Vodafone Egypt eSIM, and Orange, e& and WE: can a tourist really get one?

Part of our Egypt eSIM guide: all articles and key facts →

A Vodafone Egypt eSIM is a real product, but Vodafone's own page sends buyers to its stores or its eShop, and the eShop listed no eSIM when we checked; nothing on the page is aimed at visitors buying before they fly. The same goes for Orange, e& and WE. We read the four operators' official pages on 1 October 2026 to answer what travellers actually ask: can a tourist get one, where, with which documents, at what price, and is it better than a travel eSIM?

Can a tourist buy a Vodafone Egypt eSIM?

Not online on 1 October 2026, and Vodafone's pages never say a tourist can get one; the only tourist product Vodafone describes is a SIM sold in its stores. Vodafone's eSIM page says you can buy an eSIM "through any of our stores or through our eShop", at 350 EGP for a new line or 300 EGP to swap an existing physical SIM. When we searched the Vodafone eShop for eSIM on 1 October 2026, it returned no result.

The same page says that changing an existing line to eSIM requires the number to be "linked to your national ID", a document visitors do not have. The page does not mention tourists, passports or the Tourist Line.

Vodafone's Tourist Line page describes a separate product, "eligible for tourists visiting Egypt only", that you get as a "TourSIM" from the Vodafone airport store or any Vodafone retail store. It says the line includes a data bundle, international minutes and local minutes, but gives no price, volume, validity or eSIM option.

In practice, then, a visitor who wants a Vodafone line goes to a store in Egypt and asks. Whether the clerk can issue the tourist line as an eSIM is not answered on any official page we read.

What do Vodafone, Orange, e& and WE officially offer?

All four sell eSIMs to their own customers for similar fees, and three publish a tourist offer, but none links the two. The table sums up the operators' own pages, read on 1 October 2026. Euro equivalents use 1 EUR = 59.02 EGP, the market rate on that day.

The operator sections below quote each page. Our guide to every way to get internet in Egypt compares local SIMs with roaming, Wi-Fi and travel eSIMs.

Vodafone Egypt: eSIM for residents, TourSIM for visitors

Vodafone sells eSIMs at 350 EGP for a new line, but its tourist product is described as a SIM card. Beyond the prices, its eSIM page gives two details that matter to a visitor. The QR code "is valid for 5 days only", so it has to be scanned soon after purchase. Activation is done from the phone's settings with a Wi-Fi connection, which suits someone already in Egypt.

The Tourist Line is managed by dialling *6060#, where you check the balance and buy the bundle again. Outside the bundle, Vodafone charges 0.19 EGP per local minute or SMS and 0.19 EGP per megabyte. At that rate, 1,000 MB of out-of-bundle data would cost 190 EGP, about €3.22, which is why a bundle matters more than credit.

Vodafone's Visiting Egypt page adds a helpline: dial 2121, around the clock, for assistance in Arabic, English, German, French, Spanish, Russian or Italian. It lists no price either.

Orange Egypt: "including tourists", but also "valid residence"

Orange's page says tourists are eligible for an eSIM, then says foreigners need valid residence. Its eSIM page answers "Who is eligible for eSIM?" with "All new and existing customers are eligible for eSIM, including tourists." Further down, it answers "Can a foreigner get an eSIM from Orange?" with "Yes, foreigners with valid residence can get an eSIM through Orange shops."

The page does not reconcile the two answers, and it does not say whether a tourist visa counts as "valid residence", so ask in the shop before relying on either. The fees are clear: 350 EGP for a new eSIM line, 300 EGP to change a physical SIM to an eSIM, and 300 EGP to move from one eSIM to another.

For a new line, the page's FAQ says to visit an Orange shop, although its introduction says new or existing customers can use the Orange Max it app or a shop. The app route it describes asks you to scan your ID front and back. The page also says a customer can hold up to 10 eSIM profiles, depending on the phone. Orange's "Holidays Line" page, which still appears in search results, showed only its title when we read it, so we found no official Orange tourist price.

e& Egypt: Traveler bundles, and an eSIM that downloads only in Egypt

e& publishes the clearest tourist prices of the four, and the clearest limit on its eSIM. Its Traveling to Egypt page lists four bundles "only for tourists visiting Egypt", with prices that include tax:

The 450 and 600 bundles can be renewed three times by dialling *620#, and unused megabytes carry over when you renew. The 200 and 300 bundles cannot be renewed. The page does not state how long each bundle lasts, and it does not mention an eSIM.

The e& eSIM page sets the fee at 350 EGP for a new line, including VAT, and 367.72 EGP for a swap. Activation starts with "Visit our store". Its general rules add two constraints: "The eSIM profile can only be downloaded from within the Arab Republic of Egypt", and the QR code is valid for 5 days from purchase. Switching through the My e& app is described as a right of "Egyptian customers".

WE: Mobile Egypt plans, eSIM at a branch

WE sells two tourist plans and an eSIM, but the eSIM needs a branch visit and a call to validate your data. Its Mobile Egypt page lists two plans valid for 30 days, renewable, "only available for tourists visiting Egypt":

• Mobile Egypt 100: 5,000 MB, 60 local minutes and 20 international minutes for 100 EGP.
• Mobile Egypt 300: 20,000 MB, 120 local minutes and 60 international minutes for 300 EGP.

Both prices are "tax exclusive", so the till price is higher. After the bundle runs out, WE says you keep "free unlimited internet" at a throttled speed, without giving the speed. Extra data packages can be added, SMS cost 0.19 EGP, and help is on *444# or 544.

The WE eSIM page gives a retail price of 330 EGP for a new line and 270 EGP for a SIM swap, taxes included. You visit the nearest WE branch, pay, scan the QR code, then call 111 "for user data validation" before the line is activated. Like e&, WE states that the eSIM profile "can only be downloaded within Egypt", with a single-use QR code valid for five days.

One technical point matters for WE: according to the list of network codes on Wikipedia, its network runs only 4G and 5G, with no 2G or 3G layer. WE is also the fastest network in Egypt in Opensignal's February 2026 report, at 25.5 Mbps average download, yet none of the travel eSIMs we checked uses it.

What does Egyptian law require to buy a line?

A foreigner must appear in person with an original passport and a residency document. The regulator's SIM sales regulations say a foreign customer visits an operator branch, shows "his own original valid passport and residency document", and signs the contract in person. The agent keeps a colour copy of both documents.

The same rules tie the line to your stay: the operator must link the SIM's validity to your residency period, and the SIM "will be disconnected after one month of the end of the residency period" if no new document is shown. A foreigner may register up to 5 voice lines and 5 data lines per operator.

The regulation does not say which document counts as residency for a tourist, and the operators' tourist pages do not list documents at all. The practical reading is simple: take your physical passport to the store, and expect the line to last only as long as your stay.

Can you install an Egyptian operator eSIM before you fly?

Not on the official terms we read: the purchase is in a store, and e& and WE allow the download only inside Egypt; Vodafone and Orange do not state that limit either way. Add the 5-day validity of the QR codes at Vodafone, e& and WE, and an Egyptian operator eSIM is something you set up after landing, not before.

That has a cost on arrival day. You land without mobile data, find a store or an airport kiosk, wait, show your passport, and connect to Wi-Fi to download the profile. A travel eSIM works the other way round: you buy it online, install it at home over your own Wi-Fi, and switch it on after landing, as our Egypt eSIM installation guide shows.

Is a local eSIM cheaper than a travel eSIM?

On paper, yes, by a wide margin; in practice, the savings come with a store visit, paperwork and unknowns. e&'s Traveler 300 gives 12 GB for 300 EGP, about €5.08, and WE's Mobile Egypt 300 gives 20,000 MB for 300 EGP before tax. If a store issued a tourist bundle on a new eSIM line, the eSIM fee would come on top: Traveler 300 plus a 350 EGP e& line would make 650 EGP, about €11.01.

Travel eSIMs cost more for the data. On 1 October 2026, a 7-day unlimited plan cost €23.69 at Nomad, €24.50 at Yesim and €29 at Airalo, and Yesim sold 10 GB valid 30 days for €15, a promotional price (€29 before the discount). The comparison database esimdb put the median 7-day Egypt-only plan with a daily full-speed allowance of at least 1 GB at €24.77.

What the travel eSIM buys is time and certainty: no queue, no documents, no question about whether a store will issue an eSIM, and data from the minute you land. A local line buys an Egyptian number and more gigabytes per pound, which makes most sense for a long stay.

Which travel eSIMs run on Vodafone, Orange or e&?

If you searched for a Vodafone or Orange eSIM because you want that network, several travel eSIMs give it to you without a store visit. These are the networks each provider named for Egypt on 1 October 2026, with the 7-day unlimited price in the currency it sells in:

Among the three networks travel eSIMs use, Vodafone had the fastest average download in Opensignal's February 2026 report (17.3 Mbps, against 16.4 for e& and 13.8 for Orange), and Orange spent the most time with a signal (97.7%). Neither is best everywhere, which is why a plan with more than one network gives a useful fallback.

eSIM Égypte, a partner of this site, is the only provider in the table that names all three, with automatic selection. That is its clear advantage. It is not the cheap option: €33 for 7 days sits above the €24.77 market median, above Nomad, Yesim and Airalo, and above Ubigi's 8-day plan (€27), its full-speed allowance is about 1 GB a day, and it sells no top-up. It also costs €0.90 less than Holafly for a week, on three networks instead of one.

Will your foreign phone owe customs fees with an Egyptian SIM?

Not during a holiday of under 90 days: the regulator keeps a 90-day exemption for tourists. The NTRA's notice of 20 January 2026 ended the customs exemption for phones carried by passengers from 12:00 on 21 January 2026, adding that "the exemption will continue to apply to mobile phones of Egyptians living abroad and to tourists for a period of 90 days".

For others, the notice gives a 90-day grace period from the phone's activation to pay the taxes, through the "Telephony" app, banks or e-wallets, and it cancels the registration of personal phones at customs offices. Its hotline is 15380.

Khaleej Times reported on 21 January 2026 that foreign visitors can use their devices with a foreign SIM card without paying any fees, and that a phone with an Egyptian tourist SIM is exempt for 90 days per stay. The NTRA notice does not mention travel eSIMs, and no source we found says what happens to a tourist's phone after 90 days.

Can you keep your home number with a local eSIM?

Yes, on a dual-SIM phone, and that matters for bank codes. A Vodafone, Orange, e& or WE line gives you an Egyptian number for local calls and for drivers or guides who prefer to phone. Your home SIM or eSIM can stay active alongside it, with data roaming off, to receive SMS codes.

A travel eSIM works the same way but without an Egyptian number: data only. Our guide to running two eSIMs at the same time explains how to set which line carries data and which carries calls.

Which option should you choose?

• A holiday of up to two weeks: a travel eSIM installed at home. Choose by network and daily data: Airalo for Vodafone, Holafly for Orange, Yesim or Ubigi for e& and Orange, eSIM Égypte for all three.
• A month or more, or you need an Egyptian number: a local line from an operator store, with your passport. e& and WE publish the clearest tourist prices.
• You want WE, the fastest network: only a local WE line gives it; no travel eSIM we checked uses it.
• A Red Sea resort: see our guides to Hurghada and Sharm el-Sheikh.

Whichever you pick, your phone must support eSIM and be unlocked: read do you need an unlocked phone for a travel eSIM, check the list of compatible phones and the iPhone 15 or Galaxy S24 pages, or use the free eSIM Check app on Android, which reads your device's real hardware capabilities in seconds. Our Egypt eSIM guide gathers all our Egypt articles.