Athens Airport SIM Card: Where to Buy One and What It Costs
Your flight lands at Athens International Airport, Eleftherios Venizelos, close to midnight. You need a taxi app or a bus route, your hotel address, and a way to tell your host you are late. Any airport Wi-Fi stays behind once you board the bus into town. So can you still buy a SIM card at this hour?
The short answer for an Athens airport SIM card: Vodafone says its SIM cards are sold at Sim Local kiosks in arrivals, both in baggage reclaim and on the public side after the exit. Vodafone gives no hours, and the airport's website would not open for us, so we cannot promise a kiosk will be open when you land. Bring your passport, and make sure your phone has a SIM tray and is unlocked. If you land late or your iPhone is eSIM only, set up data before you fly.
In short:
- Vodafone's June 2025 list of airport kiosks names Sim Local kiosks at Athens, in Arrivals, landside and in the baggage reclaim area. It lists no hours.
- Vodafone's prepaid price list, in force from June 18, 2026, has 15 GB for 7 days at €5.40. The price of the SIM card itself is not listed.
- Vodafone asks visitors for a valid passport or ID.
- The X95 bus to Syntagma costs €5.50 and runs 24 hours a day, per OASA, the Athens transit authority. You can pay by tapping a bank card.
Greece eSIM from $3.50Install at home, connect when you land.See plans
We sell eSIMs, so we have a stake in this comparison. We have not tried these kiosks or networks ourselves. Prices and rules come from the pages under Sources, checked November 6, 2026, unless we say otherwise.
Where to buy a SIM card at Athens Airport
Vodafone's page for tourists tells you to buy at its "kiosk at Athens International Airport." The link on that page opens a one-page PDF of airport kiosks, dated June 2025 in its file name. For Athens, it does not show a Vodafone-branded kiosk. It shows Sim Local kiosks.
| Point | Where Vodafone puts it | Hours | What it sells |
|---|---|---|---|
| Sim Local kiosk | Arrivals, baggage reclaim area | Not listed | Vodafone SIM cards, per Vodafone |
| Sim Local kiosk | Arrivals, landside | Not listed | Vodafone SIM cards, per Vodafone |
The baggage reclaim kiosk comes first. Look for it while you wait for your bags, because once you walk through the exit doors you may not be able to go back. The landside kiosk, in the public arrivals area, is your second chance.
What we could not confirm:
- Hours and exact spot. Vodafone's list has neither. The airport's website, aia.gr, refused our requests on November 6, 2026, so we could not read its shop pages. Travel blogs print hours, but we found no first-hand source.
- Telekom (Cosmote) and Nova. A search of their sites showed no store at the airport. Telekom's page for travelers came back empty for us.
- An eSIM at the kiosk. The Vodafone pages we read do not say whether the kiosk can issue one.
Flying on to Crete, Corfu, or Thessaloniki?
The same Vodafone list names kiosks at five more Greek airports. It gives no hours for these either.
| Airport | Kiosk | Where |
|---|---|---|
| Heraklion | OneXchange | Arrivals, landside and baggage reclaim area |
| Chania | Vodafone | Arrivals, landside |
| Corfu | Vodafone | Arrivals, baggage reclaim area |
| Thessaloniki | Vodafone | Arrivals at Terminals 1 and 2, landside |
| Zakynthos | Vodafone | Arrivals, baggage reclaim area |
What you need at the kiosk
- A passport. Vodafone asks for a valid passport or ID. Greek law also requires your identity details before a line can be turned on, as our Greece SIM card guide explains. Carry the physical passport.
- A phone with a SIM tray. Apple says iPhone 14 and later models bought in the US are eSIM only, so a plastic SIM will not fit. Our iPhone guide lists the models.
- An unlocked phone. A phone locked to a US carrier can refuse a Greek SIM. Check your phone before you go.
- A test before you pay. Ask the staff to put the SIM in and load a page. Our airport SIM checklist has more.
Athens airport SIM card price
Vodafone's tourist page points visitors to its Vodafone International prepaid packs. The price list for them is in Greek, dated May 2026, and in force from June 18, 2026. Prices include 24% VAT. These are the data packs:
| Pack | Data | Valid for | Price |
|---|---|---|---|
| Data Day | 15 GB | 24 hours | €1.20 |
| Data Week | 15 GB | 7 days | €5.40 |
| Data Unlimited Week | Unlimited | 7 days | €7 |
| 50GB | 50 GB | 14 days | €18.10 |
| 300GB | 300 GB | 21 days | €31.80 |
| Surf & Email | 20 GB | 30 days | €13.50 |
The price list leaves out three things that matter at the counter:
- The price of the SIM card. It is not on the list.
- The kiosk price. Nothing says Sim Local charges list prices. Ask for the total before you pay.
- Data in other EU countries. The list does not say how much of a pack works outside Greece.
One more line to know. If your pack runs out, the list charges €2.20 a day for unlimited data, and that day runs until 4 a.m.
Nova's prepaid prices are in our Greece SIM card guide. We found no Nova point at the airport.
How this compares with us. On price per GB, Vodafone wins by far. Its 15 GB week is €5.40, and our 5 GB plan is $9.50. If you land by day, your phone takes a SIM, and the kiosk is open, buy there. You get a Greek number too.
Does Athens Airport have free Wi-Fi?
We could not confirm it. The airport's website refused our requests, so we cannot give you a network name, a time limit, or where the signal ends.
So plan as if you will have no data from the gate to your hotel:
- Save your hotel address and booking as screenshots before you fly.
- Download an offline map of Athens.
- Write down your bus or train, and the stop where you get off.
If you do find a free network and its login page does not appear, our guide to a Wi-Fi login page not showing has fixes.
Getting into Athens without data
You can reach the center without a working phone. OASA lets you pay full fares by tapping a contactless bank card, with no ticket bought in advance. These fares come from OASA's price list and airport bus page:
| Option | Where it goes | Price | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| X95 bus | Syntagma Square, metro lines 2 and 3 | €5.50 | About 60 minutes, runs 24 hours |
| X96 bus | Port of Piraeus | €5.50 | About 90 minutes, runs 24 hours |
| Metro, airport ticket | Into the city | €9, or €16 round trip | Single ticket good for 90 minutes |
| Suburban railway | Magoula, Piraeus, and Airport route | €9, same ticket as the metro | OASA says the metro airport tickets are valid on it |
A few rules from OASA:
- The €5.50 bus ticket covers one airport bus ride only.
- The €9 metro ticket does not work on the airport buses.
- The round-trip metro ticket is valid for 30 days.
- The €20 tourist ticket runs for 3 times 24 hours and includes one trip from the airport and one back.
Catching a ferry? The X96 goes to the port of Piraeus. STASY, the metro operator, refused our requests, so check train times at the station.
Roaming with Verizon or AT&T
Both carriers charge by the day, checked November 4, 2026:
- Verizon TravelPass lists $12 a day in most countries, with 5 GB of high-speed data per session, then 3G speeds. Background data can start a session on its own.
- AT&T International Day Pass is $12 a day, plus $6 for each extra line used the same calendar day. The 24 hours start with your first data use, text, or call.
Confirm Greece in your carrier app. A week of passes is $84, against $9.50 for our 5 GB plan, though a pass keeps your US number working for calls. Our TravelPass comparison and Day Pass comparison go deeper. If your US plan already includes Greece, keep it.
When an eSIM makes more sense
An eSIM installs at home over Wi-Fi with a QR code, so you are not waiting on a kiosk when you land. Days count from your first connection in Greece. It fits best when:
- You land late. No kiosk hours are published.
- Your iPhone has no SIM tray. A plastic card is no use.
- Your trip is short or light on data. You do not need 15 GB.
Our Greece plans, on November 6, 2026:
| Data | Valid for | Price |
|---|---|---|
| 1 GB | 7 days | $3.50 |
| 3 GB | 30 days | $7 |
| 5 GB | 30 days | $9.50 |
| 10 GB | 30 days | $15.50 |
| 20 GB | 30 days | $32 |
For size, use a cautious rule: 1 GB is about 5 hours of maps and taxi apps, or about 1.5 hours of video calls. A week with 2 hours of maps a day is about 3 GB. Our data guide has more, and you can add data to the same eSIM.
It is data only. Your US number stays on as a second line for bank texts, as our guide on keeping your US number abroad explains. Your phone must support eSIM and be unlocked.
Skip it if you land by day with an unlocked phone that takes a SIM and you want a lot of data.
Questions
Can I buy a SIM card at Athens airport?
Yes, per Vodafone. Its June 2025 list puts Sim Local kiosks in Arrivals, in the baggage reclaim area and landside. Bring your passport.
Is there a Cosmote store at Athens airport?
We found none. A search of Telekom's site, where cosmote.gr now sends you, showed no airport store, and the airport's shop pages would not open for us.
Does Athens airport have free Wi-Fi?
We could not confirm it, because aia.gr refused our requests. Plan for no data between the gate and your hotel.
How much is a SIM card at Athens airport?
The kiosks publish no prices. On Vodafone's list, 15 GB for 7 days is €5.40, plus the SIM card, whose price is not listed.
Can I buy a SIM card at Athens airport at night?
We cannot say, because no page we could read gives kiosk hours. If you land late, set up an eSIM before you fly.
Sources
- Vodafone Greece, prepaid SIM for tourists, checked 2026-11-06
- Vodafone Greece, SIM card kiosks at airport locations, June 2025 (PDF), checked 2026-11-06
- Vodafone Greece, Vodafone International, checked 2026-11-06
- Vodafone Greece, Vodafone International price list, May 2026, in force from 2026-06-18 (PDF, in Greek), checked 2026-11-06
- OASA, prices of products, checked 2026-11-06
- OASA, airport express bus lines, checked 2026-11-06
- Apple, which type of SIM your iPhone uses, checked 2026-10-30
- Verizon, TravelPass FAQs, checked 2026-11-04
- AT&T, International Day Pass, checked 2026-11-04