra chargers. You’re phone will die fast!!

You may have fantastic service for most of the trip and then suddenly be driving through a mountain, a tiny village or some remote stretch of Greece and your phone decides, GOOD LUCK, KAT. YOU'RE ON YOUR OWN. 😂. Download offline maps for the areas where you'll be traveling while you have Wi-Fi. I would do this whether you're using your regular U.S. carrier OR a Greek eSIM because cell service is never guaranteed. This is especially important when you're driving outside Athens or exploring the islands and mainland. Greece has mountains, rural areas and plenty of places where you don't want to discover that your navigation disappeared right when you needed to know which tiny road you were supposed to turn onto.

I would also screenshot or download anything important before you head out—hotel addresses, ferry information, reservations and anything else you absolutely need to access. Technology has a wonderful way of failing at exactly the moment you need it most. 😂

My biggest advice is simply to figure out your phone plan BEFORE YOU GO. Check what your U.S. carrier charges, multiply the daily fee by the number of days you're traveling and compare that with the cost of an eSIM. Then think beyond the price. Do you need your regular U.S. number? Are clients or important people going to be calling you? Do you mostly need data? Are you traveling with teenagers who really only need their phones for social media and messaging? How long will you be in Greece? There isn't one answer for everyone.

Just make sure everybody can reach everybody, save those Greek numbers, download your maps and have the whole phone situation figured out BEFORE you leave WIFI. 😂📱🇬🇷❤️