Cell Phone for Ireland

Mark, You shouldn't have any problems finding a Cell phone shop in Ireland, as there are lots of them. I can't recall if they have Car Phone Warehouse there, but that would be a good place to start. You could also purchase a quad-band unlocked GSM phone from E-Bay or whatever, and then just pick up a SIM card when you arrive in Ireland. When I was at Heathrow last year, I noticed there are now vending machines that dispense SIM cards, but not sure if those are also available in Ireland. You could also purchase a phone from one of the "travel phone" firms such as Roam Simple, Cellular Abroad, Call In Europe, Telestial or Mobal. These normally use numbers based in the U.K. and typically operate on a post-paid basis with calls charged to a credit card. One advantage of that approach is that you'd have a working phone as soon as you step off the plane. It's difficult to recommend a phone without some information on what you expect to use it for. Are you interested only in voice and text, or do you require data as well? Do you currently have a Cellphone, and if so what model are you using? Happy travels!

Ken, I will be leaving my toddler back in the states and want to have a phone in case of emergecy and maybe to call the B&B's I'm staying at if I get lost or I'm late while I'm in Ireland. I plan on doing all my other talking back to the states using Skype on my tablet since WiFi seems to be no problem to find. I defintely don't need data. I have a Sprint LG Optimus S so I don't think that's even an option.

Mark, Thanks for the additional information. As you surmised, your Sprint phone will NOT work in Ireland. Therefore your choices are: > Purchase a PAYG phone when you arrive in Ireland. This will provide the cheapest rates for in-country calls. Your cost for calls back to the U.S. may vary according to which plan you choose when you buy the phone. Anyone wanting to call you would have to dial an international long distance call, which will involve dialing an unfamiliar number sequence. > Purchase from one of the travel phone firms. You could either buy a phone and a SIM from them, or buy a phone from E-Bay and then use a SIM from the travel phone firms. You'd know "up front" what the rates would be, both for in-country calls as well as calls back to the U.S. As these often use a U.K. phone number, callers would also have to dial an international LD call. However, at least one of the firms I mentioned offers an optional "direct connect" local number, which is "mapped" to your travel phone. Anyone calling you from your home area only needs to dial a local number, and the call will be forwarded to wherever you are. I've been travelling with an unlocked Motorola V-551 for the last few years, and it's been reliable and useful. I'll possibly be using an iPhone this year, which means I'll have to deal with the data roaming issue. On the past two trips, I've been using a SIM and plan with one of the travel phone firms, and that's worked well so far so I may use the same this year. Good luck with your decision!

I had good luck buying a PAYG cell phone from Tesco (huge department store chain). They had a special on them for 20 Euros, with 10 Euros of cell time. They have the best rates back to the US (2 cents a minute when we were there!) Also reasonable price if it is used to make calls on the Island. And you can buy a 10 Euro "top-up" at any of the many Tescos all over Ireland. (No, I don't work for them!) Dan

Sounds like PAYG will probably be the way I go. After the trip is over, is the phone useful for anything if I won't be going back to Ireland anytime in the next few years?

IF the phone is a quad-band phone with the frequencies used in the U.S., then yes, you can buy a prepaid SIM from T-Mobile or AT&T and use the phone here. Or sell it on ebay. Or sell it to someone else headed to Europe.