Most Reasonable Dependable Phone Service for touring around Ireland

I have used GiffGaff in Ireland twice, but a new EU law doesn't allow their phones to work unless you connect to a UK(or North Ireland) tower once, at which point it will work for 60 days. Won't work for you unless you are going to NI right away.

Last year, I had purchased a Maya "data only" esim ($10), but upon arrival, I couldn't make it work for calls (never resolved issue - it could be my local carrier or Maya or me), so I walked into a Three store in Dublin and paid 20Euro for a 30 day eSim that included an Irish phone number and unlimited data. That doesn't work great if talking/texting to folks in the US is important, since there will extra fees. My needs are for Google Maps, the Internet, and booking reservations, for which the Irish phone number works perfectly.

You should be able to make calls and download Maps, etc. with your existing phone IF you are on WIFI (lodging, restaurant, pub, airport). Once you leave the WIFI zone, you won't be able to do anything. WIFI should work to make US calls with the Irish phone, although I didn't try it.

Another alternative would be to switch your main phone to Mint Mobile (which uses T-Mobile networks) at $15/mo and add their international roaming package that comes in 10 day rations ($20??). The $15/mo goes up to $25 after a year.

The carriers know there's confusion about international roaming/calling, which is why they get away with charging so much.

Hi, I don't think I want to go through the hassle of changing my Cricket service on my main phone. With having T-Mobile pre-pay on my second phone, could I change it over to the Mint (?) temporarily? Maybe I need to ask them that...

Hi msanders0812, welcome to the forum!

The lower-cost companies usually don't have international roaming agreements, and if they do, it can be expensive. The big 3 networks Tmobile, AT&T, and Verizon, all do have roaming agreements worldwide, but the availability and cost depends on which particular plan you have. I'm grandfathered into a Tmobile Magenta 55+ plan. I pay $35 per line/month, and get free text/voice and 5 Gb. of data in over 200 countries. AT&T cost more, and Verizon, much more. But you have options. First question is:

Do you need to have your "normal" phone number working? If so, you need to find out if your Cricket plan supports "wifi calling". If they do, then see what the charges might be. It could be free, or very cheap (like 5 cents/minute or 5 cents per text). If that's possible for you, then you just need data. You don't even need data if you can make any calls or texts when you have hotel wifi.

If you can communicate with friends and family with another phone number, there are other cheap or even free, options. VOIP (voice over internet protocol), is a system where your call or text is sent out over data. That data can come from your cellular radio or from wifi. There are a lot of options for this, Google Voice, Textnow, Facebook Messenger. Other posters will add other methods.

You mentioned Whatsapp. That's very popular but has some limitations. The app is easy do download and setup a free account. It requires that you give Whatsapp access to your whole contact list. I don't like that for privacy reasons, but literally many millions accept it. The main limitation is that you can't call a friend's number unless they also have a Whatsapp account. Many European hotels will have Whatsapp numbers, but many don't. If the folks you call have Whatsapp, you're all set. Another benefit of Whatsapp is that some (maybe many?) Rick Steves tours want to communicate with the tour group using Whatsapp. That would be very useful.

Finally, data. How much varies a lot on what you use it for. Watching videos obviously take a lot of data. Uploading zillions of photos takes a lot. If you can do that on hotel wifi, then no problem. For me, on a 2-3 week trip, I use maybe 5 Gb. of data, my wife may use 10 Gb. Just texting and email use very little.

To get data, the very cheapest way is with an Esim. I assume your iPhone takes Esims. First, find out if your phone is unlocked. If it came free, it may be locked, and an Esim won't work. If the phone is unlocked there are lots of vendors out there like Airalo (very popular here), Most esims cost $10-$20 for 14 or 30 days, and with 5-20 Gb. of data. Easy to setup through their website or app. There are also som PAYGO esims where you give them maybe $10 or $20, and money is subtracted as you use data. They have no monthly charge, so the account balance never expires. Two that I like are Bcengi, and Roamless. Bcengi charges $1.58/Gb in Ireland, and Roamless charges $2.45/Gb. in Ireland.

I'd suggest you figure this out and download an esim well ahead of time to see how it works for you.

You'll have a great time in Ireland! Enjoy!

Good info from jjgurley. A couple years ago I bought a PAYGO GiffGaff sim on Ebay for $1, added some cash and it worked fine in Ireland, but as jjgurley said, after 60 days at home, it quit roaming, so that's a problem. I also bought a PAYGO sim on the Three network on Ebay for $7.40. Added $10 to it, it worked well in Ireland. It continues to work here in the U.S. on my backup phone. Every year I reload another $10 into it. I'll be using that sim on my backup phone for my trip to Ireland next month.

A possible advantage of a sim like GiffGaff or Three, is that you get a London phone number with it, so making calls to/from any other phone in the U.K. is very simple. Like calling hotels.

Since you have a backup phone, you could consider another sim card for it. Ultramobile operates on the Tmobile network and is pretty low-cost. They have sim cards, only available on Ebay, that only costs $3 per month. You only get 100 texts, 100 minutes, and 100 mb. data, but that fine for a backup. I paid $13 for the sim card. Registered it, and gave them $40, enough for a whole year. This Ultramobile plan also works internationally, but kinda expensive. $1.49/minute voice, $ .25/ mms texting, and $ .50/ sms text.

My backup phone is dual sim, so I have the Ultramobile sim, and a Roamless esim, and a Bcengi esim.

I appreciate the detailed responses I'm seeing/reading. My mind is spinning, but I have printed off your responses to compare and will talk with T-Mobile about the Mint Mobile that was mentioned. It was so much easier when I had my wonderful beloved travel partner spouse with me to help set all this up. I know he's still watching over me with the awesome trips/vacations I've accomplished on my own. I will research/ask and, hopefully, get the plan I will need for these 10 days. I just know it's a comfort with having communication options...NOT to get lost or separated from my group! Thank you.

I just switched to Mint from USCellular (now T-Mobile) (since my previous reply a few hours ago). It's available as a one month subscription. $15/mo for unlimited calls/text and 5gb of data. Mint's international roaming is $20/10 days, so I expect to use GiffGaff since it's $12/30 days and my next Ireland trip starts in Belfast. Not to sell any particular vendor, but basic service with Cricket for $35 doesn't seem very competitive. It certainly was before Mint and US Mobile came along. My previous cell carrier was $10/day or $100/mo for roaming. Probably all lost in the noise of airfare, food, lodging, and car rental...some instincts can't be suppressed.

I use a offline dashboard GPS (Garmin Nuvi) for driving navigation, so I only use phone data for walking/hiking/finding restaurants etc. In a three week trip, I've never gone over 3gb. If you want to use your phone for driving directions, you can pre-download the needed maps while you're in a WIFI zone at your lodging and just use data when you get lost.

Do you understand esims and how to use them?

If not, my suggestion is simple. Go into a cell provider store --Three and Vodaphone are two large companies in ireland--and ask them to help you set up an esim on your phone. They will show you how to use it and then turn it off when you go home.

There are probably stores in the Dublin Airport.

VOIP services like What's app only work with wifi so it won't help you with maps. You need to connect to a cell provider for that.

If you don't want it to make phone calls, then you only need a data esim.

I would look into Airalo. We used them when we were in Germany and they worked out great. Way cheaper than using international service with our home provider. We used the WhatsApp for phone calls and data. Very easy.

I do still have WhatsApp on my iPhone 15, used in Italy. I simply found I could not look things up...maps. My sister and couple other people did load it as well, whom I was able to connect with. I learned, hard experience, that using T-Mobile International calling (wanted to add more money on my travel card), with all the waiting/delays, minutes were used up quickly! I'm taking notes, saving suggestions, researching. I appreciate your comments and sharing. Thank you all

The Ultramobile Plan that was mentioned does sound very similar to the T-Mobile International plan the agent told me On the phone today. Expensive. I don't think I want a repeat of that, from Italy.

Airalo was mentioned/posted. I see a lot of good reviews on it. Also, seeing someone posting not to use it...it was a disaster to him. It sounds easy/simple. I did load the App. Anyone use it lately? Instructions say to wait until about 2 weeks before the trip to choose my plan and make it active. Any recent experiences with it...for Ireland?

I think you'll find the big carriers are all rather expensive for international data. My old provider, US Cellular was $10/day or $100/mo. They were absorbed by T-Mobile and the rate isn't any better. Mint Mobile is $20/10days (they use T-Mobile networks) which is more reasonable, but barely. You don't "talk with T-Mobile" about Mint, unless you want a sales/retention pitch. Mint contracts with T-Mobile for "extra bandwidth" that they aren't using, but T-Mobile doesn't sell/refer/or suggest using them. Mint has a slightly reduced data rate, so if you want to stream hi-res movies all day, don't sign up.

We're headed to Scotland in May, and I'll be using my GiffGaff esim. I've had the same UK number for so long that I've memorized it, which is hard for a 76 year old! Just to clarify the GiffGaff situation, once you've connected to a UK/NI tower, you get 60 days of worldwide roaming. Buying a new esim doesn't get around that hurdle. Flying to Ireland through Heathrow or visiting Northern Ireland first can solve that.