Using an eSIM in Santorini

What Santorini is like on a phone

People come to Santorini mainly for the caldera view: honeymooners, groups of friends, and cruise passengers ashore for a few hours. The main villages cling to a high cliff looking down into a drowned volcanic crater, while the far side of the island slopes away to much flatter volcanic-sand beaches. Coverage runs along the inhabited rim, but a wall of cliff and the crowd that gathers at one hour of the evening make the experience vary enormously by time of day.

Nach der Landung

Flights land at Thira (JTR), a small building that gets very tight in summer. Boats come in at Athinios, a ferry quay under the cliff with a hairpin road climbing away from it. Cruise passengers are tendered to the old port below Fira and ride the cable car up. Switch the eSIM on before arrival, because every one of those routes ends with you calling a driver or a host straight away. At Athinios when several boats dock at once, the speed drops further than anywhere else on the island.

Wo sich die Abdeckung ändert

The rim villages from Fira round to Oia pick up well, high and facing open space. The paths that drop down the cliff face to lower-level rooms weaken once there is rock overhead. At sunset, when thousands stand together in Oia for the same photograph, the speed falls in a way you feel immediately, and video uploads usually fail until the crowd disperses. The flatter east side and the inland villages are steadier overall.

What a day here costs in data

A Santorini day spends far more on pictures than an ordinary city does, because people take dozens at one spot and upload straight away, on top of the map for a cliff path that is anything but straight, booking a dinner table with a view, and checking boat times. That usually comes to about 1 to 1.5GB a day. Anyone shooting long video and uploading daily should allow noticeably more.

Districts travellers ask about

• Fira — The main rim town with the densest run of shops; good along the upper street, weaker in the lanes that drop down the cliff beneath the terraces above.
• Oia — The northern village where everyone converges for sunset; the hour either side of the sun going down is the busiest the island's network gets.
• Imerovigli — The highest point on the rim and quieter than the two main villages; it picks up well and evening uploads go through more easily here.
• Perissa and Kamari — Black volcanic-sand beaches on the flat, open east side; steadier than the cliff side, though on a full summer afternoon the speed gets shared around.

Day trips out of the city

• The boat to Nea Kameni and the hot springs — The boat crosses open water in the middle of the caldera with nothing built on it, so the connection eases off on the way and returns near the islet; keep the phone dry, because boarding always involves spray.
• Akrotiri and the Red Beach — The excavation sits under a large roof structure, so inside it is much weaker than out; the Red Beach lies beneath red cliffs that block what comes from behind, and picks up less as well.
• Thirassia — The small, very thinly populated island opposite; workable in the village but thinner than the main island. Agree a firm return time before you sail, because there are few crossings and they change by season.