My wife and I are leaving our two young children back home with grandma while we travel to Ireland in a couple weeks. It will be glorious! We will be staying in Dublin just off of north O'Connell St. and at Pinecrest B&B in Kilkenny. We'd like to call home at least every other day. We've recently discovered our cell provider is garbage, so we're considering two options: Buy a cheap cell phone when we land over there or find and use internet cafes to call home. We only imagine being on the phone for 5-10 minutes at a time and don't really need a phone for texting or internet. Which should we choose? If you suggest buying a phone, where could we easily buy one and how much should we expect to pay? If you suggest just using phones at internet cafes, do you know the location of any near where we're staying? Thank you so much!
Posted by
Tucson
4154 posts
This may sound weird, but check with your lodgings to be sure they don't have free calls to the US. Sometimes the phone service comes with cable TV all as one package and guests can call home for free. I can think of 3 places right off the top of my head where that was the case for us. It was a big surprise to me, but much appreciated because we did need to use it when things went awry with our cell phone coverage and we were able to fix it by making a call back to the States.
Also check with your lodgings to see if they have free Wi-Fi. You may not need to go to an internet cafe at all. It's been years since we have stayed in a place that didn't have Wi-Fi and the best has always been in the smallest places. It seems like in the places where you have to pay, the service is the worst.
We have Verizon and global ready cellphones mostly because it's the only service we can get here out in the desert, but partly because of the convenience (for a fee, of course) of using the same phones in Europe. There are other providers (not the super cheapo ones) that also provide international service.
Others can tell you about buying a phone there. We have no experience with that.
Posted by
Northamptonshire, England
32750 posts
Do you have wifi at the B&B? If so use your smartfone/laptop/ipad/tablet with Skype and do it for nearly free.
Posted by
US/PA
21 posts
There are 2 apps to use with international travel, whatsapp to text and viber to make calls. Both of these require both phones to have the app, but there are no international charges or charges for each text or call.
Posted by
OP
Spokane, WA
46 posts
Thanks everyone! I guess there's an internet cafe down the street from us in Dublin, so that should work just fine. I have Sprint, which is less than useless internationally. I've never heard of Viber, but I'll look into it. Would WhatsApp work if I don't have service or does it connect through WiFi? Thanks again!
Posted by
Bloomington, IL, USA
9363 posts
HeyWire is a free app to use for texting from Europe. It does not require both parties to have the app. It works over wifi (I use my regular Verizon non-world phone - wifi always works, even if the phone has no service).
Posted by
Palatine, IL, USA
15 posts
I used Viber when I was in Spain, Mexico and my son used it while in Brazil. However, I found that if you have iPhones, Facetime is much better when you're in a WiFi area. Luckily, Starbucks, McDonald's and my hotel had free WiFi. iMessage through iPhones are free texts even if you don't use WiFi (remember that the receiver must have iPhones too). I also used Facebook messaging if the person did not have an iPhone. Good luck!
Posted by
1 posts
if you have an I phone get it unlocked. it is easy to do call your carrier. then when you get to Dublin go to a phone store there are all over and buy a sim card. Its about 10 euro but you get 10 euro credit. this way you have a number and grandma can call you she needs to and you can call also.
Posted by
Brisbane
2 posts
I'm currently in Helsinki and phone home (Australia) reasonably often. Have tried most options talked about here, Viber, Skype etc. Have found more often than not that Skype calls drops out , even when both parties have good WiFi. I generally stick to Viber now, its a good platform to send pictures and text messages home too.
I found tho that most people with iPhones tend to not have Viber or Whatsapp because they don't need it, Imessage does the work of both apps. But one thing everyone who's anyone has these days is Facebook, and you can now call through Facebook (not many people know it tho). It's free over WiFi, it's got good call quality, you can send messages and pictures as well.
Long story short (and I understand I'm waffling here) it depends on what sort of phone grandma has. If she doesn't have a smart phone or a computer none of the things I just talked about work, and you'd be best off buying an international travel card.
Hope that helps :-)
Posted by
OP
Spokane, WA
46 posts
Thanks everyone, we're back now and everything worked out. Part of the problem was that my mom doesn't have a smart phone, but we still managed. On O'Connell Street in Dublin we found an internet café and were able to talk for 10-15 minutes for less than €2. In Kilkenny, we bought an international calling card. We never did figure out how to use it with the pay phones, but we stayed at Pinecrest B&B and the amazing owner Helen let us use her home phone every night to call home with our calling card. It worked out fine, but would probably have been much easier with smartphones or more money invested. We spent less than €15 total during our 8-day trip to call home every night except one. Thank you all again!