EE roaming in Egypt cost vs eSIM? EE is £8 a day or £40 a week; an Egypt eSIM costs about £2 to £7 for a week of data

For a week in Sharm el-Sheikh or Hurghada, EE costs £8 a day or £40 for a 7-day Zone 2 pass. O2 is £7 a day with O2 Travel (£49 for 7 days), Vodafone £8 a day (£56) and Three £42 for a 7-day pass. A UKRoamFree Egypt eSIM on Orange Egypt costs $2.99 to $9.49 (about £2.25 to £7.13) for a typical week of data. A local Vodafone Egypt tourist SIM is another option, but we found no official bundle price.

Egypt sits in the expensive zone of every big UK network. All four now sell a day or week of your normal UK allowance rather than charging per MB. The figures below come from each network's own roaming page or price guide, opened on 12 November 2026.

Egypt roaming: EE, O2, Vodafone and Three side by side

Option	Egypt zone	Price	7 days in Sharm or Hurghada	What you get
EE	Zone 2	£8 per 24-hour pass, £40 for 7 days	£40	Your UK calls, texts and data. Passes are bought from a link EE texts you when you land
O2	O2 Travel destination	£7 a day, only on days you use it	£49	Unlimited minutes, texts and data, speed capped at 2 Mbps
O2 without O2 Travel	Zone 2	Data bolt-ons: 1 GB £9, 3 GB £20, 5 GB £29	£9 to £29	Data only. Calls £3 a minute, texts £1
Vodafone	Zone D	£8 a day from 14 April 2026	£56	Your UK allowance, 25 GB a month fair use
Three	Go Roam Around the World Extra	£7 or £8 a day, or £42 for a 7-day pass	£42	Your UK allowance
UKRoamFree eSIM	Orange Egypt	1 GB 7 days $2.99, 5 GB 30 days $9.49	about £2.25 to £7.13	Data only, no Egyptian number
Vodafone Egypt Tourist Line	Local SIM	Bundle price not published on the page we found	Unknown	Data and local and international minutes. EGP 0.19 per MB out of bundle

Without a pass, EE's own destination data for Egypt lists calls at £2.46 a minute and texts at 98p, and data needs an add-on. O2 says that outside Europe without a bolt-on "we'll stop your data abroad to ensure there are no unexpected charges". So doing nothing is cheap for data but expensive for calls.

Three's daily price depends on when you joined: £7 for many plans, £8 for plans covered by its April 2026 price guide. Vodafone's £8 replaced £7.86 on 14 April 2026.

What UKRoamFree uses here

UKRoamFree's Egypt eSIM runs on Orange Egypt (listed as 5G). Egypt has four networks: Vodafone, Etisalat, WE and Orange. Wikivoyage says that "According to OpenSignal all of them are similarly good" and that "Vodafone has the most consistent network quality" (updated September 2022). We found no recent independent coverage report for Orange in the Sharm or Hurghada resort areas, so if you are staying somewhere remote, a Vodafone Egypt SIM may hold signal better.

Plan	Price (USD)	About (GBP)
1 GB, 7 days	$2.99	£2.25
3 GB, 15 days	$6.49	£4.88
5 GB, 30 days	$9.49	£7.13
10 GB, 30 days	$18.49	£13.90
500 MB a day for 7 days, then 512 kbps	$12.49	£9.39
1 GB a day for 7 days, then 512 kbps	$17.99	£13.52

Prices checked 12 November 2026 on the Egypt eSIM page. GBP at 1 USD = 0.7515 GBP (ECB, 11 Nov 2026).

To be fair: if you make lots of normal phone calls home, a UK pass gives you your UK minutes and the eSIM does not. O2 Travel at £7 a day is decent value if you only switch it on for a few days. And if you want a local number, Vodafone Egypt's Tourist Line is sold at its "airport store" and any Vodafone store in Egypt. For a week of WhatsApp, maps and some social media, a 5 GB eSIM at $9.49 costs about the same as one day of UK roaming.

Practical tips for Sharm and Hurghada

• Install the eSIM at home and switch it on when you land. It works in the airport, before passport control queues.
• Keep your UK SIM on with data roaming off so bank codes still arrive by text. On EE, Vodafone and Three, sending a text or making a call can start the daily fee.
• If you buy a local SIM at Hurghada airport, Wikivoyage notes "A passport is normally required for registration" and that "queues and package prices can vary, especially during late arrivals".
• Use hotel Wi-Fi where you have it. Mobile data matters most away from the hotel, on trips and in taxis.
• Download offline Google Maps for the Red Sea coast before you go.
• Long stays only: Wikivoyage reports a 38.5% import tax on phones bought abroad that use an Egyptian SIM, payable within 90 days. A travel eSIM is one way it suggests avoiding this.

Sources: EE roaming zones and passes, EE destination data, Egypt, O2 Travel, O2 data abroad, Vodafone Charges Guide, Vodafone global roaming zones, Three Your Way price guide, plans from 19 Apr 2026, Three roaming destinations, Vodafone Egypt Tourist Line, Wikivoyage Egypt (connect section updated Sep 2022), Wikivoyage Hurghada. Checked 12 November 2026.