Turkey SIM Card: Tourist Packs from Turkcell, Vodafone and Türk Telekom

If you would rather skip the counter and the paperwork, a HelloRoam Turkey eSIM installs at home over Wi-Fi and needs no registration in Turkey. As of 29 October 2026, our Turkey plans join the Vodafone network as you land.

Turkcell, Vodafone and Türk Telekom all sell tourist SIM cards

Each operator explains on its own website how a visitor gets a prepaid tourist line. The shop, hours and price details in this post come from those pages and the airports' own directories, as they stood on 23 October 2026.

Get your Turkey eSIM before you flyInstall it at home, then switch on data roaming for it when you land. From £2.60.See Turkey plans

Turkcell also asks for the address where you will stay in Turkey, and it charges in Turkish lira, so your bank's exchange rate decides the final cost in pounds.

Istanbul's two airports have shops from all three operators

Istanbul Airport lists two Turkcell stores and a Vodafone store called Wifist on its arrivals floor, all open 24/7. Wifist sits on the public side of international arrivals. Türk Telekom and a second Vodafone store are on the domestic side of the same floor. At Sabiha Gökçen, Istanbul's second airport, the shop directory places Türk Telekom, Turkcell and Vodafone on the arrivals floor of the terminal.

Antalya Airport's own directory lists one telecoms shop, Vodafone, in both international terminals and the domestic terminal. Its Vodafone page gives opening hours of 08:00 to 23:00. It places the shops at the Terminal 1 car park and in the Terminal 2 hall where people meet arriving passengers. Landing late, or at Dalaman, Bodrum or Izmir instead? A Turkcell line ordered online can be collected free of charge at any Turkcell store in Turkey, so a shop in your resort town works as well as one at the airport.

Turkcell and Türk Telekom price their tourist packs in lira

Vodafone adds its pack free to a new line and prints no price, so the figures below are Turkcell's and Türk Telekom's. The sterling amounts use the Bank of England's spot rate for 30 October 2026, when £1 bought 66.91 lira, so treat them as a guide.

Turkcell's and Türk Telekom's minutes are for calls within Turkey, and Türk Telekom's packs do not renew when their days are up. Turkcell's offer price is listed as valid until 30 December 2026. Before you pick a size, gauge your daily data use.

Vodafone does not print a price for its tourist SIM: its FAQ says the new SIM card fee varies from shop to shop. The Welcome to Turkey Pack is then added at no charge when the line opens on Vodafone's New Easy Tariff.

Türk Telekom's prices leave out two new-line charges

Türk Telekom's package page says its prices do not include the radio licence fee or the special communication tax charged on a new line, and that both are collected upfront. Its tax page puts them at 323.81 TL and 700 TL for 2026, under the tariff published by BTK, Turkey's telecoms regulator. A radio usage fee of 27.03 TL is added in the first month.

Those charges change the sums. The 420 TL Welcome 25GB pack comes to 1,470.84 TL in its first month, about £22. Turkcell, by contrast, says there are no extra fees when you collect a line ordered online. Whichever counter you use, ask for the full amount before you hand over your passport.

Turkcell's tourist eSIM can be ordered online and activated before you fly

Turkcell sells its tourist line online to anyone arriving in Turkey within the next 90 days with a valid passport. You enter your name, date of birth, nationality, passport number and arrival date, then pay with a card that works for international online payments. Turkcell says Turkish rules only allow a line to be bought within 90 days before or after arrival.

With a chipped passport and a phone that supports both eSIM and NFC, you can activate the line in the Turkcell app. You scan the passport, tap it against the phone, pass a liveness check and sign the contract on a video call. After passport control, open the app's Türkiye entry check page. Once it says you can start using your eSIM line, switch the line on in your phone's settings.

Without those, you collect a physical SIM or eSIM at a Turkcell store. If you miss the pick-up deadline, Turkcell cancels the order and refunds the card you paid with. Its call centre on +90 532 532 0000 answers in Turkish and English.

UK phones bought before December 2021 may still be locked

Any of these SIMs needs a phone that is not locked to your UK network. Ofcom banned UK mobile companies from selling locked handsets from 17 December 2021, so a handset bought from a UK network before then could still be locked. Get your provider to unlock it well before your flight.

Keeping your UK SIM in beside a Turkish line also takes a dual SIM phone. Apple's UK Dual SIM page names a local data plan for trips abroad as one use, on the iPhone XS, XS Max and XR or any later model. Two plans from different networks need your UK provider to unlock the iPhone first. Texts still reach both numbers, so a bank's security code gets through, but only one line carries mobile data at a time.

A Turkcell or Vodafone eSIM saves a SIM swap, but only on a phone that takes one, so check your model on our eSIM phone list. Still deciding between plastic and digital? Our eSIM vs SIM comparison sets out the trade-offs.

A phone from home can run a Turkish SIM for 120 days

Turkey keeps a register of phones brought in from abroad, by their IMEI number. According to e-Devlet, the Turkish government's portal, a phone from abroad can be used for up to 120 days without registering it.

A fortnight in Fethiye or a week in Istanbul sits well inside the limit. A longer stay on a Turkish SIM needs the BTK registration, which carries a government fee. Our guide to using a UK phone in Turkey covers the IMEI rule, network locks and eSIM support. Vodafone's tourist line has its own clock: its FAQ says the line switches off after 60 days unless you change tariff.

Roaming on your UK SIM needs no shop, but your plan sets the price

Your UK SIM can roam in Turkey if your plan allows it, and what you pay depends on where your network puts Turkey. On Vodafone UK, Turkey is in Global Roam, an 84-destination package. On a plan without it, Vodafone offers an Extra or a daily charge, and Pay as you go Plus needs an Extra before it roams at all.

On EE, O2, Three or any other network, look Turkey up on its roaming page before you fly. Our guide to roaming charges in Turkey compares EE, O2, Vodafone and Three. A long weekend spent mostly on hotel Wi-Fi may not need a new SIM at all.

The right choice depends on how long you stay and who you call

A Turkish line earns its place when you need a local number for hotels, guides or restaurants. A travel eSIM suits a trip where data is all you need.

If an eSIM is your pick, from Turkcell or anyone else, note one line in the FCDO's travel advice for Turkey, updated on 27 October 2026. It says access to some eSIM services is restricted in Turkey and tells travellers to check with their provider before they go.

HelloRoam sells travel eSIMs, so the fourth row is our own product. Our editorial policy on conflicts of interest explains how we handle that when we compare options.

A HelloRoam Turkey eSIM gives you data on Vodafone, not a Turkish number

As of 29 October 2026, HelloRoam's Turkey plans use Vodafone Türkiye's network, the same one that carries its Welcome to Turkey Pack. They are data plans with no Turkish number to hand out, so calls and texts still come to your UK number.

Finish installing it on Wi-Fi at home before you leave for the airport. Once you land in Istanbul, Antalya or Dalaman, pick the eSIM's line in Settings and turn Data Roaming on for it. If it still will not connect, contact our support team, which answers 24/7.