My wife and I are planning a trip to the west (primarily) this spring. We fly in and out of Shannon and have two kids (ages 6 and 9). I think we want to go to Westport for two nights, see Dingle and Doolin and avoid the cities. The only nights we have booked now are at Dromoland Castle and that's at the end of the trip. We'll be tired upon arrival but will be excited too. Maybe head to Westport in the beginning and drive south from there via Connemara and the sky road? Perhaps a working farm too. Any thoughts are appreciated. And will my phone work there? I assume data rates will be outrageous but it would be great to be able to look places up using the phone on the go. Thanks!
Posted by
Los Angeles, CA, USA
177 posts
Not knowing what carrier you have... All of the iPhone regardless of carrier are GSM enabled. Which means they will work in Europe. But only Domestic GSM carrier's iphone come with SIM cards. Which means AT&T and Tmobile's iphone will work in Europe as long you don't have international roaming feature blocked. How much you will be charged, it depend on your features added. For my at&t iphone, while traveling to Europe, I add: - Europe Travel minutes 30 ($30.00)
- 300 MB Global Data with Wifi ($60.00) It always last me for emergency of all of my European vacation for the duration of an average of 26 days. I add them on the day before I travel and set everything up, take them off the day after, and get charged a prorated amount and prorated feature amount. I do this without talking to anyone using the at&t app. I never go over my minutes and I have never go over my data, as most of the time I use Wifi. But I gladly pay less than $90.00 for a peace of mind. It came in handy many times when our reservation was canceled and we have to scramble on the booking.com app in the middle of nowhere to find a place to stay that night using data without wifi. We also find ourselves calling the hotels sometimes using the minutes. There are cheaper natives, but I rather not unlock my phone or go through personal portable wifi hotspot devices. Verizon and Sprint's iphone in most cases do not come with a simcard. It means if you want to travel internationally you would need to rent a simcard from your carrier. I do not know the prices on that. Verizon's newer iphone come unlocked. It means you do not need to be restricted to Verizon's rental simcard. You can get a simcard in europe and pay the local price with a local phone number, for many trips often time it is the cheaper option. And you do not need to get your phone unlocked. Hope this helps.
Posted by
Bloomington, IL, USA
9371 posts
Data usage can be astronomical, so be sure that you understand your plan before you do it. Free wifi (and inexpensive wifi) is pretty widely available, so you might be better off limiting yourself to looking things up when you are in a wifi area.
Posted by
OP
Hartford Area, CT
2 posts
Thanks for the great info.!