Vodafone eSIM and SIM card for travellers: what each country's Vodafone actually sells

A Vodafone eSIM is something you can buy as a visitor in some countries and not in others, and the difference matters more than the logo. We cover 16 countries where Vodafone sells mobile service. In three of them, Albania, Ireland and Portugal, Vodafone publishes a tourist eSIM you can order online before you arrive. In others the eSIM arrives as a paper voucher in the post, or the page we read never mentions one at all.

The reason is simple. Vodafone Spain, Vodafone Ireland and Vodafone Egypt are separate national companies sharing a brand, each with its own website, prices, currency and ID rules. In Iceland the Vodafone name is run by Sýn. In Hungary the consumer service now appears under the One brand. A Vodafone SIM card bought in one country gives you nothing special in the next.

Everything below comes from our country pages, which read each operator's own site on 8 October 2026. It is desk research, not a test.

Vodafone SIM card and eSIM, country by country

Prices are as read on 8 October 2026 and several were promotions, so check the operator's page before paying.

Where can you buy a Vodafone eSIM as a visitor?

Three countries sell one built for you. Albania's tourist eSIM packs run from a free 1 GB day to 20 GB for 10 days, and they can only be activated through Vodafone's website. Ireland's tourist page is built around a single eSIM plan, Data Unlimited 5G, which you can order and install before or after you land, then switch on with a 20 euro top-up. Portugal's visitor eSIM arrives by email within minutes; its plans are data only, with no minutes or texts.

Spain and the UK are a different case. Neither sells a tourist product, but both offer eSIM on every prepaid plan. Spain prices the eSIM the same as the SIM and activates it by QR code. In the UK you manage the plan in the My Vodafone app, which needs data you may not have on arrival.

Then come the eSIMs that exist on paper. The Netherlands posts a voucher with a QR code and ePIN, or you collect one in a store. The Czech Republic sends its voucher by Czech Post. Germany will sell a CallYa eSIM online, but only after an identity check, and Vodafone's own options for that check (a German ID card's online function, a video call, a post office visit) suit residents better than visitors.

Everywhere else, plan on a physical card or on asking. Australia's visitor page says nothing about eSIM. Egypt's eSIM page never mentions tourists. Greece, Hungary and Iceland gave us nothing we could confirm.

Is there a Vodafone travel eSIM that works across countries?

Not as such. None of the 16 pages describes a Vodafone travel eSIM sold for use across several countries, the way a travel eSIM is. The nearest thing is Portugal's "Portugal and Europe" eSIM, which includes roaming data in the EEA and the UK: 30 GB on the 30 euro, 30-day plan, as the plan card puts it. Portugal's FAQ gives different allowances from the plan cards (25 GB and 45 GB in place of 30 GB and 55 GB), so check the figure at checkout.

Spain's prepaid plans also carry roaming data, from 15 GB on the S plan in the EU and UK to 45 GB on XL. The Czech Tourist SIM caps EU use at 16 GB. Those are national SIMs with roaming allowances, not travel products.

Which Vodafone is the best deal?

If your phone takes an eSIM and you are staying two weeks or more, Ireland is the one we would pick: 20 euros for four weeks of unlimited 5G data, bought before you fly, with 100 any-network minutes thrown in.

On data per euro, Spain is hard to argue with. The S plan is 10 euros for 90 GB, plus an extra 30 GB promotion that day, and the eSIM costs the same as the card. The catch is a 28-day cycle, which is long for a week's holiday, and a page that says nothing about ID.

For a short trip, Albania's packs are the most traveller-shaped. Three days, 3 GB, 600 lek.

Two Vodafone pages are worth treating with suspicion. Portugal's cheapest eSIM, 10 euros for 7 days and 10 GB in Portugal only, was a promotion shown as ending on 31 August 2026, a date that had already passed when we read it. And Romania's English and Romanian pages disagree on the Cartela's starting credit, 4 or 5 EUR against 0 or 5 EUR.

Where Vodafone sells a SIM card at the airport

Five countries name an airport. Vodafone Australia has stores at Sydney, Brisbane and Perth airports. Vodafone Egypt sells its TourSIM at airport stores. Greece has a kiosk at Athens International Airport and at the Fraport-run airports. Ireland lists WHSmith in Dublin Airport Terminal 1 and a SIM vending machine in Terminals 1 and 2, and warns that prices there may differ. In Iceland, Sýn sells starter kits at the 10-11 shop in the Keflavik arrival hall and in the Elko stores.

Hungary is the trap. You can buy a One Instant starter almost anywhere, but a foreign customer cannot activate it online and has to visit a One store. Non-EU/EEA citizens can only use a passport.

What we could not read

Vodafone Turkey's site refused our requests, so we have no Turkish price, pack or rule at all. Vodafone Italia's tourist pages returned only their titles. Iceland's price list, Germany's CallYa tariffs, Greece's bundle prices and Egypt's TourSIM bundles were all missing from what we could read. Those gaps are in the table as gaps, not guesses.

A Vodafone SIM card from home is a different thing

If you already have a Vodafone contract at home, roaming on it abroad is your home company's product, and none of the pages above prices it. The one roaming rule we read for a home market is Vodafone UK's: its pay as you go plans work in the UK and Zone A only, and roaming further afield is handled through paid Extras. For anything else, ask your own Vodafone.

If you would rather skip the shop and the ID questions, a travel eSIM bought before you fly is the alternative; prices are on our cheapest eSIM page.